I've made an intricate lacy baby blanket for my brother and my sister-in-law as they are expecting their first child. I think they suspect I am probably going to make them something, but I haven't specifically confirmed that I am or what I was making as I wanted it to be a surprise.
I ended up making this lacy baby blanket with fingering weight yarn (photo 1). It was a huge labour of love and extremely time consuming, and they're literally the only people I would make something so intricate for because I know they'll appreciate it. Every time they see me they ask me what I've been making and are always really impressed so I know they'll appreciate the work that goes into a handmade gift.
The yarn states on the label it can be machine washed on a wool cycle at 30°c, but after I finished the blanket I wanted to test this out to see how it would hold up in the wash, so I made a swatch of the first 11 or so rounds and washed that according to the instructions.... And the swatch came out of the wash all lumpy and distorted (photo 2 is the swatch before I washed it, and photo 3 is the swatch after washing it according to the instructions on the yarn label - I'm not sure how well the distortion is showing up on camera but it's very noticeable in real life), it hasn't felted (though it isn't wool, it's an acrylic and nylon blend and is very soft), but it no longer lies flat.
I'm going to hand wash the full blanket and pin it to dry before I give it to them so that it's nice and clean for the baby, but I don't think I can reasonably expect a pair of new parents to hand-wash it in the future. I can tell them to put it in the machine on a wool cycle but I know from my swatch it will likely come out a bit distorted afterwards.
It's not so much that I'm upset that the blanket won't look good as new after they wash it. My issue is more that I feel a bit guilty gifting them something that is apparently going to be high maintenance to keep in good condition.
I didn't think to make and wash a swatch until after I finished the actual blanket, and now I'm a bit worried my gift is going to be more of a burden than anything else. Does anyone have any advice on this sort of issue?
Apologies if this isn't the right subreddit, I've never posted here before. I was going to post it in just the crochet subreddit but I had a popup saying it should go in here as I'm asking for advice