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Thanks, Lisa!
Mittens & gloves: Pull them over bottoms of small jars or plastic containers and stand them in front of a fan.
Bulky sweaters: Insert a beach towel between layers and dry flat. This also blocks the garment and prevents pattern colors from running.
Turtle-cowl necks: Roll collar into shape and put crushed tissue paper under it. This helps re-shape the neckline, too.
In an emergency: use a blow-dryer on a cool setting. Just be sure to keep sweater on a flat surface.
Hats: try placing them over large spindle-type candlesticks with an inverted bowl on top to air dry (Kathy's favorite trick).
April 2006 Tips and Ideas
From Kathleen Babyak: "I'm knitting my first sweater in the round from the top down -- how do I know if it will fit?" Transfer the "live" stitches of the yoke from your circular knitting needle onto a long strand of slippery yarn thinner than your working yarn (a mercerized cotton like TAHKI "Cotton Classic" works well for this purpose). Tie the ends of the strand so that the garment stitches are secure, and try on the actual garment. You can make the necessary adjustments for the fit to the underarm shaping. This also works for the sleeve length...
From Charmaine Clawson: "The bottom rib of my beautiful kid mohair sweater is stretched. I tried sewing some elastic around it, but it doesn't look right. Is there anything I can do?" There are some tricks to working with elastic thread to correct stretched ribbings. Secure the elastic thread in the seam at the first row of the body. Work through HALF of every other stitch across the row (example, if the ribbing is K1, P1, work through only one half of the K stitch only). Give a slight tug following each stitch. Repeat this process approximately every .5" of the ribbing up from the bottom or as desired for best appearance from the public side of the work. Try the garment on to adjust for fit and then secure the thread in the seam...
April 2006 Tips and Ideas cont
From Bev (internet): "How do you block a sweater without making it look smashed? I tried steam and dry ironing and I'm not happy with the result". Easy does it -- steam is a last resort and dry ironing can damage the knitted fabric permanently. For best results, use blocking wires (thin wires than can be threaded along the outside
of the knitted pieces, we have these in stock) and T-pins to shape the pieces of the garment before assembly. I use a large styrofoam sheet covered with an inexpensive plastic tablecloth (the disposable picnic table kind ) and pin the individual pieces of the garment to the desired measurements. Use a clean plastic spray bottle filled with room temperature filtered water and spritz lightly. Let the pieces air dry in a place safe from pets and household traffic. After assembling the garment, a light spritzing may be needed on seams or collars to set. I've had bad experiences with a steam iron singeing hairy fibers, and have heard nightmares from
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