It’s quiet on the crafty front here these days. I did finish the socks above, and apart from my ongoing heel issue, they’re fine.
After wearing them for the first time, it looks like the yarn stretches a bit, but that’s alright. I’m curious to see how they’ll behave in/after the washing machine.
Which brings me to a topic I’ve been kicking around my brain for a while.
While I am deeply in love with many handspun, handdyed, and otherwise just fantastic artisan yarns, I have noticed that none of them deal well with being machine washed.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I didn’t know that before I chucked them in. It says on all labels very clearly handwash, dry flat.
But my life really doesn’t play well with hand washing things. There is the time factor, as a FT working person it’s hard enough to fit in some general cleaning/laundry/house-holdey activities without sacrificing all your free time, and hand washing my socks just isn’t in there.
So I’m now looking for alternatives, and I’d love to hear about your favorite, machine-washable sock yarns!
The Very Best Jumper 
Once you have a large enuf collection of HN socks you can put off washing for a couple or more weeks
Now that is a very good point!
And adding to Susan Moore above, you can also pop them into the wool wash cycle of your washing machine and that serves just as well as hand washing. Use a cold water wash if you are worried about shrinkage, but so far, my socks (and other hand knits) have held up well using this method.
I don’t hand wash anything, so socks must behave in a mesh bag in the washer. If not, be gone! The socks have lasted me the longest are Trekking and Regia, not the fancy, artisan brands but they are still kicking. I suspect it’s the 25% nylon that holds up best.
Yeah, I see myself moving towards using more yarn mixes for socks. I can still use the fancy-shmanzy artisan yarns for shawls and other knick-knacks.