Fandoms include but are not limited to: Star Trek, Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, Fallout, Bioshock, One Piece, Smoke Signals, Miyazaki Films, Random Biology facts
Apparently I have decided that I need to knit something out of yak wool but itās very difficult to find 100% yak wool yarn in the united states.
Iām currently looking for a source of 100% yak wool yarn. It can be any weight. Bonus points if itās undyed.
What I would LOVE to do is buy directly from someone who is in close proximity to the yak owner. I donāt care about shipping costs, I just want to make sure that my money is going to support the right people.
Etsy is shady (as always) and feels a bit predatory but if anyone has suggestions or information on sellers that are legit please let me know.
we joke about Tumblr making your brain unable to interact with regular humans, but today I used the phrase āvery slow tigers are chasing meā and no one, NO ONE, understood what I meant.
Yeah I mentioned the leopards eating peoples faces party to a friend once and the whole conversation immediately derailed. I hadnt even realised I said something weird at first
Knitted and crocheted sweaters naturally stretch out, but thereās no need to fret because shrinking them back down to size is almost always possible! Whether you need to fix a whole sweater or just a portion of the garment, you can do so through a variety of methods. Once youāve gotten it back down to the best fit, there are many measures you can take in order to prevent future shrinking!
Method 1 Shrinking a Whole Sweater.
1. Determine how much of a sweater needs reshaping. You only need to soak an entire sweater if you want to shrink it entirely. Sometimes, this is not necessary. Your sweater may only have certain portions, like the neck or sleeves, that have stretched out. In this case, you can reshape the sweater by hand.
2. Wet the sweater and remove excess water. Fill a tub with slightly warm water. Submerge your sweater in the water until itās soaked. Remove the sweater from the water. Press out any excess water into the sink. Do not wring or squeeze the sweater to remove water as this can cause damage.
3. Reshape the sweater. Place the sweater between a padded towel. Using your hands, gently mold the sweater into your desired shape. Then, set the sweater aside to dry.
4. Dry carefully. You should not hang a reshaped sweater to dry. Hanging can cause bumps and lumps on the sweaterās shoulders. Instead, pin the sweater to the towel you were using. From there, lay it down in a safe place to dry. Keep out of reach of children or pets as you do not want the sweater handled while drying.
5. Wet your sweater. If you want to reshape the whole sweater, more extreme action needs to be taken. To start, get your sweater wet using lukewarm tap water. How wet you get the sweater affects how much it shrinks. For more shrinking, completely soak the sweater prior to drying. For less shrinking, just gently mist the sweater using a spray bottle until its damp.
6. Place the sweater in a dryer. If you want to shrink a whole sweater, you can use a machine dryer. After wetting the sweater, place it in a dryer on high heat. You should use the highest heat setting possible, especially if you want to shrink your sweater significantly. Run the dryer until the sweater is completely dry. This should shrink your sweater a couple of sizes.
Method 2 Shrinking Sections of a Sweater.
1. Prepare a basin of water. You can shrink sections of a sweater, like the neck or sleeves, if only these areas are stretched out. Be sure to test a hidden section of your sweater first, as either the boiling water or the blow-drying may affect the color. Boil a medium-sized pot of water. Then, pour this water into a bowl.
2. Dampen the areas you want reshaped. You can dip the sleeves, cuffs, or neck of the sweater into the water. Use protective gloves if the water is still steaming. You do not want to get burnt in the process.
3. Remold the sweater. Using your fingers, gently pinch and squeeze the portion of the sweater youāre shrinking. Work the sweater until itās at your desired size and shape.
If youāre remolding the cuff of a sweater sleeve, it might be a good idea to hold the cuff chest level as you remold. As the cuff is small, pulling it closer will allow you to see what youāre doing. When remolding a larger area, like the neck of a sweater, try laying the sweater down on a flat surface as you work.
If your sweater is very wet, you may want to remold it over a towel to catch any drips.
4. Dry with a hair dryer. When youāve reshaped the sweater, take a hairdryer and blow the sweater dry. The hot air works in combination with the hot water to solidify the new shape, shrinking that portion of sweater back to its original size.
As the method requires hot air to work, you do not want to use the cool setting on your hair dryer. Start with the low heat setting. If the sweater is not drying fast enough, consider switching to high heat.
