The Week in Knit 2! - Soak!

This week's feature is Soak!
Soak is a rinse-free care product for fibers and delicate (or not so delicate) clothing!

Here's how to use it:

1. Step one. Dirty up your favorite pair of socks. I wore these yesterday at work, and then slept in them too :)


2. Step two. Put garment in cool water. Pour 1 teaspoon of soak per gallon of water. Since I just use my sink, I just drizzle a bit in. Make sure your garments are completely submerged.


3. Step three. Wait 15 minutes. Watch TV, knit, play with your cat. Whatever you want!


4. Step four - gently squeeze out the excess water. Take pride in your icky water! That's all the dirt you got out!


5. Step Five. You can lay flat to dry, though I prefer to hang my socks on sock blockers to help them keep their shape (and I think they dry faster that way too).





Jacqueline, the founder of Soak, was kind enough to answer a few questions about it!

Is there anything you can't use Soak for?

You can use Soak to clean any delicate fibers that you aren't afraid to get wet. For example, we often get calls about historical and vintage textiles. Our general rule is that if you are comfortable putting the textile/ garment in water, then you can clean it gently with Soak. If you aren't going to get it wet (for example, we had a call about a Confederate Flag), don't wash it in Soak, or anything else. In addition, Soak isn't designed to get out rough and tough stains like grass stains. It is a gentle, premium formulation designed for delicate fibers.

Don't forget you CAN use Soak in your HE washing machine on the delicate cycle. Follow your machine's instructions. At my house, anything that doesn't go in the dryer, gets washed on the delicate cycle with Soak.

Your first blog post is from November of 2008. When did you start Soak and how did it start out?

Soak evolved over time from 2004-2006 when it launched at TNNA, the Needle Arts trade show. Soak was originally designed as a wool wash for my previous company, Jacqs-Hats. (www.jacqs-hats.com) We were selling upscale knits with fine fibers and didn't find that any of the products on the market were good enough quality for the knits we were producing. Soak was supposed to just be a secondary product to go along side the knits. Then, we realized that the quilter's needed a better wash, and then later on, that the lingerie and swimwear markets could also benefit from Soak.

How did Ravelry and the explosion of online knitting shops impact Soak?

While the growth of the on line knitting shop was certainly helpful to our brand, we launched long before with traditional retail shops. For us, the greatest impact is from a new customer actually trying Soak. Once you try Soak, you won't go back to your old wash, be it a wool wash, or a lingerie wash. So, while the Internet did allow for greater reach geographically, Soak samples have been spreading through the community for several years now. There's also a standard adoption rate with products. People (consumers, shop owners) need to see a product around for awhile before they are willing to try it, invest in it, switch to it. Combine that with the fact that we launched a new brand from nothing to international in a few short years, and we're quite pleased with our reach.

Working with Ravelry to design Unleash and the Creative Juices yarn collection was indeed fun. It's great to collaborate within the community to raise the standard on product design, graphic design and innovation.

Do you have anything else you'd like to mention?
We've launched a new travel kit, Seven mini-soaks in a pack- one for each day of the week, plus Carrie + Phil, our new wash basins for hand-washing. You can also check out the blog for more uses for Soak


Thanks again Jacqueline for the information!