Knitting Essentials

Knitting Essentials
Caring for your knitted items
When I have spent hours working on knitting a sweater, I want to make sure it looks as good after a dozen washes as it did the day I was knitting it.
Here's how I care for the things I have been knitting. I always use luke warm water. I actually don't use detergent. I use my shampoo. I figure if it's mild enough but effective enough for my hair it must be good enough for my knitting. I add about a teaspoon. I swoosh the sweater around in the soapy water for a while then let it soak for at least fifteen minutes.
I drain the water, squashing the sweater into the bowl to get rid of the water. I rinse with luke warm water as many times as it takes until the water is clear. I am pressing the knitting against the sides of the bowl. I don't wring it tight as I don't want to lose the shape. I then lay the knitting on a flat clean towel. I roll the towel up with the knitting inside and press a little. I find this gets rid of a lot of the water. If you have a mesh sweater dryer then lay it out carefully shaping the sweater to its original proportions. If you don't have one the you can just place the knitting on a fresh towel. This takes longer to dry and I suggest changing to a dry towel and flipping the sweater over so it dries quicker.
Obviously I never hang a sweater, not even on padded hangers as I find it stretches the shoulders with the weight of the wet sweater.
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