Care and Feeding of a UtiliKilt

[Nick]

I do hang dry mine, but the Mocker dries almost overnight, and the original is comperable in material, I believe. The Workmans takes a bit longer, but still pretty quick. I barely ever have to iron them, if I do it's usually the Workmans because if it takes a crease it really holds onto it! But the Mocker rearely needs any special treatment.

[Pleater]

Different dryers must have different ferocities - mine is a UK bought Bosch and it just put what looks like a large bite from a reptile across the front of a good white cotton tee. :sad:

It is not usually so detructive - but it is obviously fiercer than the average dryer.

I have a separate spin dryer which I use when dyeing cloth and yarn, and I have used that on the heavier cotton kilts.

With so much dosh being shelled out for the kilts perhaps a separate spinner would be an advantage. As long as the spin time is limited to less than a couple of minutes and the kilt is carefully folded and laid around the drum I would think the process would not harm a delicate kilt - though a really old and heavy wool I would fold, slide into a pillow case or wrap in a cloth and then roll before spinning.

Excess water spins out of wool quickly - cotton requires longer.

Wool actually feels dry when it is still holding a lot of water - and it goes warm when it is wet - I don't know how, but I do know it swells up and absorbs the dampness. I have natural untreated wool jerseys which I wear/wore when walking or sailing and when dry they let the air through, when wet they are windproof. By untreated I mean they would shrink if not washed carefully, moths would happily raise their young in them, and they are a sort of sheepish light cream rather than white.

Sorry to go on but it is my 'thing' - natural fibres that is.

I have been processing cloth and yarn for a very long time now - four decades maybe, though this kilt thing has only bitten recently - I am losing weight, so I thought 'I know, I can make a kilt - it is only a wrap around skirt after all' (sigh, little did I know) and now I have two new ones to wear and two to rework and at least four lots of material waiting to be made up.

I will have to do what I can on the sewing machine and wait a while to do more hand sewing - I have kilt sewer's thumb - I wonder if I can adapt a metal guitar pick....

Pleater