Have You Put Your Sweaters Away for the Season?

My guess would be that for most people in the Northern Hemisphere, we are coming out of sweater season. Through the cold weather I don’t wash my sweaters every time I wear them (because they don’t need it) but it’s always a good idea to make sure everything is clean before you store them away for months. Sweat and skin particles on your sweaters can attract bugs, and it’s just nice to know when sweater season comes around again that everything is fresh and clean.

If you happen to have a top-loading washing machine, it’s actually really easy to bulk wash your handknit (or storebought but in need of hand washing) sweaters. Hunter Hammersen has a very detailed description of how she does this on her Patreon (you can view it even if you are not a supporter). I think this is brilliant, and if I still had a machine like this I would definitely do it this way.

I don’t though, so I use buckets. I have a bunch of five gallon buckets, though I still tend to only wash one sweater at a time. I fill them with lukewarm water and a couple of pumps of baby shampoo (if it’s good enough for human hair it’s good enough for sheep hair). Then I add the sweater and let it sit 20 minutes or so.

I drain the water and rinse in the sink, then press out as much water as I can by hand and then by rolling the sweater in a towel.

I have enough drying racks that I can wash four or five sweaters in a day, so working around drying times and when I need my dining room table, it takes a few weeks to clean everything at the end of the season. But it’s really satisfying when you know everything is clean.

Do you have a system for washing sweaters and other cold-weather stuff at the end of the season? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Hunter Hammersen.]

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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