Knitting

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Allergic to Wool?

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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 [tag]Amy Singer[/tag], Editor/Publisher of [tag]Knitty[/tag] 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, “[tag]No Sheep for You[/tag]”, 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!

[tag]Dishcloth patterns[/tag] 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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Comments

  1. 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 . . .

Have you read?

Knit a Glasses Holder for Your Bedside Table

knit glasses holder

Not too long ago I was seeing a crochet pattern for a glasses holder shaped like a bear all over the Internet. It was super cute, and also useful as a place to put your glasses on your bedside table instead of just throwing them somewhere random.

This project stewed in my brain for a little while and I decided I needed to make a knit version, but I didn’t want to make a bear. If you know anything about me you might know that I’m a cat person, so of course my version had to be a cat.

The base is just a basic little basic worked from the center out to the desired size, then up the sides as long as you want them. Knit some ears and add embellishments to make it whatever kind of animal you want.

The way I figured out to work the base from the center out was to use a crochet cast on, which gives you an easier way to pick up stitches from the back of the cast on than if you worked a more traditional cast on for a knitting project. It’s kind of fun to do things in a different way from time to time.

This little project is adorable if I do say so myself, and even as a plain little basket not made into an animal it’s a cute way to keep your glasses or other little things in one place. I’m tempted to make one for my desk to hold pens or even little little scissors and sewing needles that are always on my desk but somehow always seem to get lost on my desk.

If you need a little holder for your glasses on your table, check out the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]