Washing hand knits (or anything made of yarn)
This issue comes up a lot and I thought I'd put together a post on it. If anyone has an alternate method, technique, soap, etc. please comment with it!

First off, check the label for any warnings or known issues. But even if it recommends dry cleaning, look at the fibers involved, the structure of the yarn, and think about what you know about them. If the yarn is somewhat unexpected or delicate seeming and you are worried, test wash (and block!) a swatch or at least a twist of the yarn to see how it responds.

Useful links: Fabric University; International care symbols; Common care symbols.

Soaps, detergents, and conditioning agents
Woolwash -
There are a number of brands (Eucalin, Kookaburra, etc.) of woolwash designed with wool and other animal fibers in mind, but suitable for just about any item. They are mild, and some varieties also contain lanolin to condition the fiber. Some, but not all, do not require rinsing. Keep in mind that Woolite is not generally considered a woolwash and many folks believe it to be too harsh to use on animal fiber yarns.

Laundry detergent (liquid) -
Be careful with machine washing detergents. They are often highly concentrated and prone to high sudsing making them difficult to wash out, so use sparingly. If they contain enzymatic cleaners, they can damage some fibers. Also avoid any which contain whitening agents ("bleach alternative" type products) or bleach which can be extremely harsh. Keep in mind, just about every (in fact I don't know of one which doesn't) laundry detergent contains optical whiteners (also known as fluorescent brighteners). They're a substance which is added to the detergent and acts sort of like a dye in that it exhausts into the fiber. Some types work for cellulose fibers and some for protein, and then there are the ones which work on synthetics. Basically, however, all of them absorb UV light and bounce it back as visible light in the blue spectrum. The type of light used to look at the item will influence the appearance drastically, of course, since it requires UV light. The point of an optical whitener is the same reason people used to put bluing in wash water. It is to mask the yellowing of white fiber which occurs over time. Optical whiteners have a cumulative effect through washes so the more the thing is washed, the brighter it will appear. I haven't any real opinion about them, but they are inappropriate for some situations, such as fabric conservation.

Dishwashing detergent(liquid) -
Another item to use sparingly due to being highly concentrated and sudsing. Also avoid any which contain odd additives or unpleasant perfumes which will linger on the washed item. The scent tends to be very strong. It is particularly good for removing grease, so items which still contain lanolin may feel stripped after use.

Shampoo -
Yet another item to use sparingly due to high sudsing. The perfume tends to be milder than dishwashing detergent and more appealing on garments, and it's less likely to have harsh chemicals and additives which may damage certain fibers. Some also contain components which will lightly condition the fiber. This is what I use regularly while I search for an affordable source of woolwash in bulk.

Orvus W.A. paste -
I don't expect most folks to have access to it, but thought I'd mention it anyway. Folks who have horses or cattle, or quilt, or do conservation, etc. may know about it. It's essentially sodium lauryl sulfate and very little else. It's the primary surfactant in most commercial detergents these days and is present in most of the detergents listed above. I have been using it to strip the seracin from silkworm cocoons. A very small amount is sufficient, and it contains none of the perfumes, conditioners, and far few fillers (such as water) which are present in other detergent mixtures. I dissolve 2 ounces in a gallon of hot water for dissolving seracin, and most hand washing uses will need an even lower concentration. It is an irritant, and it works best in a alkaline environment so if there is any risk of a low pH, adjust it with a little baking soda or washing soda. Rinse items out very thoroughly before exposing them to an acidic environment as I hear a low pH can cause the sodium lauryl sulfate to bond to the fiber permanently.

Fabric softener (liquid) -
Another item to be used sparingly as it requires thorough rinsing and has similar concerns as hair conditioner. It also changes the behavior of fiber, especially water absorption and wicking, and should be used with caution and not on microfiber at all. If you do choose to use it, keep in mind it can spot if it settles onto the item, so it should be thoroughly dissolved in water first.

Hair conditioner -
There is some debate over whether hair conditioner is a good addition to soften knitted items. I often use it to improve the hand of animal fiber yarns once they've been knit but it is true that conditioners leave a film on the yarn which can cause dirt to cling more readily to the item and which can build up over time leading to dingier knits in the long run. This, of course, depends on what the piece will be used for and the style of knit. Use your judgment, and if you do use conditioner rinse it as thoroughly as possible after application. And avoid using leave-in treatments.

