Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Somewhat Gross Knitting News (You’ve Been Warned)

by

gelatin yarn gloveSometimes knitting news is rather, shall we say, offbeat, and goes into territories that might be considered disgusting. If you’re not interested in these sorts of new items, please disregard this post. Otherwise, read on for some strange knitting news that has hit my screen lately.

We’ll start with the less-icky one, but my first response to this one was “eww, gross,” just the same. A professor in Switzerland and his team at the Functional Materials Laboratory at ETH Zürich has created a soft, wool-like yarn out of gelatin, which comes from the leftover collagen in bones, tendons and ligaments of cows, sheep and pigs. This is stuff that isn’t really used, so it’s considered a green alternative. But the material must be heated and extruded to make it into fiber, which is an energy-intensive process.

So far they’ve knit a mitten with the fiber and are testing the material for softness, heat retention and durability before working with it on a larger scale. But one kilogram of gelatin can be converted into one kilogram of fiber, so it sounds like a good deal for the planet if people can get over the ick factor.

Speaking of the ick factor, a friend posted a rather old link in a group I belong to about an Australian artist who knit with wool that was inserted in her vagina. I thought I could ignore this one as old news, but then a new story about the artist, Casey Jenkins, showed up in my news feed.

Her video about the knitting project has been viewed more than six million times in the interim, and as you might imagine has attracted thousands of comments. Most, as you might imagine, are of the eww, WTF and ick variety. Now she’s decided to use some of those comments in a new knitting project, worked up in yarn that’s been in her body during her period.

“Going through that internet wormhole was such an experience I wanted to make comment on it,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Though I would love to know what you think about these stories, I hope we can keep it kind, too.

Comments

  1. I’m just curious as to what she was knitting. It looks like a really really long scarf. I hope she washes it before she wears it. 😉

  5. Yea I don’t quite understand, I don’t even get how one gets to ‘ hmm I want to knit but first it has to be in here’ truly icky.
    Although I will say I don’t find the gelatin idea at all icky, or at least no more so than silk after all that came from a silk worms behind. But then again I enjoy jello knowing since I was a kid that it wasn’t just some”magic” powder but came from cows knuckles Ect.

  6. Amen! Why?? And how do you come up with an idea like that?? I’m all for going green, but there needs to be a limit on how far someone should go.

  7. I’m all for attempting to create fiber from alternate and sometimes waste sources. I’m not, however, in favor of creating knitwear from fiber steeped in bodily fluids.

  8. For obvious health reasons this project of vagina knitting should be outlawed. Where has common sense gone ?

Have you read?

Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork. 

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn. 

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look. 

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me. 

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. 

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.