The machines require a fair bit to even a lot of oil to keep it running smoothly and crank on a steady hum! Up until recently, when MrB chose to use light coloured yarn for some solids to try out a new pattern, we did not think oil would get on the socks. Oh no! Will it come out of the socks when they are washed?
Well first of all let me tell you that it has been suggested to me, to wash all the socks by hand first in hot water and do 3-4 hot water rinses to get any wax and excess dye out. I have found that dark blues, reds, and oranges seem to have dye coming out in the wash water. I just keep rinsing until I see that the rinse water is all clear and clean. i usually end the whole washing process by giving one last cold rinse, wring them out as much as I can with getting most of the excess moisture out. I lay them flat to dry in front of the wood fire. The socks that MrB and I own from the ones he has cranked-out I usually just slip in the washer and dryer as I want to see how they do! There will be some customers who don't want to bother to hand wash their socks and lay them flat. Then there will be some who will take the utmost care is whatever they have do to preserve the life of their treasured socks. I have hand washed and machine washed and to date I have not noticed any shrinking or stretching in any of the socks we have made. We are using a varities of sock yarns. We have tried, Patons Kroys, Elann Sock it to Me, Confetti, Online, Phildar, Strumppfwolle and other sockenwolles unmarked, Savanna, Opal, Fortimissa, and soon to be trying Pro Lana and Regia also. So far good results with all of them washing and drying.
So the answer to the question of taking oil spots from light coloured and pale colours of yarn used for our socks, is that I have found squirting some dish washing soap/detergent on the spots that are oil spotted and give it a little elbow grease and washing them in the washer with some laundry soap and more dish soap did work for me. I did not put these socks in the dryer , I Iet them dry flat on a towel in front of the wood fire. I usually like to turn them at least once so the moister side gets some heat too! We have vanilla and pale pink sock pairs and the vanilla ones were covered in oil, but thankfully they did all come clean in the wash! Phew, what a nice relief..... I was worried as they weren't even MY size!
So the moral of that story is ......Dish Soap seems to do the trick! I wanted to add this as another tidbit to help anyone out who is also faced with this in their sock- making learning curve. I have posted this question on the EG sock group so I will see what others have to say also about removing Oil spots! If there is another common agent used to bring success I will certainly update you here! Happy Cranking and Happy Oil Spot Washing too!
msb from Socks Made On 88
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