Lanolin conditioning -
This is often used for adding or returning lanolin to wool for use as diaper soakers. It's also suitable for adding lanolin to items which need to be "in the grease" and thus water resistant/waterproof (fisherman sweaters, anyone?). It is a process which needs to be repeated whenever the repelling properties diminish, which will depend on how thoroughly the item was conditioned and how it is being used and cared for. Any 100% lanolin source is appropriate, although some sources suggest any soap product containing a relatively large amount of lanolin will work as well (20% or so). Woolwashes which contain lanolin are generally not sufficient as they do not contain enough to do more than lightly condition the fiber. Most tutorials suggest solid lanolin as opposed to liquid, but both should work, solid will simply require melting first. Lanolin is available in a variety of places ranging from cloth diapering resources to pharmacies, and can often be found in places which carry skin care products.



Once you've decided on your detergent and conditioning (if any), next up is to decide how to wash the item.

Avoiding felting/fulling
First off, if you are trying to avoid fulling an object it's best to understand how felting occurs. All animal fibers except for silk are prone to felting. The scales on the surface of the hairs rise up when warm and wet, and this is exacerbated by an acid or basic environment such as a dye bath or a soap bath respectively (although most commercial detergents and soaps are either pH neutral or slightly acidic). When the fibers rub against each other, the scales cause the fibers to catch and interlock, creating a mat. This is felting (or fulling). Quick changes in temperature will also speed the process, shocking the fibers.

Now, if you've ever acid dyed a protein fiber, you'll realize that the dye needs to be heat set. And yet the fibers don't felt. How? By agitating the fiber as little as possible. Even the rolling action of a boiling dye bath can cause significant felting if it occurs for long enough, so dye baths are held below a boil. For this same reason, it is also possible to use heat to dry an item and not cause felting. Again, no movement = no felting/fulling. Lay it out on a rack over the radiator or in front of the fire and leave it alone. It will be fine.

This is also, of course, why tumbling dry an item which is susceptible to fulling will often have dramatic results. Deliberately using a dryer to full an item, however, also has its problems. The tumbling action matched with the increased air flow tends to cause the surface to fluff up, creating an exceptionally fuzzy fulled item which may need to be shaved prior to use.

Clearly, washing an item requires some agitation and soaps and detergents may be acidic or basic in nature, so the element which needs to be removed is the heat. Washing in cool water which stays in the same temperature range removes the greatest risk when handling. Still, gentleness to the fabric is still necessary since protein fibers become weaker when wet and can be damaged by stretching and pulling (which is the same reason you should never use a hair brush on wet hair). And if you really try, you can still cause felting or fulling when wool is cool and wet, it just takes a lot more effort.

Things which don't felt? Silk and smooth protein fibers (soy silk), cellulose fibers (cotton, linen, hemp, ramie, and more exotic plant sources such as bamboo, seaweed, and banana, as well as rayon which is manufactured), and the assorted synthetics such as acrylic, nylon, and polyester, and the elastics. Microfiber is made from manufactured fibers and also will not felt. Some wools have been treated to be resistant to felting and will be labeled "superwash" although the care instructions should nonetheless be examined for caveats. Also, bleached animal fibers tend to be resistant to felting as the bleaching tends to strip the scales. Then, some yarns have such a large proportion of non-felting fibers blended with the felting fibers that the resultant yarn will not felt or will not felt well; most 80/20 acrylic/wool blends will not felt at all. Yarns which have a strand of fiber which will felt plied or carried along with a strand which will not will still have felting issues. In this case, one strand will felt while the other does not, leading to surface irregularities and an entirely different appearance.

If fulling/felting is not an issue, you can be more relaxed about water temperature but handling should still be gentle, as should the soap. The only exception to this is when the item must be beaten or abused to bring out its softness and hand, as is often the case with linen. Lastly, if there is any concern regarding color-fastness or water damage, test out a swatch, spare twist of yarn, or hidden part of the item first.


That other fiber which shrinks – cotton
Meanwhile, cotton items shrink for an entirely different reason. It's referred to as "relaxation shrinkage" and it's because the fibers have been stretched during processing. Washing and agitating the item in hot water cause the fibers to return to their pre-stretched state, which results in shrinkage. The hotter the water and the more agitation there is, the more an item will shrink. This is generally not a problem with hand knits unless the yarn very stretched when it was processed and the garment is washed in very hot water, and generally by machine which agitates the fabric more.

Indeed, there is often the reverse problem with hand knits made with cotton. They tend to gain length and sag under the weight of the fabric. When this happens, washing the item in very hot water can be a temporary solution. Using heat while drying the item, however, will cause the fibers to relax and stretch again, so do not machine dry a cotton garment if shrinkage was desirable. Also, keep in mind that wear will cause the item to stretch out again, especially if it's exposed to body heat. Think for a moment about how jeans stretch out after they are washed, and you'll see what I mean.

If a cotton item has shrunk undesirably, it can be blocked after washing to return to its pre-shrunken size. This is unlike wool which will change significantly in texture once it has felted. Wool can be stretched out when felted, but it will never feel the same again.

