Traveling Duster

I have in fact made progress on my Tilted Duster, finishing both fronts last week. I'm past all the increases on my first sleeve, which made it pretty easy train knitting during a trip this weekend.



(I never realized I look so somber when I knit.)

I didn't knit for very long because I was exhausted and ended up napping, so I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm very glad to have gotten over whatever angst I had toward this sweater.

I'm cranky because I stayed in a house full of people smoking cigarettes (the co-ed frat/sorority literary society I belonged to in college), so everything in my suitcase now reeks. I've always been really sensitive about smoking anyway, but knowing it was effecting my hand-knits was making me batty.

I am just about up to seaming the pieces together before picking up stitches for the collar and skirt (well, one sleeve away anyway), so I've been subconsciously worrying this whole time.

I've always suspected that I could use embroidery floss or similar to sew up a sweater instead of yarn, and The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques confirmed that for me, so I ordered some dark brown DMC cotton to seam with.

I read on Ravelry that I must take care to pre-wash the thread so that it doesn't shrink or stretch differently from the yarn in the sweater (which would result in puckery or gapping seams). If anyone has recommendations on how to wash small skeins of embroidery floss besides my "dunk it in the sink and swish it around, then spread on a towel to dry" plan, I'd really appreciate it.