Method 3 Preventing Stretching.
1. Fold sweaters rather than hanging them. You should fold your sweaters and store them in drawers rather than hanging them. Hanging sweaters can stretch out portions of the sweater. It can also leave small humps at the shoulders. If possible, fold your sweaters rather than hanging them.
2. Take precautions if you must hang sweaters. If you need to hang your sweaters, take certain precautions. Use thick, padded hangers to provide more support. This can help prevent stretching. You may also want to fold your sweater over and hang it from the bottom bar of a hanger. The bottom bar may provide more support, preventing stretching.
You can cut open an empty paper towel tube and then fit it over the bottom bar of a hanger. This may help prevent creasing.
3. Hand wash your sweaters. If possible, you should always hand wash your sweaters. Hand wash them in cold water with a small amount of fabric softener and detergent. Rinse thoroughly, making sure to get all the suds out. When removing excess water before drying, press the sweater. Do not squeeze or wring it. Fold the sweater in half and hang it over the bottom bar of a hanger on a drying rack to dry.
Community Q&A
Question : I have a marino wool sweater that shrunk. How do I stretch it back out?
Answer : This might sound weird, but you should wear two or three other sweaters underneath your wool sweater. Hang around the house like that for a while. When you take the under sweaters off, your shrunken sweater will have stretched out.
Question : How do I shrink an acrylic sweater?
Answer : Acrylic doesnāt usually shrink much, but you could try putting it in the dryer on high heat.
Question : I hung my merino wool sweater to dry on a hanger and it got super long. I didnāt realize that would happen. Is there any way to shrink it in one direction (length wise)?
Answer : Put it in the dryer in a netting bag or laundry bag. It will shrink and not get frayed.
Question : How can I reshape the humps left in the shoulders of sweaters that have hung too long on a padded hanger?
Answer : Use method two, above, dampening the humps. If this doesnāt work, just wash the whole sweater and tumble dry on low.. The humps should go away in the process.
Question : Will the shrunk neck of a sweater stay after I wash and dry it again?
Answer : It should stay put as long as you follow the instructions on the tag. Or, you can hand wash it to be absolutely certain itāll stay okay.
Warnings
Be aware that some fabrics, such as wool and cotton, will shrink much more than others, such as acrylic.
Sometimes accidents happen. Mistakes were made and your favorite tshirt or pair of jeans or sweater *insert clothing item here* wound up in the dryer and shrunk.
Most of the time though, so long as it didnāt felt up, you can fix it.
(Seen here: two of my favorite cotton shirts that I should not have put in the dryer are soaking)
Fill a sink (or bin, or tub, etc) with lukewarm water and stir in 2-3 tablespoons of either baby shampoo, gentle conditioner, or SOAK brand no rinse wash. Swirl your garments around to make sure theyāre saturated and leave them to soak for about half an hour or so.
After soaking, drain the water, press the excess water out of your clothes, and wring your garments dry by laying them flat on a towel and rolling the towel up, pressing firmly as you go.
Unwrap from the towel and gently but firmly begin to tug your clothes back into shape (the fibers are soft and pliant at this point, but no need to break them).
At this point you can lay them flat to dry completely, pinning the clothes down into shape with straight pins on a foam playmat for extra insurance (alternatively, some cans and jars from the kitchen to hold your clothes down work just fine).
You can also hang them if theyāre heavy enough (and so long as the hanger provides the desired shaping):
This will work best with natural fibers, so cotton and wool, for example. But next time youāre worried you ruined something by throwing it in the dryer, give it a chance first. Fibers are strong and flexible - and even the best made garments have to be reshaped (ex: every single hand knitted thing ever).
THIS ALSO WORKS FOR OUT OF SEASON CLOTHES YOU PULLED OUT OF STORAGE
Have you ever wondered why things you put away at the end of summer/winter donāt always fit when you take them out?
The fibers, having not spent six or more months stretched over your body, have contracted, and probably just need to be reshaped for wear again.
Blocking finished knit garments is important; a tutorial
Picture this: youāve finished (hand) knitting a garment, youāve woven in the ends, and youāre excited to go wear it! But when you put it on, it simply looks, well, not as good as youād hoped. The stockinette is bumpy, patterns are skewed, there are random gaps here and there. In short: you had hoped that it would look nicer.
