Friday, November 10, 2006

sweaterdeath

i was too distraught to post about this yesterday. i cried. i went to bed convinced i would give up knitting and take up some other popular fad, like poledancing. when i woke up this morning, the pain was still there, but bearable. not to be melodramatic or anything, but last time i felt like this was when a boy unceremoniously dumped me in first year uni after our shared Introduction to Modernity class. what happened? well, see my first ever jumper? beautiful, sailor-esque candy, knitted in snuggly soft wool/ silk blend?


she got a weeny bit of indian takeaway on her, so i went to handwash her. i used tepid water with pure soap, i didn't let the water fall straight on her, i didn't let her soak, i didn't wring her. i did gently squeeze the water out. yet when i drained the water out of the bucket and laid her out to dry - well! this!


she stretched! ALOT! my fingers are stretched out and you can't even see them poking out from the cuff! the shoulders don't stay on! and she smells weird. like burnt hair.
why, why did she do this? what did i do wrong? i killed not only the first jumper i ever made, but my favourite jumper of all.
any ideas on how to fix her? or what i should do with her battered, elongated remains? (a formal burial remains a possibility. do you think the cats would dig her up?).

5 comments:

Michelle said...

oh no!!!! I'm so sorry. I have no suggestions.
poop.
Michelle

Amanda said...

Oh gee, darlin' it was so very cute...I would have cried, cussed, ripped it from my body, thrown it across the room, then I would have to have a stiff drink (or three). I do hope you find a way to correct it. I hate to even suggest this, but you could wash it in a bit of hot water and try to shrink it...that or the dryer...

about the smell, to me, both wool and silk smell very bad when wet.

spider_knit said...

You may have done this, but here's what I'd recommend.

Step One. Okay. Take a deep breath.
Step Two. Soak it in some wool wash (cold water) for about 20 mins.
Step Three. Empty the water out, and then squoosh water out of the jumper by pushing down on it (no uber squeezing or anything) while its still in the bottom of the sink. (To avoid more stretching)
Step four. Gather it together and carefully take it to your chosen flat drying place. Get a tape measure.
Step 5. Block it, squooshing all the stitches up, in and together as you go. Measure the dimensions as you go until it matches the original ones. (This may take awhile and seem pointless, but may save the precious object yet! Just in case, I say that in all seriousness. Our hand crafted personalised works of art are such, and should be recognised as such. Especially by ourselves).

Okay. Now wait til it dries and fondle stuff that makes you happy and distracted until its done. You know, Yarn, Badly Coloured Boy, nice fruit, whatever.

Try it on again once completely bone dry.

*HUG* All knitters world over are with you, in sympathy :)

lupinbunny said...

okay. my plan of attack is this:
1) what Spider_Knit says.
1.1) Buy lots of jo sharp yarn to make me feel better, no matter the result.
2) What auntie_amanda says (the dryer). this was also BCB's suggestion.
3) Frog.

Clementine said...

dunno about the dryer, but then i have control issues. and felting issues.
i think kita's idea is the way to go.
it's probably something to do with the silk. have you got a swatch you can test it on?

good luck!!