I really need to clear out some WIPs. My knitting is not inspiring me lately but I can’t bring myself to cast on anything new right now. It’s dumb, because I only have four WIPs on the needles, but my brain won’t let me accept more. Really, I’m a little blocked with my knitting. I recently had a big load of dirty handknit socks, so I decided to be bold and try to machine wash and dry them, partly to save time and effort and partly to get rid of most of the dog hair stuck to them. And for the most part, they’re fine, or so I thought. A couple of pairs might have felted a tiny bit, and a few looked a bit smaller, but hey, they’ll stretch. Then I found a solitary sock that didn’t make it into the dryer.
That is…not ideal. Maybe they shrank more than I realized? I guess I’ll find out when I wear them. I think I’m just feeling a little defeated with my knitting. I love knitting socks, but they’re high-maintenance, they don’t stay snug, the heels felt, and they shrink. I don’t wear hats, you can only have so many fingerless gloves or shawls or scarves, I have yarn in my stash I won’t wear now that I have purple hair (I refuse to wear red and purple together) and what’s the point even of having so much yarn and making things?
Oof. That’s not a pretty thought. I mean, maybe my head wasn’t in a great place yesterday anyway, but I had to fight this because in my heart I know there is value in making pretty things, so I picked up my sweater. I love to wear my handknit sweaters, and since I wear a layer underneath, they don’t need to be washed with each wear like socks. Sweaters are useful and practical as well as fun. So I knit a sleeve yesterday.
This morning I picked up for the second sleeve and I’ll work on that while watching movies I love, and with any luck, I’ll feel better about my knitting by the end of the day.
And I’m not going KonMari my whole stash, but if you’re interested in a gorgeous skein of Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Silk Single for $30 including US shipping, let me know. I would much rather have a skein of this yarn in a color I’d love to wear all the time.
bonnyknits 
Your sweater is looking great! I hope you feel free to cast on something new soon. I’m sorry about your sock. I hope you can reblock them to be more the same size.
Thank you! I got as far as winding two skeins of yarn for new projects, so it’s a step in the right direction!
The sweater is looking great. I had one sock sneak into the laundry last week. It stretched out when I wore it and is now back to normal size. I hope that happens to your socks.
Oh thank you, that’s encouraging!
The sweater is looking great! I know what you mean about handknit socks being high maintenance, though. I recently did a big load of (almost) all my socks. I machine washed them on soak/prewash cycle, which worked well (even if I then had to clean out the washing machine from sock lint) but I couldn’t bring myself to machine dry them so I still laid them flat to dry. That seemed to work better than my usual method.
The sweater looks great! Hope it gets finished soon! Love the skein of yarn. I’m trying to not buy any (more) yarn for the beginning of the year at least, but if you’re still looking to destash it this summer/fall, I’d be interested.
Does that cycle spin at all, or do you have to squish out the water? I think that’s probably what I’ll do in the future. I really hoped the dryer would be okay, but I’d rather air dry them and keep them nicer longer, I think.
It does spin at the end, but it doesn’t do much agitating. It’s mostly just a soak followed by a spin.
Did you use super wash yarn! I wonder if it will stretch back out? I machine wash my socks and hang them dry.
It is superwash, and it’s from KnitPicks so it wasn’t expensive. I’ll wash them and put them on the sock blockers soon. It’ll be fine; these weren’t my favorite socks anyway!
I think that a wash and block will do wonders. That dog hair! I thought the cats were bad.