the blue blog archives: wash this

Here's my swatch for the little baby sweater that I'm planning to make for my friend who's expecting. I'm using Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille, which I really, really wanted to use because it is so soft and totally says cuddly baby clothes. I was disappointed to see that the ball band says 'hand wash', but I'm still holding out hope that it's actually machine washable. I've already run this swatch through the machine once with hot water and poopy baby clothes and it survived quite well. It grew a little bit widthwise, but is still the same length. I plan to throw it in another time and may even try putting it in the dryer. That's what swatches are for, right?! Anyone else out there have any success washing/drying this yarn?

posted by alison at 7:11 am | in minimono & co.

Comments

Your swatch looks perfect and considering it's gone through the poopy hot water washer cycle...it seems to be a good canidate for machine wash. Maybe Crystal Palace just said hand wash to cover their backs. Hope it goes through the dryer successfully too.

Posted by: Leigh at March 22, 2003 9:13 AM

The color is great, and from the look of the swatch I'll bet that baby sweater will be oh so soft & cuddly. Run the swatch through the washer & dryer again, and if it survives, go for it.

Posted by: claudia at March 22, 2003 9:19 AM

Alison,

I would not recommend using the dryer. Washing with hot water and hung dry can be tolerated but hot dryer ... .

What happens is that all that fuzz will become loose and will be caught in the lint net. You may not see much with a small swatch but with a sweater, you will see a ball of lint. I say this out of my experience. Yes, I have washed a rayon chenille fabric in warm water and then tossed it in the dryer!!! What was I thinking? I don't know. Boy, do I regret doing this! I think I lost a significant proportion of fuzz and can see thread core here and there on the fabric.

Posted by: May at March 24, 2003 10:12 AM

Hi,
Actually the first comment person is right - we are covering our backs by saying handwash.

We do know a lot of our Cotton Chenille customers do gently machine wash and tumble dry - and it works. Just be sure not to knit at a loose gauge (your swatch looks fine) since the dryer can distort the knitting if loose and bias it.

I usually like to spin out excess water in machine, lay on a towel until almost dry and then tumble to fluff it up.

Happy Knitting!

Susan
Crystal Palace Yarns

Posted by: Susan D at July 12, 2003 7:02 PM