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BessH
Permanent Resident
3095 Posts |
 Posted - 09/09/2004 : 07:26:18 AM
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I clicked on the answer If the yarn calls for it, I'm happy to wash by hand. but only because of the word happy. That's the operative one for me.
I LOVE to handwash my knits, especially the woollens. I like the smell. I like to fondle the fabric as it folds over my fingers. I like to gently press the water out. And when I take it from my very slow spin cycle on the washingmachine where I've turned off the main gate valve - so no unwanted showers sprinkle down on my babies - I simply adore sculpting my sweaters back into shape.
I like to wash my sweaters even if they aren't really very dirty, just to play with them.
Bess
http://likethequeen.blogspot.com |
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RoseByAny
Permanent Resident
USA
12598 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2004 : 07:32:01 AM
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If I ever get my farmhouse - or even just something bigger than we've got now, I'm sure I'll enjoy it more. I do like the process, but right now we've got the kitchen sink and a small bathroom sink, and it tends to splash a lot... But I like how the texture changes when it's wet, and how the color changes, and the squishiness of the whole process (don't forget, I squish yarn from sales rack to finished item - I'm a big squisher...)
It's been all of 27 seconds, so I've already forgotten which answer I clicked, but I don't dislike handwashing at all... it's the slow drying process that frustrates me... it's clean, I want it done now!
"Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable."
http://RoseByAny.BlogSpot.Com |
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Martheme
Sustaining Member
USA
1565 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2004 : 08:08:18 AM
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Hi Ladies,
I love washing my hand knits as well. I've been using Orvus paste for washing raw wool and finished garmets but I may have to give Eucalan a try, since the Queen Bee has decreed it the wash to use! Actually, I think I have a bottle under the sink . . .
The only issue I have with washing is that at the moment, until the barn is done, I have very little space to dry anything. Once that gets cleared up I'll be even more enthusiastic about doing it myself.
Call me nuts, but I love any and all aspects of workikng with fiber and the fall weather is making me even more enthusiastic about it!
Martheme
visit my blog @ http://martheme.blogspot.com/ |
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marfa
Permanent Resident
USA
1879 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2004 : 5:03:20 PM
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How do.
RosyByAny, I feel a kinship w/you over the "too little space" issue - we have a basement & it still seems that there is too little proper space for items that I wash. Just writing this makes me realize I have more space - sorry for the complaint. 
Martheme, I recently bought Euculan & am looking forward to using it this winter. And dear heart, who would on this Forum (or anywhere, I think) would call you nuts for feeling the upswing in knitting & spinning activity due to the fall weather? Fall is my favorite season of the year.
Martha |
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Wen
Permanent Resident
Australia
3242 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 04:59:30 AM
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I like to handwash my woollens, can't go past Country Homestead here as it is cheap compared to what you pay in the US. I have a Maytag machine so I can't machine wash anything and I'm too scared to even spin them so I roll them in a towel to get the excess water out.
Wen
2004 stats: 20 FO, 7 WIP, 27 wool purchased, 4 frogpond.
http://photos.yahoo.com/whdayus |
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Clara
queen bee
USA
4365 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 05:31:46 AM
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I'm so glad to hear from other handwashaholics! I've been an avid handwasher ever since I was a wee kid - you name it, I toss it in the sink to wash. The early training was helped by an enormous laundry pile in my house. If I put clothes in the pile, who knew if or when I'd see it again? So I just started washing things by hand. Ditto in college, in a teensy weensy dorm room sink (Amie, you have my sympathy) much to the bemusement of my college-mates. And I perfected the art in France, helped by the fact that my apartment's washing machine was the size of a colander.
Not that I'm regularly found pounding clothes on a rock by a river, I actually do own and use a washing machine... I just love to handwash whenever possible. The soaps smell so wonderful, the fabrics and fibers feel so good, and it seems like I'm getting things cleaner than if they had to slosh around in a big messy machine. It's crazy, I'm sure, but there you have it.
And for the space-impaired, just be patient - your large sink (and/or farmhouse) will come. 
Because of the review, you now know how fond I am of Eucalan. But do you have other favorites I should test?
Clara
Your friendly Knitter's Review publisher
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Licensed2Cook
Permanent Resident
USA
3554 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 07:09:03 AM
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I love the smell of the lavendar Eucalan, I sniff my yarn, especially the silk ones but I sniff clean laundry too. My only sadness is where to put the wet ones to dry out while laying flat. I still haven't come up with a great system. I have a foldable plastic drying rack but it can leave lines in the sweater. Sometimes I hang them up on really big plastic shoulder sized hangers but then my sweaters grow. Any suggestions?
Clara I'd be interested in a seeing road test of other methods, please add some shampoo to the mix and let us know how it stacks up.
Dee
~Licensed2Knit |
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RoseByAny
Permanent Resident
USA
12598 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 07:39:00 AM
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My handwashes this week were done in the evening, and put in the bathtub on a drying rack. By morning, they were done dripping enough to move. Of course, there isn't room to just put them someplace until they were dry, so they ended up being moved several times while we danced around them, but it worked....
"Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable."
http://RoseByAny.BlogSpot.Com |
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klfrazier
Permanent Resident
1745 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 08:07:19 AM
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IT's good to know that there are so many others who enjoy taking good care of their special garments! I hate doing the regular laudry, but I LOVE to handwash!
I have a big laundry utility sink, but find that I usually use the kitchen or bathrooom sink instead. That utility sink is so big it scares me! (Plus there's usually a plant in it.)
