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7

Allergic to Wool?

June 7, 2007 |

This post is dedicated to our Needlecraft Editor Heather. Heather wrote me that her friend Maggie in Michigan has tried to turn Heather into a knitter. However, Heather is allergic to wool. The only yarn Heather was familiar with was wool.

Enter Amy Singer, Editor/Publisher of Knitty the online knitting magazine with tons of free patterns and fantastic articles. Amy is also allergic to wool. Amy wrote a wonderful book full of information about non-wool fibers and patterns to use them with.

In her book, “No Sheep for You“, Amy not only talks about all the different fibers available to use for your project, how they are grown and processed, but she also explains how to substitute non-wool for wool in patterns. It’s possible, but you must choose wisely. If you want to knit a sweater and you substitute a gorgeous ribbon yarn for a pattern suggesting a toothy - almost scratchy wool, even though the gauge is the same, the sweater won’t work up with the drape and body that you are looking for.

Now, for a beginning knitter, a sweater, or hat, or scarf may be too much to start with, especially if you use cotton yarn which is not as elastic as wool and harder on the hands. I would suggest something that works up fast, but has some design to it. Something cute and fun and something we all need.

A dishcloth!

Dishcloth patterns involve just knit and purl stitches for the most part. The purl stitch on the knit side creates the design. If you have trouble following the written word, I suggest getting graph paper and making a chart like you would have for any other type of needlecraft. Simple, fun, easy and cotton yarn is available in many colors!

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Technorati Tags: Amy Singer, Knitty, No Sheep for You,

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Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Laura Nixon on June 8, 2007 6:28 pm

    THE knitting blog? Well, thankx. I wasn’t going to mention how fast you get bored :) but I thought a dishcloth would be small enough.

    Hmmm cat toys? I’ll look around . . .

  2. Allergic to Wool? · Craft Gossip :: Craft Blog Network on July 10, 2007 6:36 am

    [...] Read the full post: Allergic to Wool? [...]

  3. sharon tollin on July 28, 2007 8:45 pm

    Wow, what a great site. I can’t wait to get some of your patterns

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