Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Two Stupid Things

In the past two weeks, I have done two stupid things. One of them has been public - I designed and am knitting, from scratch, a lace cardigan. In Rowanspun 4-Ply, which is an extremely light fingering weight, felted style wool. On 3mm needles.

For those of you that aren't regularly knitters, just know that this is a stupid, stupid thing to do. More than 89,000 stitches, NOT including collar, button bands, cuffs, and bottom border. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But, I love how it is looking so far, so will keep going. Plus, if I blog it, I kind of have to finish it, right?

Blah, blah - now onto the second of the Two Stupid Things. You know that hand-made king-sized wool-batted quilt I made for our bed? Yeah, the really big one. You know, the one I made in large pieces, quilted on my home machine, then attached together? With miles and miles and miles of hand binding? That one.



I washed it. In the washing machine. Even though it has a wool batt, shipped all the way here from Australia. A king-sized wool batt. Yup.

Okay, take a minute to recover. Breathe.

Then, I put it in the dryer. Yup. I was having a fit of "what the hell, I can always make another". I know, not logical from a primarily-knitting-now-former-quilter. But, again, what the hell.

Oh, you want to know what happened?





It's clean, has a lot less cat fur on it, and smells all fresh and Bounce-y. What, you thought I'd killed it? Geez, so did I. But, I guess the Goddess of all things lovingly Quilted was smiling down on my pure audacity. And, Bean has been using it as a sneak-attack-launch-tent for the last two days, while I had it hanging over the inside stairwell railing to allow for extra drying time (removed from dryer while still slightly damp - I'm stupid, but not idiotic).

Sometimes stupid works itself out. Hunh.

5 comments:

Deb R said...

Geeeeze. I'm glad to hear it all worked out!!

Melody Johnson said...

What a relief! Are there pictures of the knitting in progress?

Unknown said...

I was holding my breath for you while I read...I had the horror of horrors, a wool batt "guaranteed" to be machine washable for a reputable source. Used it in my queen size Hawaiian quilt - washed it (gently, of course!) and it shrank to twin size! It had to be rewet, blocked, stretched and tortured back into shape. I've sworn off wool batts forever, but SO GLAD you had a happy ending!

Elspeth said...

I wash the quilt my mom made for me. It's gone through pretty well but after less than 10 washes some of the places are beginning to separate, so keep out an eye for holes.

Unknown said...

Hey, you have now experienced the Stupid/Tough rule! If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough! Glad your quilt came through its laundry experience unscathed.