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I thought since this is my knitting blog, and since I like to knit fibers that are typically dry clean only that I’d write a little about the alternatives to dry cleaning. One is wet cleaning, which is the industrial environmental friendly version of dry cleaning, it uses clamps, water jets, detergent jets and steam the clamps are to keep the garment in shape so that it can’t shrink out of shape. Doesn’t work for everything but does a pretty good job when it does work. I wouldn’t say that it’s environmentally friendly though because it does use lots of water and the detergents are jacked up versions of your household laundry soap. Solvents are still used for spot treatment, so maybe it’s just environmentally friendlier than dry cleaning.The other method is screen washing, which is better known as Chinese laundry. That’s where the garment is layed out on a screen or a frame and a water based solution is pressed through the garment with sponges.

First all the buttons are removed and then there’s a spot treatment. Spots are washed from the inside out prior to the whole washing, so they are marked with chalk and dealt with from the wrong side of the fabric (in theory to push the soil out from the direction it came) the best trick was to use table salt and rubbing alcohol to remove grease stains from cotton dress shirts, the key was using an ice cube as the scrubber instead of a finger or brush. After the spot treatment then it goes to whole wash on another frame.

The solution used depends on the fiber content. For silk it’s usually a mix of mild soft (potash) soap and some lavendar smell, rinsed with just water. For wool it’s a mild lye soap, then salt water (laundry salt aka Borax), then clean water and per the customers request a conditioner of lanolin or almond. Plant materials like cotton, ramie, linen etc get a water soluable detergent (which won’t damage them like potash and lye soaps will), a salt rinse, then a conditioning rinse that usually has a small amount of starch added. For each stage a clean sponge (big old sea sponges) is used to press the solution through the garment and then out as much as possible.

In a laundry the ambient room temperature is uncomfortably hot which would be miserable unless your arms are plunged into cold water for 8-10 hours a day (which ours were) and dehumidifiers run constantly. Ideally nothing is hung up until it’s pressed, the garments lay flat separated by warm dry towels, or rolled (jelly roll style) with a towel but not hung up. When the cloth is just damp from it’s taken to be pressed, mens suits and shirts are done on pressing machines– every thing else is ironed by hand with an iron and pressing cloth, and sweaters are not pressed at all but put on the puffer (a screen with a fan under it blowing up through the sweater.) With any luck at this point someone will remember to sew the buttons back on.

It’s been a long time since I’ve worked in a laundry, but I think washing things (especially my own creations) this way is soothing. There’s a rhythm to it, it’s economical (financially as well as enviromentally) and gives me the chance to really slow down and re-appreciate my creations.

Just as a side note, at the laundry one of the managers would come out of her office and scream at us that if we (all the current employees on the floor, about a half dozen) were not like sons and daughters to her personally we’d all be fired instantly for our sloth. About an hour later the same manager would come out and yell out that we were working too hard and she’d die if any one of her children were sent to the hospital due to exhaustion. Later in the night she’d come out again and say we were then working too fast to have done any washing and that we’d have to be more diligent.

At times she’d make us all march (yes, march) down the street and back because we needed the air and rest. After working her shifts for a few weeks it was hard for anyone to feel that their job was ever in danger, or to suppress laughter longer than it took for her to retreat back to her office. On an employees birthday there was always a cookie at the person’s station, followed by extra screaming throughout the night. I think deep down most of us had some affection for her, at least those of us that chose the evening and night shifts when she was in charge.

It’s hard to explain; it wasn’t despite the yelling and marching– you had to like, if not outright love or adore her, on some level because of it.

I’m making bun covers, no– not the kind that keep dinner rolls warm or are delicately crocheted dainties for a lady’s hair– the other kind.

You know, the kind that cover training pants.

