How do you wash your Socks?
April 28, 2007This would be a silly question for most people. However, for those who knit and crochet socks, this question may have popped in your head from time to time.
Do you sort your socks so those that are superwash wool are separated from those that are not?
Do you wash them all together in the sink with wool wash or do you wash them separately? Do you wash hot, but not hot enough to felt? Warm? Tepid? Cool? Cold? Soap? Shampoo? Conditioner? (just curious here…) Wool Wash…Laundry detergent?
Do you (GASP) wash them in the washing machine?
Dare I ask how you dry them? Do you roll them in a towel? Spin them in the washer? Hang them?
So, tell me how you wash (and dry them.) Then, tell me any sock nightmares you have had, like accidental felting or sock bleeding or anything you would like to share.
I put them all in the sink in a warm wash with a little bit of wool wash, a little bit of baby shampoo (only because I have these little sample bottles from when the kids were babies that I didn’t use) and a little bit of lavender oil (because I love the smell.) I soak them for 30 minutes and then rinse them. I roll them in towels and then lay them flat on the backs of all of my chairs around the living room.
A couple of Madeleine’s socks have actually gone through the washer and dryer and came out perfectly fine. Those were the socks I made with leftover Trekking. Crazy, I know.
My mom washed her socks in her washer (front loader) on cold. The ones that were not superwash felted. The ones that were super wash remained fine.
I have a sock sack that I got from http://www.theloopyewe.com
I don’t use any yarn for socks that isn’t superwash because I am lazy. I don’t handwash because I am lazy. See a trend? lol
I toss all my socks in my bag. When they are all dirty, I toss them in my top loader on cold/cold on the handwash cycle (it’s very slow/slow for that setting) and use a tiny bit of wool soak that I also got from The Loopy Ewe.
Then I toss the bag in the dryer for like 5 minutes on the low setting, then hang the bag up to dry. Easy peasy. Super lazy.
The merino one’s you made me and all the others go into the washing machine on cold. It’s low agitiation and it’s fine-however, the KPPPM ones, go in the dryer on low, as do the tencel ones. Yours I shape and lay flat to dry.
Gee…I guess I better make a pair of socks, so I can answer the question. lol
I wash my superwash (plus Koigu) socks in the machine on warm, spin most of the water out, and then do the remaining drying either on racks (when I was back in Chapel Hill) or on the line in the basement (here in Winnipeg). They don’t look brand new, but they fit, and I wash them promptly this way.
(Once per week, rather than letting them collect dust until I get around to it.)