Kristin
PS. I have done laundry on a washboard in a bucket on the backporch of the historic site I used to work at. It's a lot of work, and something I don't recommend, but it was good to learn. Plus, the site of all of those dishtowels, dresses, aprons, etc. on the line on a sunny afternoon just made me feel good. |
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Shelia
Permanent Resident
USA
2317 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 10:05:19 AM
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I too wash many things by hand, and even the ones I do by machine are usually done in cold water and hung to dry. I really, really want one of those fancy, expensive dryers that have the drying cabinet above them - it would make my fiber life complete! Now, how to justify the $1200 expense to myself? (not to DH, I have my own job and credit cards!)
Shelia |
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anderknit
Permanent Resident
USA
2557 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 12:00:52 PM
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OK, all you handwashers: I usually have a small mountain of to-be-handwashed stuff that I dread facing. (It's near the ironing pile.) So if any of you are ever in the neighborhood and feel like you absolutely have to have a handwashing fix, come on by!
"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.' " |
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mokey
Permanent Resident
15375 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2004 : 8:33:24 PM
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I don't mind hand washing, after all ti sin't much tougher than washing hands or taking a bath!My problem is I have nowhere to dry it. We're in an apartment and line drying is verboten. I can't dry anything in the bathrooms because we have now indows, and nothing dries. I'm pretty much stuck with taking it to the laundromat, where the machines have adjustable setting and are front loaders, unlike here.
"There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness." Gandhi |
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BessH
Permanent Resident
3095 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2004 : 05:01:43 AM
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Yes Shelia! I want one of those too. A drying chamber. Oooo. I also keep planning on buying those stackable sweater racks that are made of mesh and about the size of a sweater. I don't have a cramped space but I don't have the ideal one either.
I dry my sweaters now on large towels, spread either on the bathroom floor (when the weather is horrible) where I shriek at anyone who goes to use the bathroom for anything else to "watch out for my sweater!!". When the weather is good I take the same large towels out to the clothes line, spread it across all four lines, secure it tightly with clothes pins and then spread my sweaters out that way. The line is in shade and the air circulates through the terrycloth. Ooooo fresh clean sweaters washed in lavender euclan and dried outdoors. Ahhh utter satisfaction.
Bess
http://likethequeen.blogspot.com |
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Lissa
Permanent Resident
USA
4942 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2004 : 07:52:20 AM
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I've always had a question about those stacked racks - doesn't the water from the top sweater drip onto the next one, etc.?
Lissa
Hey - I MEANT to do that! |
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Clara
queen bee
USA
4365 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2004 : 08:35:15 AM
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Lissa - the really fancy stacked racks come with your own private butler who stands with a cloth and catches all the drips. Or maybe that's only a feature in the dryer Shelia and Bess are talking about? ... 
Clara
Your friendly Knitter's Review publisher
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RoseByAny
Permanent Resident
USA
12598 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2004 : 08:47:00 AM
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Yes, Lissa, they do. When I'm doing a load of laundry on them, it's usually "unmentionables" and I don't care if they've got creases, so I can hand them in ways that nothing is below them.
For larger items like sweaters I usually only wash one or two at a time (remember, I don't have sink space, either!) so they can be spread across the top with nothing underneath...
"Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable."
http://RoseByAny.BlogSpot.Com |
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BessH
Permanent Resident
3095 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2004 : 09:34:42 AM
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Well, I spin dry my sweaters before I lay them out so there's very little dripping. It's mostly evaporation. But if I had one, I'd put the sweater I wanted to wear first on top.
Bess
http://likethequeen.blogspot.com |
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RoseByAny
Permanent Resident
USA
12598 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2004 : 09:38:41 AM
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By the way, Ken and I saw one of those hanging drying machine thingys last night. He insisted we try "Expo" (the way upscale if-its-less-than-a-grand-we-don't-sell-it sister store to Home Depot) for Shelve dividers. Pulling into the parking lot in my Echo surrounded by a Porche, and a Lexus SUV should have clued us in further, but noooo...
But I do want one of those dryers. "Covet" I think is a better word...
"Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable."
http://RoseByAny.BlogSpot.Com |
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Tam
Permanent Resident
Australia
2810 Posts |
Posted - 09/16/2004 : 01:22:10 AM
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I deliberatly bought a washing maching without an agitator so that I didn't have to hand wash, and will only do it if absolutely necessary.
Happy Knitting,
Tam in Melbourne
http://photos.yahoo.com/lillysmum2002
2004 Stats: 19 FOs, 2 WIPs, 1 frog, 1 on hold
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celia
Permanent Resident
Australia
2454 Posts |
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Soxy
Gabber Extraordinaire
New Zealand
389 Posts |
Posted - 09/16/2004 : 8:21:57 PM
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Sounds like a front loader. That is the machine used mostly in South Africa. I was very surprised when I arrived here in NZ to find top loaders!!!! To us that is very old fashioned!!!!! LOL!!! The front loaders are much softer on the clothes though and I never hand wash anything.....I stuff all woolies and other delicates in those mesh bags plus soap for woolies , delicate cycle and so far no problems.......but my mother will have a fit.....I was raised on handwashing and drip drying...therefore little or no ironing!!!!! By the description of these drying chamber driers, I would like one to...... stamp stamp foot!!! :-)) Havent seen them around yet. Perhaps good thing eh? I mean for DH c/card!! Meanwhile the hotwater cupboard works just as well!!!
Sock Addict |
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