Nancy the Knitter here, just thought I would answer a few frequently asked questions about my knitting.
The wool I use is a commercial brand called Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool. It is a worsted weight wool, which I use two strands of to make the sweaters good and thick. I like to knit with this wool. It is a blended wool, meaning the wool is a blend from several different sheep breeds. It only comes in the natural colours of brown, cream, and natural white. Also available, are brown with white flecks so it appears as a tweed, and natural with brown flecks. The other colours I use are dyed and are a different brand (still 100% wool), usually whatever I can find on sale. My two favourites are Cascade 220 and Diamond Yarn’s Galway Worsted. Both are great wools to work with.
I have a reasonably busy life with 4 pugs, elderly parents, and 3 [adult] children. I don’t just spend my days knitting; I knit to relax. Often, after a busy retirement day of gardening, renovating, driving people around, or volunteering I can sit down and pick up my knitting in the late afternoon or early evening. We watch the news after dinner and I knit while I watch TV, usually until bed time. It takes me about 10 days to make up a sweater. I am a fast knitter - these sweaters are done in parts, then sewn together. I weave the ends of the yarn into the sweater before I trim the end, so there are no noticeable colour joins. These trimmed ends will felt into the inside of the sweater after a few wears. Once all the parts are done, I block each piece to flatten it out. Blocking is done by covering the piece with a wet towel, then steaming it for a second or two with a hot iron. Once I assemble the sweater, I sew in the zippers. This for me, is the most difficult part, because I have never been too adept with a sewing machine. I am learning though!
I store both my wool and my sweaters in plastic bins or plastic bags. This protects them from moths. Yes, moths really do eat wool, in fact they love it! Once moths find your closet, anything made from wool is doomed, unless you use mothballs (eeeew!) or protect your woolens with plastic. Usually, if you live in a modern house, you won’t need to take these precautions, and a drawer or closet will do, but I have a lot of wool and a lot of sweaters, so I am cautious.
I personally wash my woolens with Eucalan, which is available in any knitting shop, some grocery stores, some drug stores, and of course, on the internet. It is a mild liquid soap and has a pleasant mild odor. I fill the kitchen sink with lukewarm water, add a capful of Eucalan, swish it around, then throw in the sweater. I am sometimes a messy eater sometimes, so I work on the food stained areas first then squeeze the water and suds gently through all parts of the sweater until it looks clean enough. I gently squeeze the excess water from the sweater, let the water out of the sink, then fill it again with fresh water. I squeeze the fresh water gently through the sweater to get the soap out, then squeeze out the water again gently without wringing it. I fold a beach towel in half, lay it on the counter, then lay the sweater out on the towel, reshaping it. I usually let it dry overnight till we need our counter back for breakfast. I change out the towel for a dry one, flip over the sweater and leave it to dry again. All this sounds labour intensive, but it takes only about 10 minutes to wash out a sweater.
I hope this might answer a few questions for you. If you have specific questions, you can always email me at nearnorthstudio@gmail.com.
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