Round the Bend

One short side of the stole is now complete and I've rounded the second corner and done around 6 repeats. Corners are harder than the sides to do because each stole stitch is knitted into twice with the edging and the edging stitches really like to try to escape from the dpns. It looks ok, the real test will be when it gets washed and blocked. The ball band says dry clean only, but silk's been around a lot longer than dry cleaners, and I hate dry cleaning. Besides, dry cleaners don't have a clue about blocking. Yesterday the didn't behave at all well, so it's in time-out in my knitting bag.


I like to wash my FOs and then block. I generally don't block the pieces and then sew up, although I probably should as it would make it easier to sew, but my logic (such as it is) is that I'm going to be handling the sweater and getting it dirty again, so do the wash and block all at once. I don't pin anything except shawls, either. Sweaters get washed and patted into shape. I'm really considering using superwash for sweaters instead of regular wool, so that I can machine wash them. Laziness abounds, but honestly I don't have the time to wash sweaters. I have Cascade superwash in plum for Rogue and will see how that works out. On the other hand, I adore wool, so I won't quit using it, and I don't think outer sweaters (as opposed to sweater tops) need to be washed every time they are worn. I only use superwash for socks, though - I will NOT handwash socks!