Fibers

[adrian_turtle]

I am considering using a peg loom, as I have not done since 1977. The person lending it to me speaks of ergonomic hooks, and said I should remind her to give me some thick wool, because the wool in the donation box is too thin for a beginner. It didn't occur to me for quite some time that she could possibly have meant wool from a sheep. Obviously you give a beginner some kind of synthetic. Especially when the idea is to make hats to give away to people who might be allergic to wool.

I sort of expect that in casual usage, yarn for knitting is called wool, thread for sewing is called cotton, and the special thread for embroidering is called silk. Is this standard? Regional? Generational? I thought people who actually did fiber crafts would be more specific, but this is somebody who is quite deliberately inviting people who can't knit to join the knitting group, so who knows.

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

I don't think the person who offered me wool is a serious fiber person. But I don't know for certain. I don't even know for certain what kind of fiber the yarn she's offering is made of. People donated yarn from their stashes to make hats and give them to refugees or the homeless coalition. Some of it might be wool from sheep.

PS: allergies to animal fibers do exist! But they're about as common as food allergies, from what I can tell

Food allergies are pretty common! If you're going to knit a wool hat to put in a giveaway box, you should label it as such, just as you should label ingredients if you put homemade baked goods in a community fridge.