Round and round...

I love swatches.

I love knitting swatches of all those stitches in all those stitch directories.

I love swatching the same swatches with different yarn over again.

Its like making a little knit puzzle. All those little swatches... some with texture and some with holey little figures and some with stitches that go this way and that. Shuffling them around to see who would like to sit next to who.

So I knit a few new swatches yesterday and spent a little time in the evening preparing them to be gauge swatches.

I soaked them gently in luke warm water (a gave them a little swish) and wool wash.

Now, after you soak swatches or knitted items you need to remove as much as water as you can to help them dry quicker. I'll tell ya, I'm not a big fan of the "roll in a towel" method. I just don't like squishing my knitting. It just seems so brutal. I prefer to give it a spin in the washing machine on gentle cycle for a minute or so.

But for wee swatches the trip to the basement to have a ride in the big scary washing machine just seems like overkill so I would give in and roll them in a towel and apologize for squishing them.

That is, until I got this...

Its a Pampered Chef Salad & Berry spinner (fall 2008 catalog page 23) but I prefer to call it the Swatch Spinner 2000. Isn't it cute!

Makes it easy to wash salad, berries, and knit swatches and spins the water out of 'em quickly and easily. No more limp lettuce, soggy berries or squished swatches.

Wanna see?

Just toss 'em in the spinner and put the lid on nice and tight...

Press the handle down a time or 2 and watch the fun... weeeee.......

Hey, you guys okay in there...

See, nice and dry but not squished even a little!

So to recap today's lesson:
-spinning is better than squishing.
-multitasking kitchen gadgets rule.
-wash and block your swatches to check gauge before trying to make an entire sweater or other giant knitted item that is supposed to fit when its done!

PS... I'm think'in I deserve some extra Pampered Chef points or discounts or something for this.

Comments

[Debbie]

Love that creative thinking!

[Lauren]

The salad spinner is a fun idea!

I like to place my small knitted items on a cooling rack after washing them. I theorize that the better air circulation helps speed the drying process. Plus if I get impatient I can place the cooling rack on top of an air vent. :D

[bezzie]

See now I'm of the camp that would rather be violently hugged than ride the tilt o'whirl. So thus I do unto my knitting ;-)

Although that salad spinner does look like fun to work!