After waxing nostalgic with my wedding dress, it's time to come back to reality. And what better way to come back to reality than with laundry?

Now that I'm knitting children's socks and feel a little bit like a sweatshop I have found that I am hand washing those socks frequently. Luckily, socks are small and can be easily washed in the sink I have in my laundry room. Most of these socks can be machine washed, but a couple pairs of hand-wash only have snuck in. I want my kids to see me hand wash these things so they become familiar with this habit later (assuming they will continue to wear hand knits).

First, you need to make sure you separate the socks from the rest of the laundry. This batch has seven socks so I suspect I failed step one. Fill up a sink with water that's about body temp. There are all sorts of wool washes on the market but I just pump in a few squirts of hand soap because it's there--my wool wash lives by my bathtub where I wash my nicer and larger knitwear.



Gently swill the socks around until they are saturated. You can leave them and forget about them but eventually you need to come back and gently squeeze the socks and try to get some of the dirt out--these are boys' socks after all.

Speaking of which the next picture is so disturbing it may turn you off to boy children for the rest of your life.



Seven socks' worth of grime. I bet you didn't know little feet could produce that much nastiness. No, it's not dye from some of the yarn, the water always looks like this (for socks). You'll want to do a good and thorough rinse, with body temp water.

What I Made:

Seven clean socks sitting by the fireplace. Getting nice and dry for another round.



I did eventually find the eighth sock.

Part II of I Made My Wedding Dress will be back tomorrow.