The basic by hand method
Whether you are washing by hand because the item is delicate or because you haven't a machine, it's always good to review method. It's as simple as a mild soap, a water source, and a basin or sink. If the item is very large, a bathtub works. Use your feet instead of your hands and pretend you're crushing grapes for wine. Keep in mind, protein fibers become weaker when wet, and cellulose fibers become stronger. Also, protein fibers are damaged by alkaline solutions, while cellulose fibers are damaged by acidic solutions.

I find it best to submerge the item in cool water and squeeze it to wet it thoroughly. Once it's wet, I take a small amount of soap, moisten it and spread it onto the item. Or the soap may be dissolved into a small amount of water. The item is squeezed repeatedly so the soap penetrates to all the fibers, compressing without any rubbing or wringing. Then the water is drained and the item squeezed out. Removing as much soapy water as possible reduced the number of times the item needs to be rinsed.

Applying soap often causes fibers to bleed excess dye into the wash water even if the item does not bleed in clear water. I believe this is from the wetting action of the soap causing the surface of the fibers to give up more dye. It is best to wash as much of the excess dye away as possible to prevent staining of other items and skin when it is worn, but do not continue to apply soap in an effort to "get it all". Instead, simply rinse until the water runs reasonably clear. If the yarn seems resistant to stopping bleeding, I find a little conditioner will coat the hair shaft and reduce or stop the bleeding entirely. If the dye bleeds profusely with no sign of stopping and the yarn changes color dramatically, then it is likely that the yarn was bleached prior to dyeing (reducing colorfastness), or the dye was not properly set. There's not much you can do about that as the dye will come out no matter what. There are dye fixatives available if you want to try a last ditch effort to safe the project.

After soaping, if the soap used requires rinsing, fill the basin with more water and repeat the squeezing of the garment. I usually add conditioner before the first rinse. I wet the item so there is only a bit of water in the basin, apply conditioner and squeeze it to distribute, and then squeeze again to remove the excess. Then I rinse twice to remove whatever excess remains. After the item has been thoroughly rinsed, I squeeze out as much water as possible, again without wringing or twisting the item at all, and fully supporting the weight of it to prevent damage to the fibers. Alternately, a washing machine spin cycle can be used to remove the excess water. Whichever you decide to use, never let a sopping wet garment hang limp from you hands as the weight of the water will stretch it badly and can damage the structure of the fiber as well as leave you with a garment that is suddenly too long.

I usually blot items, even machine spun items, by rolling them up like a jelly roll in a clean towel, more than one if the item is large or very wet. Then I sit on the whole thing to blot out as much water as possible. My sister has her children walk on the fabric bundle instead. Then unroll the item and block and dry it as usual.

Lanolin conditioning -
Lanolin conditioning is done to clean garments. Approximately a tablespoon of lanolin is melted (if it's solid) and added to enough water to submerge a small garment. The water should appear cloudy and the lanolin should not pool at the surface. Some sources recommend using a small amount of soap or woolwash as an emulsifier if the lanolin refuses to mix with the water. The item is soaked for anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours to allow the lanolin to penetrate the fiber. Then it is squeezed dry, blotted, and then laid out to dry as usual.


The basic by machine method
Taking the principles addressed in the other sections, clearly machine washing is an option for many items. It is very simple but requires a machine which can be set to avoid an agitation cycle and with full temperature control.

This requires a top loader. It can be done with a front loader, but requires thoroughly wetting the items before putting them in the machine, which may not be convenient.

Fill the machine with tepid or cold water and add the soap (and conditioner if any) so it can dissolve. A few capfuls of woolwash or tablespoon of shampoo will do. Drop the items into the water and squeeze to get the water to penetrate. Gently arrange the items around the agitator so when they spin dry, they do not wrap around it and stretch. Soak for 20-30min. Drain and put it on a short spin to remove the excess water. If using a soap which needs rinsing, fill with the same temperature water and let it soak for another 10min. Then spin out the excess water again, and lay out to dry as usual.


Once your item is clean, how to dry it becomes an issue.

Blocking and drying
Blocking -
Blocking is a key element of the finishing process for knitted goods. Blocked items tend to drape better and have a smoother surface appearance than items which have not been blocked. Items which are heavily textured or patterned often require blocking to look their best. Cables, texure work and colorwork smooth out and look less wobbly, and lace goes from looking like a tangled mass of string to an open, defined pattern. Blocking cannot solve serious inherent structural problems such as the curl of stockinette, but it can improve shaping and fit.

