Felted Fishtrap

I would very, very much like to see Sarah / Blue Garter's Fishtrap (Tuesday, March 06, 2007), but try as I might I can't get her pictures to load. (It must be my @#$% dial-up connection. Ugh.)

Until I read Sarah's post, I didn't know that the Fishtrap January sweater was "the spark for the whole Zimmermania project." So I am thankful to it for that. I am also personally attached to the pattern because it was my second sweater ever, my first Aran sweater and my first EZ project.

But I have a sad tale to tell.

In knitting the Fishtrap, I learned much: my first twisted stitches, my first knitting in the round, the first (and only?) time I CUT knitting.

I finished at last and wore the sweater proudly--until I got lipstick on the neckband.

As a newbie knitter, I really didn't understand wool. I tossed that Fishtrap in a washing machine (on cold/delicate), and blithely let her go.

And what came out was not what went in.



It was thicker and smaller and very, very felted.

(I hope I am not the only one to have ever done this to a beloved piece of knitting.)

I couldn't bear to throw it out.

It sat in my closet for years--until the trend of closer-fitting tops and my low-carb diet made it possible for me to wear it again.

So I can and do wear it now--but only in certain conditions. This felted Fishtrap is such a WARM garment that I can only wear it when I will be spending time outside on a cool day--on a walk in the woods or in a barn. Otherwise, it sits on the shelf, a reminder that I must ALWAYS handwash. (Thank God for Eucalan!)