washing on the line

Woollies washing is so very satisfying. Especially with a fancy-pants washing machine with a "woolens" cycle!

Watching my Mum hand-wash our lovingly hand-knitted woolen jerseys in the kitchen sink, gently wringing them out in a towel and laying them flat to dry on an airing rack is one of the joyful peaceful memories of my childhood. She used to derive such a lot of satisfaction from it, that the happy-vibes were contagious.

However, I know from experience that if I plan to hand-wash my woollies then they just never get washed. They pile up in that "oh, I'll get around to it when I have time" corner of the wash-house. So I'm grateful for a machine that can be gentle with my lovingly-made handknits, and I'm grateful for the new blends of wool with a touch of synthetic that don't felt and shrink in the machine.

And also grateful for this tip about hanging them on the line with pantyhose! This is something that my Mum didn't teach me, and I learned out of a book. It's great. They get to blow around in the wind and fresh air, they dry much faster than when laid flat on a towel, and they don't stretch. The three jerseys of Miss1 you see there are threaded end-on-end through 1 pair of pantyhose, the pantyhose being the bit that is pegged to the line.

I never wear pantyhose, so I'm also grateful for these cast-offs of my mother's. I figured that no-one else was going to wear second-hand pantyhose, so I put them to good use.

And I thought they looked so pretty in the sunshine that I just had to take a picture.