The wonder of wool

Around the time that my mother made her first bedspread, something new and very exciting was on the market: machine yarn! It was thin, could be bought in large quantities and came in all colors. But best of all, it was 100% acrylic, which meant that it could be machine-washed!

The funny thing is, for as long as I can remember, my mother and grandmother have been ardent fans of pure wool and have always wrinkled their noses at acrylic clothing. I've inherited this view of things, and for years, I've been checking the labels inside clothes in shops before even considering trying them on. As a baby, my mother put me in cotton cloth-diapers and knitted little woollen pants washed in lanolin to wear over them. In short: we don't wear 'unnatural' fabrics in this family! ...mostly.

So I was very disappointed when my mother told me that they had all completely sold out in the 1960s! Of course, it made my grandmother's life quite a bit easier, being able to machine-wash the sweaters of her three girls. After a while, though, she went back to using wool because it was warmer and regulated temperature better.

I love wool, not only because it's so comfortable, but also because to me, it represents something natural and good. It would seem strange to simply ignore the fantastic materials that nature provides. I haven't gone so far as to only wear earth colors, but I love the not-quite-smooth-and-streamlined yarn types. I've been made aware of an exciting "new" form of knitting, dogma knitting, where the wool isn't spun, but you knit directly from a complete sheared 'fur' of a sheep. This gives a really interesting structure and I would love to try it out sometime. Have alook at the technique here, or if any of you have any experience with dogma knitting, I would love to hear about it!