blanket-replacement campaign

[cimorene]

Our project to replace the synthetic blankets in our home with knitted ones is kicking up a notch, and what I mean by that is that we spent a few hours browsing blanket patterns and getting excited about it.

As I said when I originally mentioned this idea a few months ago, the basic aim is to get the polar fleece out of circulation in the household because of the unfriendly qualities of microplastics. Obviously this won't do anything about the microplastic problems on a global scale that are clogging up the gulf of Finland and collecting in the bodies of marine fish and birds, but the thing about them is that fleece fabrics shed them constantly, so simply not having any fleece fabrics exposed to wear in our flat will at least reduce the amount of them in our air and our washing machine. They'll also be longer-wearing while still washable and should greatly reduce the amount of static from long-haired bunnies in constant contact with blankets.

• I just made this zigzag afghan out of worsted sock wool. We'll need another nice wool one for waxjism's use next winter.


• Wax has nearly finished this beautiful Yggdrasil blanket out of bulky cotton, which will be a counterpane or bedspread because it's quite heavy and thick, but cotton, which makes it potentially awkward as an afghan in either summer or winter.
  


• We already have a worsted-weight cotton afghan that we bought at Ikea last fall. It's eh. We also have a ton of dk bamboo yarn that should become a similar weight of blanket, probably Jared Flood's Umaro because I am in love with it although I'm not positive what the bamboo will blanket like.


• We've got a blanket's worth of teal fingering-weight cotton that will become a cotton blanket in some kind of lace. We've also got some sport-weight white cotton, but less of it, so it will be a not-long-enough-for-sleeping afghan unless I knit it at a very loose gauge.


• Then we will need at least one afghan in fingering-weight wool too, but we don't have the right wool for this yet. We'll likely use Finnish wool, and I have a mighty need for the Cicely rectangular blanket.

And then the fleece will be bundled up with other waste fabric and used for stuffing in one or more ottomans, poufs, or floor cushions.

Comments

[yvannairie]

Ohhh man that Yggdrasil blanket does look absolutely lovely.

I also p much live cocooned in throws, I should probably take the opportunity to go shop around the market when it rolls around the next time to see if I could trade some of them for ones made of cotton. I have a military-issue wool blanket for very cold nights, but wool is a real hit-or-miss for me. I've worn a grand total of three articles of wool clothing that weren't itchy on me.

[cimorene]

You might be mildly allergic, but there's also a pretty wide range of different wools. I'd recommend trying baby merino and baby alpaca, for instance, if you haven't.

Knitted cotton lets a lot more air through - or rather traps a lot less warm air close by - than wool because of its fiber structure, which is great in the summer but can lead to it not feeling warm enough in winter, so it might be worthwhile to just cocoon yourself in duvets or quilts then.

[cimorene]

My most sensitive skin is on my neck, and depending on the brand, some brands of pure merino even irritate it. There are other brands of higher-quality (longer-fiber, different spinning) merino that don't though. My neck accepts some merino, cashmere and cashmere silk, so far.

Most wool (like Finnish wool) and standard alpaca frequently irritate my arms if I wear them over short sleeves, but I wear most of my sweaters over long sleeves in the winter anyway.

[yvannairie]

*takes notes* I should probably hunt down a merino wool blanket, in that case. I know a vendor comes by during the spring market who has merino wool scarves and ponchos, maybe I'll get one of those to tide me over while I work out what to replace with what.

[cimorene]

I don't want to be TOO down on cotton - for people who are allergic it's certainly better than nothing, it's just not as warm per volume and weight as wool is!

But testing out how merino feels on your skin first would be a good idea. Of course an afghan doesn't necessarily touch bare skin directly, so something that's good enough for a blanket might not be good enough for a scarf! (Plus I imagine if you DO have an allergy, even a mild one, the merino could still irritate your skin regardless of how long the fibers are and how smoothly spun.)

[yvannairie]

*nod nod* I've had good experiences with wool blankets (Finnish hotels have them to be fancy sometimes) except my own, prolly b/c it's basically chemically treated felt x'D I actually shopped around yesterday, I'm prolly gonna get a cotton bed cover and one for the backrest of my working chair since those don't necessarily need to be warm :3c

[cimorene]

I've seen some nice woven wool ones of the same general type as the ones we have and the ones my MIL wove herself thirty years ago for sale around the holiday season for around 50€ in places like Prisma and Citymarkets. We have one from Klippan Yllefabrik which is Swedish (though ours is woven in Latvia...) and I've seen theirs around in interior stores and our local yarn store, but if you have pets the kind that's woven of thin weaving yarn and then brushed... it makes a really soft haze of fuzz on the surface of the blanket but that is prone to pilling, and you brush the pills back off with a comb traditionally, but it means that if anything spills on it spot cleaning is a hassle (because it's in all the little fuzzes coming out...) and you have to sort of scrape it and possibly dab it since you're not supposed to wash that type of wool blanket in a machine at all (you can dry clean them, or hand wash them in cold water but preferably without detergents etc...).

So, much as I love this blanket, it was expensive and it's already got some spots where a strand broke that need to be darned (but this is probably because of our cats, not like, a common issue), and that's why I want to put it somewhere low traffic and replace it with sock wool ones that are made of yarn that is designed to go in the washing machine if necessary - and also the sock yarn is less likely to pill and easier to mend.

[pensnest]

That Yggdrasil blanked is *amazing*. What a gorgeous design.

[msilverstar]

The Yggdrasil one is gorgeous!