1: Choosing Patterns,
Yarns & Size (cont.)
Can I press or iron this?
Check the instructions for pressing or ironing. I will call it
ironing.
Look at the photograph of the garment you have chosen to make. If
common sense shows that it will need to be ironed, don’t waste your
time with a yarn that has a warning against ironing, unless you test
it first. The warning is there for a reason. It means that if you
try to iron it, even with a cool iron, or a damp cloth, the knitting
could shrivel into a smelly, gluggy mess, or stretch into huge
floppy stitches with the thread flattened, or shrunk to the
thickness of a human hair. Lovely textures can collapse and
disappear as the yarn sets with heat and becomes smooth and stiff
(see here).
Ironing symbols usually look like this and are easy to understand:
 |
Do not iron |
 |
Cool iron |
 |
Medium iron |
 |
Hot iron |
How can I clean this?
If the information suggests dry cleaning instead of washing,
especially if you have chosen a very pale colour, decide if you want
a garment you have to mollycoddle (see
here).
Even if the yarn can be washed, when you are knitting several
colours together (as in stripes) do try a sample first.
Here are a few examples of washing instruction symbols:
 |
Hand wash |
 |
Machine wash at
stated temperature |
 |
Machine wash at
stated temperature |
 |
Do not wash |
Some ball bands also show a symbol regarding
bleaching, but this doesn’t apply very often to hand knitted
garments. Perhaps a tennis sweater with mango stains?
 |
Do not use chlorine
bleach |
 |
Follow instructions
to use chlorine bleach |
How should I dry this?
These symbols show the suggested
method of drying:
 |
Can
be machine dried |
 |
Dry flat |
 |
Drip dry |
 |
Line dry |
What about dry cleaning?
These are the most common forms of drying.
However, there are other methods that can help you when you are
drying knitted garments (see here).
If you have to, or prefer to dry clean a garment, check the ball
bands to see what sort of dry cleaning is recommended. Some yarns
react badly to certain solvents, and there will be a warning symbol
about this.
If you intend to dry clean a garment and it has particular
requirements, save a ball band to show to the dry cleaner.
Here are some common dry cleaning symbols and their meanings:
 |
Do
not dry clean |
 |
Any dry cleaning
solvent |
 |
Any solvent except
trichlorethylene |
 |
Fluorocarbon or
petroleum solvents only |
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