aran knitting question?

Question

i enjoy knitting aran sweaters but find it awkward to handwash would dry cleaning be
allright thank you

Answer 1

Check the label on the yarn. Some say "do NOT dry clean". I have started using acrylic yarn for this very reason. There are also some very nice wool/acrylic blends. The Aran patterns are gorgeous, aren't they?

Answer 2

If you're handwashing these sweaters in the sink and then trying to get them to dry, I wholeheartedly agree with you, it's a major PITA. You can have them dry cleaned, but the chemicals involved may damage your fibers. Keep a yarn label to ensure that the yarn is dry cleanable. However, I wash all my woolens, including heavy sweaters and afghans at home (and I'm a big lady) and have them finished and dry in a day or two. What I do is this: fill my washer with warm water (ok, everybody stop shuddering and screaming here, I've been knitting a long time), add two or three tablespoons of wool wash (I prefer Eucalan or Mountain Wool Wash because they don't have to be rinsed out), agitate the machine for a moment to mix it in. If I have a number of small items--baby sweaters, socks, shawls, and such--I put them in lingerie bags, afghans and larger sweater can go in the machine directly. Push them under the water--wool does not absorb water easily. Now agitate the machine again for only about 30 seconds to really wet things. Turn the machine off and walk away for at least half an hour, if not longer. When this time has passed, go back to your machine, advance the settings to a final spin or spin only cycle and spin the water out. Take a clothes dryer rack (get one of these at the hardware store) and lay some towels across the top rungs outdoors, preferably, out of the direct sun, but where there's a breeze, for sweaters and lay the sweater out flat on this (towels on lower racks for kids or baby sweaters, scarves, etc. are good to dry multiple things, socks hang over the rungs), patting it out into shape. If the weather is wet or too cold for this, put the rack indoors over a heat vent or with a fan up on some books laid on its side and turned on low to blow air up into the rack. Things generally dry within 24 to 36 hours, even heavy stuff. Shawls and stoles knit from wool need to be blocked. I, personally, wash these so that I can pin them out to block on my bed before I go to work, or on a long afternoon. Stretch and pin them directly onto the mattress (people also pin them to their rugs, or on styrofoam board, or rubber floor mats) and let them dry, even worsted weight yarns in stretched shawls dry in a few hours.

Answer 3

If you are using wool, drycleaning once in a while should be ok but it will also remove any of the remaining lanolin in the fiber. Unfortunately, handwashed sweaters take forever to dry, unless you have a good screen or something they can be blocked on so air circulates better. I have to lay mine out on the dining table and my cats won't leave them alone...so they end up with kitty fuzz on them too.

Answer 4

Ummm - none of us can possibly know the answer to that. What's it made from? Depending on the material you might even be able to machine wash gently.

Check the ballband of the yarn you used to knit it. If you don't have it, check with the manufacturer.