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Advice for Knitting When You Have Natural Hair

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If you’re a person of color with natural hair, something you need to think about when knitting hats is the fiber content of the yarn used, because the yarns typically called for — think wool and other animal fibers — aren’t great when paired with natural hair.

That’s because the scales on animal fibers tend to be grabby, which can damage natural hair. Plant-based fibers suck up moisture, which is the last thing you want when you’ve worked so hard to get moisture into your hair.

Yolanda McNair did a lot of research into the qualities of different natural and human-made fibers to determine what might be best for her natural hair, and she share the results over on Knit’s All Folks.

You’ll have to click over to find out the best fibers to choose and her other tips and suggestions for knitting for natural hair. If you have any other tips I’d love to hear them!

[Photo: Knit’s All Folks.]

 

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Comments

  1. Hello! While I appreciate you linking to my website, please rethink the language you use here. Your phrasing “Most of us probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the fiber we use to knit hats in terms of how it will react with our hair,” – implies that “most” of the knitters who might read this blog are white – and that most knitters aren’t people of color. It (hopefully) unintentionally excludes the POC I hope to promote on my website.

  2. You’re right, of course, and yes, it was completely unintentional on my part to be exclusive. I should have said as a white woman it isn’t something I have to think about. Thanks for the kind reminder to choose my words more thoughtfully.

Have you read?

Practice Colorwork on a Cute Knit Bunny

Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]