Be warned. The following is a really long, drawn out and possibly boring account of my tormented yesterday.
Believe it or not, I am a relatively inexperienced knitter. I learn many things with each project. I haven’t worked with many different yarns. Some of what I think I know is based more on what I have read than what I have experienced first hand. When I see something stated over and over again as fact, I will tentatively believe it. This leads to my expecting certain results when venturing out into new knitting territory. Are you confused? I am.
Okay, correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding of cotton is that it doesn’t block. Isn’t that right? Isn’t that a widely perpetrated fiber philosophy? So then why, exactly, is the sleeve of my mom’s merciless (mercerized) cotton sweater that I had to wash, laying all nice and smooth and flat and, well, BLOCKED!!! as opposed to the rest of the rumply and curly pieces??? Hmmm? Does anyone want to tell me why, when all over the place I’ve read that blocking a cotton garment is pointless because it is a fiber that does not like to be manipulated and will therefore appear unmoved once dry, my mom’s sleeve looks completely different from the pieces that weren’t washed? The defiant purl stitches that flank the cable have been whipped into shape. They are firm, they are uniform. Do you know how much stress and worry I could have been spared had I KNOWN this, say, several MONTHS ago? Sigh.
Don’t even consider talking to me about washing swatches. I don’t want to hear it.
If I’ve learned anything knitting this sweater, it is that mercerized cotton is wack. It is completely weird. I can’t predict it. I can’t control it. (Well, that’s not entirely true). I simply don’t know what to expect.
I think I can move on now….
So I’m frogging mom’s sleeve yesterday,
and I look a the pile of very crumply yarn, and I tell myself that if it blocked so well the first time, it’ll probably be good the second time too. I proceed to reknit. I am mildly concerned about how the new stitches will turn out, mainly because I am severely in denial. Three rows into it I decide to face the reality that this is not only a bad idea, but I’ve made a really big mess of things. Then I realize that I still have most of a ball of unwashed, un-crumply yarn to work with. I frog, cut, join, and begin again. After a significant amount of time, as I’m approaching the point of final bind off, it becomes apparent that I have too many stitches. I spend about five minutes comparing the two sleeves and trying to figure out how in the WORLD I could have miscalculated a second time, when I realize I forgot the bind offs at the VERY BEGINNING OF THE CAP SHAPING. Which means that I have not only wasted the last couple of hours, further drawn out the already long completion of this sweater, and really annoyed myself, but I had also crumpled new yarn. Don’t laugh. It isn’t funny. On the plus side, this newly crumpled yarn hasn’t been BLOCKED!!!, so it is still usable.
I’m finally getting tired of this story.
So I reknit the cap, correctly this time, and I am all done with mom’s sweater. Sans the finishing. I’ve seamed one shoulder. I am trying desperately to figure out how to pick up a whoooooole lot of stitches around the neck so I can knit the two rows of neckband. (I’ve picked up stitches before. I know how to do it. On mom’s sweater, it looks like crap. I think this is where the whole cotton thing comes in again). I would like to take this opportunity to say that while I have really enjoyed complaining about this sweater and its quirks, it has been a very satisfying knit. I’m not sorry I did it. I enjoyed much of it. It took for-freaking-ever. I will be happy when it is done and I’ve heard that it fits magnificently and the Smithsonian has called to ask if she’d donate it for the cause of art. What?
November 15th, 2004 at 2:27 am
Kudos to you for sticking with it and finishing the sweater. I would have given up long ago!!
November 15th, 2004 at 2:48 am
Hmmm… cotton can’t be blocked must be a knitter’s myth. I sew, weave, crochet and am a fairly new knitter, so my knowledge does not come from an only knitter?s background.
All natural fibres can be blocked some easier than others. Wool is generally lightly steam blocked, or wet blocked with no heat … there is the risk of fulling (felting); the other caution with heat is scorching. The garment will stay blocked until it is washed.
Mercerization is a process of treating cotton so it will have lustre and will take dye better.
With cotton there is the risk of shrinking, your label will tell you if the yarn you are using is pre-shrunk. Then the same rules as for all natural fibres apply, cotton can be washed and blocked with heat or not. Remember cotton fibres are fragile when wet so you can block to the point of breaking the fibre then there is NO return.
Think of a beautiful delicate crocheted doily they are all wet blocked and will hold their shape forever providing it does not get wet. Cotton will not stay blocked if it gets damp or wet, however once you wash the garment you can re-block the shape the same as you would a wool item after cleaning. Think of a freshly pressed crisp, white, cotton shirt how nice it looks in the morning and how at the end of the day it is all limp and wrinkled.
I wonder if the misinformation about cotton may come those who assume blocking is to hide gauge mistakes or knitting errors. Blocking knitted, crocheted, or tatted items is used to give an item its finished look much the same as pressing a garment as you sew.
A good site for fibre info
http://www.ntgi.net/ICCF&D/index2.htm
November 15th, 2004 at 3:32 am
i blocked my sweater using the king tut yarn after it was sewn. i just steamed it to even it out. i’ve never heard you can’t block cotton, but you need to be careful with ribbed cotton, because you might block out the elasticity of it.
November 15th, 2004 at 4:50 am
I was always told to block my lace doilies and they would be prettier – although I don’t think that is the term Grammie used for it – I just never bother to. I know she used cotton; I inherited balls of the stuff and still have it. But I remember the delicate circles stretched out over cardboard squares all over her workbench in the basement… I should probably wash them and block them, they do look so much nicer that way… Where are my pins??? sigh…
Let me just say, I think this sweater is gorgeous and having had the pleasure of seeing it up close and feeling it, I have to say it is even more beautiful – it has a shimmery sheen to it that the pictures don’t show.
November 15th, 2004 at 5:00 am
My experience is that anything ribbed, when stretched out and blocked will pretty much stay that way and seldom bounces back into shape. So what I usually do (doesn’t matter what fiber it is) when blocking ribbing is pin the knitted piece out to the required measurement, spritz it with water and leave it to dry.