Blocking does primarily two things. It evens out stitches because the fabric is manipulated, and it "sets" the stitches as desired. Think of hair in curlers; that's what happens to each stitch of wool or alpaca or cotton. And the hair in curlers analogy also explains why blocking needs to be done every time an item is washed. This is also why certain fibers, specifically the plastics such as acrylic, don't block. Their type of fiber memory resists reshaping without high heat (steam, since an iron would risk melting the fibers), and if they are reshaped, they are fixed that way permanently. The fabric loses all bounce and becomes limp.

Depending on the item, it may be preferable to weave in ends after it has been blocked for the first time. This is most often true for things which may require very rigorous blocking and which tend to show puckered or heavy stitches, such as lace.

There are lots of ways to block an item, most of which don't require washing the item first. However, once you've thoroughly wet a natural fiber item, it will need to be blocked again. This is known as wet blocking.

The simplest way of drying an item often includes the simplest form of wet blocking. The item is laid out on a flat surface and gently pushed and pulled into shape. When it dries, it will tend to keep that shape. The average Harry Potter scarf does well with this method, as long as the fringe is carefully finger-combed straight prior to it drying. If it dries tangled and crimped, it will stay tangled and resist hanging straight. This is also appropriate for sweaters, hats, socks, and just about everything.

The next step up in blocking is determining a target shape and size and then forcing the item as close to those dimensions as possible. Finishing a lace shawl, for instance, which has a pointed edging. This is usually done by either pinning the edges or running a thin wire or a sturdy cotton string through the edges and then securing them in the desired positions. The yarn can be stretched quite far, but should always be done smoothly without jerking so as to avoid seriously damaging it. Then the item is allowed to dry completely in order to "set" the dimensions. Depending on the fiber and the qualities of the yarn, the item may bounce back a little or a lot.

It is also marginally possible to block an items smaller. It's a matter of pushing it gently into shape so it is evenly thicker, easing the extra length and width across the entire area. This is not a great solution for items which are simply too large, but it can help recover an item which was inadvertently stretched too far at some point.

Laying flat to dry -
Never hang knitted goods to dry unless you want them to dry stretched out for some reason. Pick a surface which won't be damaged by exposure to water and which is not exposed to direct sunlight. A rack or netting which allows the greatest air flow is best, but any non-absorbent surface will work as well. Avoid placing items on towels or directly on bedding to dry. These things absorb the moisture and then slowly release it back into the item directly above them, increasing drying time. If a bed or a carpet is the only thing available, lay down trash bags or plastic in-between to prevent this from happening. If the item needs to be pinned for blocking, make sure whatever surface you are using will hold the pins securely.

Some yarns with a great deal of loft, such as very long mohair, may mat down somewhat during the washing and blotting process. The halo of hairs can be lifted by gently teasing them up with a comb when the piece is still damp an then being allowed to dry as usual. Not all fuzzy yarns will require this treatment, and I wouldn't recommend it for angora which tends to be spun extremely softly.

Increased air movement will dramatically speed drying time. Placing a fan so it blows over, under, or even through the fabric will make a huge difference. Indirect application of heat is less important than air movement, although if the weather is humid heat will make make a difference. A hair dryer on a heat setting would work very well, but is highly impractical.

Ironing can speed drying through the direct application of heat, but ironing tends to flatten knitting out an undesirable degree, and can stretch items out and make certain fibers such as cotton shiny. Ironing should be used with delicacy and caution. For application of heat, it's better to use a source without pressure, such as a fire or radiator for radiant heat, with the piece far enough away that it is in no danger of scorching.

Machine drying -
Machine drying yarn items is very hard on an item. It's the tumbling. Even if the yarn is ostensibly machine washable and dryable, excessive surface fuzzing, matting, and pilling may occur due to the agitation the item gets in the dryer. Also, if an item is dried with other things, it may deposit lint all over those things. Only machine dry things which either are proven up for the abuse, need the abuse (sometimes linen), or situations where it doesn't matter what it looks like. Since machine drying means the item will not be blocked, it is also not appropriate for items which require blocking to look right (lace worked up in cotton, for instance). Use the knits setting and cooler temperatures. Also, dry things alone or in a very lightly loaded machine to reduce the amount of rubbing and tangling with other items. A lingerie bag or pillowcase can significantly reduce dryer wear on an item at the cost of longer drying time. When dryer stops, remove the item right away and if it is not entirely dry, lay it out flat to finish or return it to the machine for a bit more time.

One good thing about machine drying is that it can help even out stitches due to all the agitation. However, this is only useful if the rest is not a trade-off.

Using a dryer sheet for reduction of static when machine drying is often a good idea. Using a previously used dryer sheet or two is often better than a new one since the dryer will not be full, and dryer sheets can cause spotting if too much of the softeners, etc., get onto the fabric. Enough of the chemicals will linger to make a difference, but not risk staining the item.


Er.... *looks up* This turned out a lot longer than expected....