Good news: itās not you, itās the yarn. Bad news: thereās still some work to do before you can wear it.
Itās time for blocking! But how?
There are multiple different methods of blocking. Below Iām going to show the effects & steps of wet-blocking a knit sweater (yarn 70% sheep wool & 30% recycled cotton). Which technique to use depends mainly on yarn composition as well as available materials. If youāre unsure, Donāt be afraid to aks or google.
Beginning vs. Outcome
Before blocking my sweater looked bumpy, uneven, and was slightly to small:
After blocking, the garment had stretched a bit and looked overal a lot smoother / uniform:
But how do you wet-block a garment?
There are three main steps, and no special equipment is needed for any of them.
Step 1: wet the garment. I always use my bathroom sink, fill it with lukewarm water, some gentle washing soap and vinegar (to set the dye). I make sure the washing soap is properly dissolved before I put my sweater in.
At this point I gently handwash a bit, both to get rid of any oils / dirt introduced during the knitting, as well as teasing the stitches to open them up a little. I find that the movement of the handwashing allows them to relax and become more uniform throughout the garment. After this I let it soak for 15 min in the soap/vinegar solution. After 15 min I drain the water, wring the garment as dry as possible, than rinse it twice using more lukewarm water.
Step 2 comes immediately after the last rinse. Here you want to roll your garment dry using a towel
Put it down as flat as you can on a dry & clean towel. Having some overlap in the garment is okay. Roll it up as tightly as possible, try and squeeze out as much water as possible. Generally, you're able to get rid of a lot more water using a towell compared to just your hands.
Step 3: the actual blocking. Put the garment to dry on a flat, but well ventilated and/or absorbent surface. The most common way to do this is by using foam drying mats, however it is not the only way:
As you can see, I use my normal drying rack for this. Whatever you choose, make sure the main part of the garment is lying as flat as possible. stretch and squeeze it roughtly in the shape you want, than wait until it is dry.
And that's it! your garment is now blocked and ready to wear!
I hope this helped some people, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Some mushroom socks!šš§¦My best friend sent me a Finnish knitting pattern she found on pinterest which I google translated. The things I do for people š
The pattern:
A knitting pattern for some mushroom patterned socks seen on pinterest, subsequently found in a Finnish knitting magazine, translated into E
[Image description: a pair of knitted mushroom patterned knee length socks. They have green cuffs, 5 rows of different shaped mushrooms in different colour combinations of brown, light beige and yellow, 2 rows of green leaves between the mushrooms and 4 rows of green leaves on top of the feet. The background colour of the socks is charcoal grey. The first image has the socks layed flat and the second image has the socks on feet. End ID]
Ugh, was having a great time mocking my recently imprisoned rival when I noticed the camera positioning makes it so that I appear behind the bars, thus framing me as trapped in a metaphorical prison of the narrative, now my whole day is ruined. Fuck.
I get it, man. The other day, I survived a shootout, only to realize that a stray bullet went through a mirror in such a way as to look from the camera's perspective like I got shot in the head through the mirror, so now I have to acknowledge that something that could be reasonably referred to as "me" really did die that day, and it's just like "jfc, gimme a BREAK"
ugh dont even get me started on how the other day i tried to sit on the throne of my conquered foe and light a cigar to celebrate my victory but the lighter wouldnt work and it had to be lighted by the vizier who used to work for my enemy but that i enlisted to work as a double agent and help me in my coup. that jerk afterwards said with a devilish smile "ill always be at your service my liege" and i just KNOW that he said that exact same thing to the previous ruler. signifying that my victory was phyrric since i am still caught in an endless cycle of violence and betrayal. that really spoiled the whole mood
A friend showed me a great way to keep my circular needles organized. Well, at least those not currently busy in various projects.
I got one of those writing journals with a flexible cover that used a tie to keep it closed. Flexible cover is needed to accommodate the bulkiness of the bundles.
Mine came with a zip lock baggie included. I removed all the paper pages and replaced them with the zip locks I got separately (they are called A5 binder pockets). I stuck my needles in different pockets, with a sticky note indicating the size. Iāll get some proper labels in a bit. Itās a good idea to vary the orientation of the bags so that the zip tabs donāt all stack on the same side.
