The first one was easy. Cascade 220 is very clean, fluffy, well-groomed wool. It has nice stitch definition and feels lofty without a lot of messing about. I steam-blocked to get my stitches to relax and take on the shape of a finished blanket.
The second is not so easy. Beaverslide already smells a little sheepy, which I personally like. I will not like it so much if it is hot and damp all over my bed. Even Cascade gets a little sheepy when steamed but this would be intense. Also, it has a lot of lanolin that seems to be holding the fibers together like.. pomade. I can't describe it properly, but it feels a little crisp and a little greasy, although the yarn is lofty and looks good. Lanolin keeps the sheep warm and dry and they don't look unkempt in their natural state, but it does do something to the yarn. In a blanket that will hopefully be cuddled, I'd like to reduce the waterproofing and increase the smooshy love.
So, before throwing my hard work into a tub of water and ruining it somehow, I swatched. I made a nice rectangle and soaked it in tepid water with a little Ivory soap. I thought this might help break up the fatty lanolin and help remove vegetable matter. I rinsed and rinsed until it was clear and then soaked it again in a tepid bath of Eucalan. Then I gently squeezed it out, rolled it in a towel and pinned it overnight.
The results are amazing. Photos don't capture it as well as I'd like, but it bloomed. The left half of the photo is the washed swatch. It's soft, supple, fluffy and smooth. The right side is the unblocked blanket. It has very crisp stitch definition, but it's almost too crisp. With this tweedy wool, I think a smoother finish will actually show the texture better because the bloom plumps up the stitches and fills in the gaps.
And now for something completely different..
With all of this rain, we have some unusual first-time visitors to the yard. Two days in a row, they've been hanging out in the lawn.
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