I actually like making pilchers, soakers, training pant covers and so on– they are cute (come on, anything that goes on a little kid is cute), they are reasonably simple, you can finish several in a day, they come in endless configurations, and you can use almost anything to make them. Use cotton ones to let the little wetter know they’ve wet, use wool ones to prevent open leakage, use acrylic ones for easy clean up, use a combo for night wear, and just have extras on hand.

I’m partial to actually sewing the training pant part and making the covers out of whatever interests me at the moment. I was cleaning up last night and found some bulky green acrylic that’s fairly soft so I knit up a cover. I think I might have just enough to make a second one.

I don’t have a pattern for the covers, I just knit the approximate shape and sew up the sides, or if I’m sewing I use an existing training pant for a guide. It’s kind of funny how much I originally fret over the fit of training pants and covers– only to figure out later that it doesn’t matter much; if they fit perfectly then the child won’t be able to pull them up or down, or said child will somehow manage to magically change shape in two weeks rendering all that careful fitting and measuring totally useless.

I also learned that any i-cord, braided yarn, and crocheted cord closures were less than ideal, mostly due to the fact that one handed untying of wet cord is not possible. I have maybe seven or eight vintage magazines with soaker patterns and all of them use a cord fashioned from matching yarn to hold the soaker or cover up.

I wonder how many mothers who innocently (like me) followed the directions for making those fancy cords with the adorable crocheted curliques on the ends, faithfully threaded them through the holes in the prescribed way only to end up severing the cord with nail clippers in a restaurant bathroom because the darned thing would not release the baby in a timely and reasonable manner?

Clearly the designers of those patterns had special children that do not pee.
It’s interesting too how the times have changed soaker fashion, there are some from the 40’s that have snaps or buttons and the waist goes nearly up under the armpits of the baby, others from the 60’s that look like the college wrestling outfits with suspenders, and the low rise cuts that are almost bikini like in the 70’s.

Even though I’m glad we’re on the final leg of the whole potty training thing, it makes me a little sad too. Lexi resembles a child much more than a baby now. She wants to dress herself and brush her own hair. She likes to pick things out for herself and put her toys away on her own. These training pant covers will probably be the last ones she needs me to make for her to wear. I know that she might want me to make a few for her dolls but that’s just not the same.

I’m on the 5th repeat of the 1st chart and through my first ball of yarn. I wasn’t sure how to join the second ball, since overlapping the two strands for a few inches seemed like it might work now then stand out when the shawl is blocked I grafted the two together ever so carefully, leaving just a little overlap that can be trimmed out after blocking if need be.
This part of the shawl is going fast. My husband is assisting by renting lots of CSI episodes from the last two seasons. CSI= knitting. Remember that, there may be a short quiz.

Opal (aka the Akamai Knitter) made my whole family the most delightful scarves for Christmas, the box was here earlier but I have been sick so haven’t had a chance to photograph everything. I am still sick so I haven’t indulged in the chocolate yet, but I’m wearing the kickass scarf she made for me. I promise I’ll post pictures of the scarves and the children modelling them. Yes, there is yarn too, of course there is yarn– Opal is a goddess of yarny goodness.

I’m knitting the Icarus shawl from the Interweave Knits Summer 2006 issue. So far I’m nearing completion of the first part of the first graph.

The yarn: Moorit Shetland fiber I bought through Little Barn that I spun up.

I finally finished knitting Josey’s blanket and it’s waiting for me to seam the two panels together. I cast off the blanket in the wee hours of the morning and somehow managed to convince myself that I was too tired to sew up the blanket but not too tired to browse lace patterns. After sorting through patterns online the Icarus caught my eye– and lo! It is actually in one of the few Interweave Knits issues that I actually own.
I consider that a sign.

Okay, maybe not as impressive as a chorus of angels and a divine light cast down from heaven to illuminate the magazine. But a sign nonetheless.

The fact that I found the magazine, needles, and yarn in less than 10 minutes of looking only supports my faith that I am meant– destined to knit this shawl. Destiny cannot be ignored.