I just finished knitting a cardigan in a light merino yarn. I washed it on the gentle cycle then ironed it while still slightly damp. The yarn relaxed so much that the sleeves are way too long now. I could always shorten them by unraveling about 25 rows on each sleeve but I wonder if there is a better way?
Cardigan stretched after blocking
Have you tried washing again, either by hand or machine and laying flat to dry?
What is the name of the merino yarn that you used?
Is it safe to assume you used superwash wool? To survive the washing machine I think you must have.
The yarn is Fyberspates Vivacious 4 Ply, 100% Merino Wool. I haven’t tried washing it again yet, I thought it was a good idea to seek advice first. It’s meant to be handwashed, but I thought the delicate cycle would be okay.
No it’s not superwash, it’s 100% merino. It survived the delicate cycle fine, apart from the stretching!
Beautiful yarn. What pattern did you use? I’m wondering if there’s lace or something that might contribute to stretching.
The pattern was Line Dance by Heidi Kerrmaier
The pattern calls for dk and the yarn you said you used is fingering. Did you adjust stitch counts for gauge or did you work the fingering to the stitch and row gauge given for dk? Looser gauge with fingering to achieve the numbers given could contribute to stretch. Is it just the sleeves that stretched in length?
I like this! I have to work out how to add those lines to my no pattern sweaters.
I know the yarn not what the pattern specified, but I had the merino already and this was about the right amount of yarn. I worked the figering to the stitch and row guage. It knitted up quite well and after washing it looked better with loosening up. The whole cardigan expanded in fact, but that actually turned out to be a good thing except for the sleeves!
It’s beautiful yarn and pattern. Even the gentle cycle in a machine can be too much for yarns that aren’t superwash. You were very lucky this time. I’m not so daring with my hand knit sweaters.
There’s going to be a lot of stretch in this pattern because of the garter stitch. To me, the easiest thing to do is soak and lay out to block and dry completely. If that doesn’t work, then consider shortening the sleeves. Because it’s top-down, that may be relatively easy to do.
Potentially you could wash the cardigan again, lay it out to the desired measurements, and then very carefully blow-dry the sleeves on a low setting (warm air, not hot, and not holding hair-dryer close to the fabric).
I have done this with ribbing that had lost its oomph after washing, and it did help a bit to “set” the fabric to the smaller circumference.
But you would have to do this every time you washed it, and you might find that when you wear the cardigan those 25 rows would hang down too long again after a few hours.
Garter stitch stretches a lot in almost any fibre.
I have no advice for the current project, but for the future, it’s good to wash and block your swatch prior to knitting, to see how much it grows. Then hang it to dry, perhaps even weighting it slightly with clothespins or binder clips, to see how it will behave when worn.
Thank you. I was concerned about machine washing it, but the yarn description on the Fybesrpates site said Machine wash at 40 ° C on wool cycle. I have never knitted anything entirely in garter stitch, which is what this is apart from the i-cord edges. It really does stretch out more than rib!
With the new info I’m thinking you’ll need to take out some rows on the sleeves. GS does stretch and as already stated you might block it to the correct length then have it stretch again when worn. I think I’d consider changing to a smaller needle for the bottom rows but that’s without seeing what the pattern looks like so totally FWIW.
Ah, so it did say machine wash. In that case, it’s probably superwash treated. Superwash-treated yarns and merino and garter stitch all tend to stretch.
Sometimes people put superwash garments in the dryer to get them back to size after washing, but that should be done very cautiously, and tested on a swatch first.
And if I read correctly you were happy with a bit of extra room in the body, so the dryer technique would not be helpful this time.
I bet your cardigan is a pretty (or bold or subtle) colour with Fyberspates wool
I did what you suggested and soaked it, the lay it flat on a towel outside to dry out. Miraculously it helped! The sleeves are still a bit on the long side but not enough to justify unpicking it. I wasn’t looking forward to that, especially with the i-cord edge. Overall the cardigan looks better than it did yesterday. Thank you all for your help.
Thanks for the advice. Re-soaking helped enormously, the sleeves are still long but acceptable as they are! It looks good now, knitted in the Spiced Plum colour.
Thank you for the advice, I will remember that for next time.
The lines are made by just slipping one stitch on the wrong side of a row.
It’s such a pretty pattern in garter stitch. Enjoy every moment wearing it!