I Had Trouble, Too

The Yarn Harlot did not finish the sweater that she wanted to wear to Rhinebeck.  She almost made it, but then she "had a little trouble."

I have to admit that when I first read what she said about speeding up the blocking process by putting her knitting in a warm oven, I thought she was crazy.

But then I found myself in a similar position on the night before my trip to Rhinebeck.  I had finished my Cerisara two nights earlier, and I could not stop myself from washing/blocking it.  After two days of air drying, it was still too damp to wear.  I re-read Stephanie's post about the oven.  But she did not provide enough details, not even a temperature.  I was afraid to try it.

My sweater yarn is 80% super-wash merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon.  This is similar to (cashmere) sock yarn, and I have often washed hand-knit socks in the washer and dried them in the dryer.  I decided that if I put the dryer on the lowest heat setting and used the delicate cycle (mistake #1) the sweater would be fine.  I also threw the damp beach towel that the sweater had been drying on into the dryer, thinking it would help to absorb and distribute the heat (mistake #2).

The trouble was, being the night before a trip, I was busy getting ready for the next day, and I did not check the dryer for about a half an hour (mistake #3).  My sweater was ruined.

It did not shrink.  It did not burn.  But it is a mass of fuzz balls.  I blame friction...the friction from choosing a longish dryer cycle with all that "cool down" time...and the friction from the terry towel.

Can it be saved?  I am not sure.  I spent some time removing fuzz with a sweater "d-fuzz-it" comb.  It helped, but it might take a couple of hours to get it all.  Will it ever look like new?  I don't think so, but I will work on it.

I had trouble, too.