Knitting Needles etc.

I knitted some baby sweaters, hats, and booties. How should I was them? I used acrylic yarn for everything. I have some baby body wash. I’ve heard you can wash it with that, is that true? They are for a gift, so I have to be careful with them.

Look on your label. If you want them perfect, just wash in something like Woolite. I would, however, throw a swatch into the washer and dryer and see what happens. Normally, you can machine wash this stuff - it’s the dryer that fuzzes them out. I wash and dry most of my acrylic yarn afghans in the washer and dryer on delicate, low and cold water. But, I also test with a swatch to see if it fuzzes first.

My husbands mother gave our son a quilt that she hand knitted for his 1st birthday. She had it dry cleaned but that can get costly after a while. It needs washed since he sleeps with it every night. What is the best way to wash it without ruining it?

How you clean it depends on the fibre it is made from, not the construction!
Is it cotton, animal wool or synthetic? These are the most common fibres for knitting.
If it is cotton or synthetic you can machine wash it on a regular cycle, if it is wool it has to be washed in cold water on a wool or delicates cycle or else it will felt. With wool you also need a special detergent as well.
However if you are worried about how delicate it is, hand wash it in the bath tub using the wool detergent. People dry clean blankets because they do not clean evenly in the washing machine unless you have a big one.

I was away and started a project where i was hand knitting it on straight needles. It is going really slow and I am wondering if there is any way you can put it onto a knitting machine to finish it? I have a bond ultimate sweater machine at home. Also how do i get the right tension? If any one could help it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Yes, you could but it is going to look very different,uneven. I’ve never done it but a friend of mine tried it and did not look good at all. You could always unravel the whole proyect and redo it on the machine. Good luck!

A friend knitted me a jumper for my birthday but its really too big and I was wondering if there was a way to shrink it ? Perhaps by soaking it in boiling water? Any suggetions? I really appriciate my friend knitting it for me and apart from being too big I really like it!

It depends on what kind of yarn she used. If she used wool, then wool will shrink. If it’s a blend or not wool, it may not shrink.

Even if it is wool, shrinking it will be a dodgy proposition and there’s no guarantee the garment will shrink to the proportions you want.

Is there any chance you can alter using regular sewing methods? A dart or a gather here and there?
Wear it with a belt? If you post a picture of the jumper, that may make it easier for people to give advice.

Good luck

I have a great old woolen Aran Sweater, made in Ireland. Had it for 20 years and it still fits well and shows little sign of wear. Funny thing is, I’ve never once cleaned it.

Is there a way to do this without harming or shrinking the sweater?

Use Woolite in cold water by hand or on gentle cycle in the washer.
Towel dry by laying it flat and strait should it !

…..stretch enuff to fit a size 12, E width foot on a guy? They do stretch, right, to some extent? I’m using Deborah Norville’s sock yarn in superwash wool. Thanks for your help - I’ve ripped the sucker out now about 5 times……

I agree with sewhappy. I use 56 stitches for all of my socks, even though some patterns call for more. The socks get too sloppy if I use even 60 stitches because I like them to fit fairly snugly. My feet measure 8 inches around the ball of the foot–I knit 7 sts to the inch–voila–56 stitches! And I ripped my first sock about 5 times, too. I figured that by knitting the equivalent of 2 1/2 pairs, I learned how to knit a sock.

Good luck,
lkmknits

I am a knitter and started smoking again. To keep the smoke smell out of my yarn I keep most of it in zip lock bags in the refrigerator or freezer. Now the yarn has the smell of refrigerator or freezer. I know I can wash the washable yarn but what can I do with the wool yarn?

put it in the dryer on low heat with a dryer sheet

I have one that is several years old and has become the dogs bed. And frankly it smells. Can it be washed on perhaps on delicate cycle?
What about throwing it in the dryer?
Granted we don’t use it anymore, but I don’t want it to fall apart during the wash cycle or shrink in the dryer to become a dolls blanket.
To my knowledge it has never been washed.
I don’t know what it is made from. Perhaps wool, because it is kinda scratchy feeling.

Sure, just use delicate, warm water, easy on the dryer temperature in case it’s wool though it probably isn’t. Haven’t seen a wool afghan for years. Ammonia will help remove a good deal of the doggy smell, all by itself or as an additive, though if your dog smells like my dog, this will forever be the dog’s afghan. Check the bottle label for quantity of ammonia to use.

I am stuck at the moment and it is killing me to see a work in progress not progress.

Any answers would be appreciated and tried

When you decrease you want to do knit 2 together one end, and knit 2 together through the back if the loops the other end so that the "slant" of the decreases matches either side.

To pick up, you need to insert your right hand needle in a gap (preferably under two threads on the side of the fabric), pull the wool through on to the right hand needle and continue doing this evenly until you have the right number of stitches. You can then knit these picked up stitches normally as any other stitch. Be careful that you leave enough of a length of wool when you start to pick up so that the end doesn’t work its way loose and come undone; you will need to weave the end in when you have finished.

I’ve knitted a baby blanket that I would like to line with a silky material. My plan is to hand sew the material to the blanket. Anyone have any experience with this?

I definitely support the hand sewing approach. Do wash both the blanket and the fabric before attaching them, and make sure both have the same washing requirements. The knit fabric will have more give than the silky fabric, so do lots of pinning before sewing. I would pin the corners first, then the half way points, then halfway between those pins, etc. until you have pins about every 2" around the edges. When you sew the yarn to the fabric, use stitches that both encompass the entire strand of yarn and stitches that split the yarn. You might also consider attaching the knitting to the fabric in other places as well, perhaps in some sort of quilted pattern since the stitches will show on the silky side. Otherwise, the knit fabric will slide against the silky fabric instead of the two pieces moving together as one. I don’t recommend using any type of heat bonding material as it will show as stiff spots on the silky fabric.