An Experiment.

I found yarnstorm via another blog I read.   It’s a good blog - lots of pictures.  In any case, she knit a pair of socks out of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, in the Birch colorway.   It’s a really nice colorway.   But, after she washed them, they got all muddy looking.  Cherry Tree Hill then goes on to give not exactly fabulous customer service, which causes a big Internets furor, ending with a Cherry Tree Hill boycott.

Well, I happen to own a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Birch.  And, I have size 6 feet, so I don’t need all 400 yards to make a pair of socks.   So, I decided to do an experiment.  I knit three swatches on size 3 needles (a bit too loose for socks, but I was impatient).  One swatch, I kept as a control - it was not washed.   The second swatch I washed according to the instructions on the yarn label.   I gave the third swatch to Kevin, the FEE-AN-CE, to wash.

Speaking of Kevin, did you know that he can’t tell the difference between wool and cotton socks, and as such, keeps putting my wool socks in the dryer?  He’s so lucky he’s so gosh darn cute.

Here are the results!  This picture was taken in the car this morning while we were waiting for the train to show up.

Kevin washed his swatch with colors, in warm water.  I washed mine in cold water with whites.  I found that I didn’t get much color bleeding in general.   Both the Cold and Warm swatches did get fuzzier, and there might have been a bit of fading.  I can’t tell if the fading is from the dye actually fading out, or just because the surface is fuzzier.

Also, I think my birches is not as white as yarnstorm’s, based on her pictures.  It’s a little hard to tell.   I did find that washing in warm water did seem to have the most fuzzing and fading.   I also found that when washed in warm water, the swatch became significantly larger, especially in length.   It turns out that when you wash superwash wool in general, it tends to grow.   I honestly had no idea.   The cold water swatch did not grow much in size.

So, why did yarnstorm see fading and muddiness, and I didn’t?   Well, one reason may be because I’m dealing with a small swatch, so there’s less free dye to wander around and attach back on the light colored bits.  Also, some folks have theorized that detergent is stronger in the UK - I used Liquid Tide Free.  Perhaps she got a “bad batch”.  So, I don’t think this proves anything one way or the other.

It did teach me the importance of washing my handknit socks in cold water, that’s for sure.