Some time back I promised someone that I would post my experiment but I can’t recall who it was, but first a little background.

I’m like Hermione, a mud-blood of the knitting world. I have muggle parents and as such I didn’t come armed with a team of aunts, grandmothers or moms to inform me all about the ins and outs of knitting. I am a self-taught knitter. A book-taught knitter to be exact. Sure, my grandmother taught me how to crochet many moons ago, but to this very day she doesn’t follow written patterns. She found her groove and has stuck with the same pattern and yarn she lhas lovingly recreated for years. So when I determined that I was going to knit come hell or high water I knew I was mentor-less. My first lesson: learning on one’s own isn’t for sissies. If you make a mistake you might just turn yourself into a cat! Not really, but you will make some decisions that years later will have you scratching your head wondering, WTF? The upside is that learning the hard way is at least good for a laugh.

So not long after I taught myself the basics from a used 70’s era booklet I knew I was going to need reinforcements which is what led me, like many other’s to buy Debbie Stroller’s Stitch and Bitch–a beacon to all newbies. From there I started searching the web and connecting with a world full of knitters…my people, and after much misspent laundry time lurking on message boards I learned alot. I noticed there were alot of yarns people were wont to avoid due to their inclination to pill. Maybe they didn’t avoid the yarns completely, but they certainly kept their distance for specific items such as sweaters. Well we all know most well-loved sweaters will eventually delevop ugly little pills under the arms, and possibly in the chest or tummy area for those of us with fabulous curves. So If you aren’t keen to invest in a sweater stone, and would sooner shave your cat than a sweater, avoidance has been the most logical option.  With all the trust of a wet behind the ears novice I followed the advice of these more experienced knitters. I mean who am I to debate their obvious wisdom?

As you all know by now, the nearest LYS is a hour drive into Houston which is certainly doable, but not for a newbie who is skeptical about natural fibers due to a misguided fear of pilling. The way a saw it was that if I was going to take the time to make a sweater and it was going to get all ugly and pilly anyway, then I might as well use the many acrylics and acrylic blends available at my local Hobby Lobby. I mean who wants to drop a stack of bills on a project that is going to look terrible in no time? At least if I bought inexpensive yarn I wouldn’t cry when I had to send it off to Goodwill, right?  And besides, how could I be missing anything by not knitting with natural fibers- I live on the Texas coast for Chrissakes!

Okay, stop laughing. I did warn you, after all.

So I rocked along and knit not one but many squeaky acrylic sweaters before I decided that my theory was crap. I had to get my hands on real honest to goodness carbon based fibers. I was dreaming of alpaca and merino, cashmere and good old fashioned wool. So I thought about it and decided that I had better go back to basics. I consulted Madam Stroller’s guide and opted for a back to basics wool as my intro…I was so excited and went to my mailbox everyday until it finally arrived. I tore open the box like a kid on Christmas and like so many others I put that wooly ball right up to my cheeck…ACK! it is scratchy! Nobody said it was supposed to be scratchy. Now what am I gonna’ do? Well, back to the books and internet until I found what was to become one of my favorite fibers…soft, buttery, wicked soft merino which sad to say has a tendency to pill. Since we have already established that I am addicted to soft fibers and it is an established fact that these soft fibers are the worst at pilling, I had to find a solution. So I was scouring the internet and stumbled across a possible cure for pilling. At the very least we’ll call it an anti-pilling aid. Supposedly adding glycerin to your rinse water would alleviate or greatly reduce the yarn’s tendency to pill.

So what does any self-respecting soft yarn lover do? That’s right, I took myself down to my local Hobby Lobby and scoured the aisles. First I asked someone who sent me to the cake decorating aisle. Well I located a bottle of Glycerine and scratched my head thinking, “This can’t possibly be what I’m supposed to buy,” so I put the very small 5 dollar bottle down and kept looking. I eventually made it a few rows down to where the candle and soap making supplies are and I found this. The bottle was much larger for less money so it’s the one I bought. Hey, I’m nothing if not a thrifty gal. So I took it home and went ahead and researched a bit more. Glycerol is a moisturising agent used in just about everything. In baked goods it is used to keep the icing from crystallizing and in soaps it is used to moisturize, duh, so technically either product would have been right. So I proceeded with my experiment. I prepared to wash my 100% alpaca jacket and added a capful  of glycerin. The lady who recommended the remedy said 2-3 drops, but I always say if less is more, then more is certainly better. so I blocked it as I would any knitted piece and used a spray bottle with more of my glycerine spiked water to target areas I knew would be prone to pills. I didn’t think I was going to have a chance to test this out until next winter, but Texas did get a pretty serious cold spell last week and I was happy to hang out in my new jacket for most of that front. Here is what I discovered:

After probably three straight days of throwing this on everytime I went out, wearing it inside because it was too soft to take off, and tossing it on my chair when I did remove it only for Beauregard to nap on it, this is how it looks from afar. Those little areas marked by the arrows that look uneven were slubs in the yarn. Just wanted to clarify. I’m nothing if not thorough!

Here is a close up shot of the underarms. Not a pill one. There were a couple of little fluff floufs that brushed off immediately.                                                  

This was the only evidence of anymore fluffy-floufs. I marked them with the red arrows but they are still difficult to see. So as far as I can tell, adding glycerin to your handknit’s rinse water really makes a difference and targeting the pill-prone areas with some glycerin-punch-in-a-bottle is extra insurance. FYI- I have also tried this method with other handknits I own and it seems to work with merino, wool, and cotton blends.