Sing Ho! for Water and Soap

Dave, I should have included washing instructions with my first post. As a person who wears wool and dresses my children in it, I sometimes forget that not everybody is willing, or will remember, to use unusual care in washing.

To answer the question in your comment, BOO is made of wool, silk, and mohair. Though it won't need cleaning often (wool self-cleans) it will be dry clean or "hand wash cold lay flat to dry". If it's put in the washing machine it will felt, which means irreversibly shrinking to doll size.

Here are the washing instructions for each design in the yarn called for:

1. Reid - knit in Patons Grace 100% mercerised cotton, yarn cost approximately $25 Hand wash lukewarm, lay flat to dry.

2. Boo - knit in Noro Silk Garden 45% silk 45% mohair, 10% wool, yarn cost approximately $70 Dry clean, or handwash cold with care, lay flat to dry.

3. Pinwheel - knit in Elann's Peruvian Highland 100% wool, yarn cost $20 Hand wash cold, dry flat. (Note: I found out the yarn cost - not $45, as I had estimated, but around $20.)

4. Drifting - knit in DK weight superwash wool, yarn cost approximately $50 Machine wash cold, lay flat to dry.

5.Secret Garden - knit in Alice Starmore Hebridean 3-ply 100% wool, yarn cost approximately $70 Hand wash, lay flat to dry.

I can substitute washable yarns for the ones given in the patterns, though. BOO is the only design which really couldn't be made in a different yarn while preserving the look of the sweater as given. All of the others can easily be made machine-washable, though they will all still be "dry flat".

So don't let it bring you down - I'll take care of it.