Thanks for all the comments yesterday. It was just a combination of things that caused such an outburst on my part. Sometimes just knowing that other people empathize makes it a little better.
So, back to the February Lady debacle. When last I was hopeful, I had a beautiful sweater that needed some blocking. I was just about ready to fill up the kitchen sink when I remembered that I had used the hand-wash feature on my front loader with great success on my socks. Why, I'll use it for my sweater and then block the bitch so that I could wear it the next night and the Flyer could wear his Cobblestone and we'd go out to dinner in style. After the washer finished the cycle, I thought, "Hmmm, I don't remember this much water the last time . . . I'll just spin it out," because (and get this) I didn't want to dirty another towel . . . that's rich, don't you think?
Wrong choice. A little tumble, a little spin, a little tumble, a little spin . . . a very little sweater. Panic set in when I took out my (still sopping wet) felted sweater. I gasped, I screamed, I reached for the phone. SK answered and decided to "pretend" he was sleepy when he answered. Hell, he could have been sleeping but seriously, this was the very epitome of a knit emergency. Lola, after she grasped the full magnitude of the situation, suggested pulling the hell out of it and trying to salvage what could be salvaged. So, I put on a slightly less wet but will too wet to wear sweater and had Betty and Veronica pull the hell out of it. And then, the full reality of the situation set in.
In 20 short minutes, I ruined what I had worked on for six months . . . and I broke down in tears. Pre-felting, part of me was upset that it was a bit larger than I expected and wanted a twee bit of shrinkage but what I got was ridiculous. I tried to cast on for something new and figured out rather quickly that I had no business knitting anything in that state-of-mind. Blue Moon turned out to be my only comfort (the one that comes in a bottle, not the hank).
Tricia tried to help but even she had to admit that it might be lost. The girls won't wear it (not their style) and I know that I wouldn't fit into it in a long, long time. In the end, it might fit either Lola or the other sister or I might just hack it to bits and make a bag out of it. I do have to say . . . this yarn felts like a dream. If there can be one positive, it's that this might be the perfect felting yarn. The stitch pattern holds its shape, the silk provides a nice bit of texture, and the fabric of wonderful. The alpaca? That, Tricia says, was probably part of the problem. Apparently it adds to the "feltability" and you can basically felt alpaca just by carrying it around with you on hot days. Good to know.
Still, I love that sweater pattern . . . I'm thinking brown in a smaller size would be much more versatile. I have more than enough of Kraemer's Summit Hill in chocolate. And the best part? It's superwash.
Ava
PS - Whoever said that you can't felt in a front loader is full of shit, by the way.
Would it fit Katie?
Posted by: MC | January 29, 2009 at 03:09 PM
Wow, that yarn does felt beautifully, unfortunately. So sorry about the sweater. Too bad the girls don't like it, it looks like it fits. Cutting it into a bag would at least make it functional, but actually doing that sounds very hard...
Posted by: kelly jo | January 29, 2009 at 07:46 PM
that just sucks.
on the positive it does look nice felted. i hope you find someone who will wear it as is.
who in the world said you couldn't felt in a front loader?? i felted some cascade 220 in a short amount time (intentionally).
also, are you saying the sweater wasn't felted after you ran the hand wash cycle, just after you spun it out?
we have a wool setting on our front loader and i've done my socks and bea's blanket and so far so good, but i'm nervous to try much else.
Posted by: gonzomama | January 29, 2009 at 08:38 PM
Oh dear. My heart bleeds for you.
Posted by: Jennifer | January 29, 2009 at 09:21 PM
oh dear god, the pain. it is beautiful felted but that makes no difference. make it again, it is the best sweater ever. and yeah, front loaders do work fine for felting, but i guess you discovered it in a very bad way. :(
Posted by: mamie | January 31, 2009 at 03:29 PM