As promised, I wanted to share a few tips to help those of you who are venturing into knitting with linen. This yarn is spun from a plant fiber so it isn't forgiving the way wool is. No worries! If you work with it correctly you'll still achieve beautiful finished garments.
1. Joining a new ball: You want to be mindful of not running out of yarn on the front or back centers of any pieces. When starting a new ball, do so at the side seam or some other inconspicuous spot. To join the new ball, knit the next stitch with the tail of the previous ball and the new ball held together. This will secure the yarn - you can now proceed with the new ball. If it's still feeling unsecured you could temporarily knot the two strands.
2. Duplicate stitch: You'll want to weave your ends in using a duplicate stitch on the WS to make sure those ends won't be visible from the front. Here Jerusha demonstrates how this is done, tracing the yarn through the purl bumps:
3. Washing: Yes, I say washing instead of blocking because unlike wool, you can throw you're linen garment right into the washer and then DRYER and it won't shrink. In fact, the fabric will be all the softer for it. Below, the hand washed and dried swatch is on the top, the machine washed and dried swatch on the bottom. Go ahead and conduct you're own swatch wash test if you're nervous about laundering your entire garment. I do like to pull the piece out of the dryer while it's still a little bit damp, not all the way dry.
If you've been hesitant to try linen, I hope this post will empower you to give it a try. Any other questions? Feel free to leave a comment below and we'll see if we can help.
