It is time for the washing of the shop samples. You may recall, in a previous post, that I had already begun this process.
Washing Hand-knits
I like to hand wash my hand knitted garments. I put them in lukewarm water with shampoo. Sometimes I use the kitchen sink, but if there are a lot of them, I use the bathtub. After a good soak of at least 30 minutes, I drain the water and gently squeeze them out a bit. Then I refill with more cool fresh water and swish them to rinse for a few minutes. Then I drain the rinse water and squeeze them out somewhat. Don’t wring them, which can stretch and distort the garments.
At this point, you can roll them in towels until damp dry, or put them in the washing machine and set it on the spin only cycle if you have one. I am fortunate to have that option, so that is usually what I do.
Blocking Hand Knits
These are only a few examples of how I block hand knits. Lace shawls need the most attention when it comes to blocking. All lace garments need blocking on their first wash after knitting, but some won’t need a full pinned out blocking after every wash. Shawls will look their best if you go to the trouble to pin them out after each wash. Fortunately, they don’t need it too often.
I didn’t take pictures of all the samples as I went through the process of washing and blocking. I think I have around 50 samples in the booth, but I didn’t count. It is a lot though. Trust me. I spent about 2 weeks doing all of them. I even ordered more Knit Blockers and Blocking Mats. Sometimes, depending on what I was blocking, I used all I had and could have used more. I highly recommend these tools to make a tedious job a bit easier. (no affiliation, just like them)
Ready for New Tags
After I finished washing and blocking everything I decided they really needed some new sample tags. The old ones were looking ratty. I also wanted to change some of the information to be more relevant to the questions I frequently get in the booth. I spent a few hours one afternoon making all new tags and I like them much better. I hope they will be more helpful for customers too. Many people like to take a picture of the card and I think these will be more readable for that.
Today, I got all the tags put back on to the proper samples. There are also some patterns that I am knitting new samples for. The reason I am doing that is to refresh them with current colors in my inventory. I have yarn picked out for five patterns. So far I have finished one and I am close to completing a second one.
New Knitting Projects
The pink baby sweater is done except for some buttons. This is my Classic Baby Cardigan in my Superwash Sport yarn in the Tea Rose color. I knit the smallest size here from one skein of yarn. I knit the sweater in just one week even though the gauge is 6.5 stitches per inch on US 3 and US 1 needles.
The purple cowl is my Maize Cowl pattern in Classic Merino Superwash DK yarn in my new color from last year, Wisteria. This is one of my favorite cowls to wear. It is also a really fast knit. I can complete one on 3-5 sittings.
I will show you the other things I have in the queue when I get them on the needles, which should be soon.