Friday, May 30, 2008

(Handknit) Laundry Day

What's a knitter to do when the water that comes out of the tap is hot enough to burn, and the clothes are always steamy when they come out of the washing machine?

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A lot of hand washing! (and yes, these are the clothes I was using when I was in Canada in March. It takes a lot of effort to get me to do hand washing.)

Normally I try to do the easiest thing possible and put things in the washing machine on a gentle cycle and cold water. I don't normally have a problem.

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But in Khartoum, our water comes from the Nile and is stored in tanks on the roof of the building before we use it. (I've hypothesized that it both allows sediment to settle out of the water and ensures a basic supply is available when the electricity goes off, but I'm not certain why it's done this way.) The problems is that the tanks are black, and so as soon as we use up the water that's in the pipes inside the building, we're using water superheated by the sun. In this country, solar water heating works too well for most of the year. Given that any agitation would lead to felting of most of these items, I hand wash.

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In an unrelated story, has anyone seen Willie Nelson's Ballband Dishcloth hat in the video for "I am a worried man?"

1 comment:

Shan said...

Water heating - neat.

No, I haven't seen the dishcloth hat because I stay as far away from Willie Nelson as possible. But I'll check it out now.