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adrian_turtleI 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.
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.
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Date: 2024-11-20 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-20 07:45 pm (UTC)I would never give a beginner synthetic yarn. Synthetics melt and are unpleasant to touch. Wool is wonderful. Can you tell I have a re-enactment bias?
I have never heard sewing thread called cotton, unless it is important that it is 100 % cotton, in which case it is called "cotton sewing thread". I have never heard embroidery thread called silk, unless it is silk. Embroidery is often done with wool, or cotton, or with silk. I suppose someone, somewhere, embroiders with synthetic thread, but I don't know them.
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Date: 2024-11-24 04:43 pm (UTC)I suppose someone, somewhere, embroiders with synthetic thread, but I don't know them.
Nice to meet you! I have not embroidered for many years, but when I did I used synthetics. My mom called the thick shiny nylon thread "embroidery floss," but my great-aunt (who had a great stash of the stuff) called them "silks." As in "Knot the silk like this, don't double-knot it." Or "Go get me the box of silks from the cabinet over the tv."
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Date: 2024-11-20 08:24 pm (UTC)The only reason why I would give a knitting or crochet beginner a synthetic yarn is either they are sensitive to wool or they don't work with animal products. I'd try to find a good cotton before acrylic. Cotton has less flexibility than wool or wool blends so I find it harder to teach with. There are acrylic yarns out now that aren't completely heinous in the 1970s era manner. I learned to knit with acrylic yarns because that's what my grandmother had around her for crocheting back in the '70s. She's the one who taught me to knit way back when. When I restarted knitting in '04, I began enjoying nice animal fibers.
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Date: 2024-11-20 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-21 02:30 am (UTC)PS: allergies to animal fibers do exist! But they're about as common as food allergies, from what I can tell. Almost everyone who thinks they're allergic is reacting to scratchy wool. (For more information, ask anyone in this thret, we'll go on for paragraphs.)
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Date: 2024-11-21 06:52 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2024-11-21 03:04 am (UTC)In counterpoint to your other replies, "embroidery silks" is familiar to me, and so is the usage of "sewing cotton" and wool for yarn. I associate it with my parents, which means possibly archaic usage and/or translating out of Spanish. I probably wouldn't have used the terms generically myself even before seeing this discussion, to avoid misunderstandings.
I'm wary of most metaphors and colorful expressions these days, because a bunch of them have racist or otherwise denigrating origins, and others will be too archaic or niche to be understood.
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Date: 2024-11-21 06:32 pm (UTC)I'm wary of most metaphors and colorful expressions these days, because a bunch of them have racist or otherwise denigrating origins, and others will be too archaic or niche to be understood.
I hear you.
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Date: 2024-11-21 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-21 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-21 04:39 pm (UTC)I think of synthetic yarn as being much cheaper than natural fiber, so you give it to children and beginners as an easy way to get started, especially if it's a teacher or scout leader starting a whole roomful of kids at once. Good yarn might break the bank.
I crochet hats from synthetic fiber because it is readily available and it makes warm hats.
For anything that touches the rest of my body, I aim for cotton, because I react badly to nylon and sometimes to other synthetics. Wool is okay, but I don't love it.
My local thrift store often has oodles of odd lengths of yarn, often for 25 cents. When I was a Girl Scout leader, it was a great source of yarn for projects. We never taught the kids to knit or crochet, though.
Only tangentially related: One of my son's caregivers is teaching another one to knit. When my son has downtime, I'll walk into the living room and find the two caregivers sitting in the living room, companionably knitting together. A third one crochets when she is here. I think this is very cool!
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Date: 2024-11-21 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-21 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-22 12:27 pm (UTC)Also there are a number of reasons why it would be very important to someone to stick to natural fibers, so I think it's important to label fiber content either way.
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Date: 2024-11-24 07:49 am (UTC)I grew up knitting in Canada, and learning from Anglo-Scottish relatives. In our tradition, it's all wool.
With the advent of crafting on the internet, particularly the knitty.com website (circa 2005) and Ravelry (circa 2008), I started hearing a lot more American terminology used by Canadians. Nowadays, it's more common for the young people I meet to have learned about fibre crafts from the American-centred internet sources, or from their peers, not so much from parents and grandparents.
I'm pretty stubborn about some language things. In my head, it's all wool, and to friends who will understand me. Also, I finish a piece by casting off, not binding off, and the things I make with a big closed pouch for four fingers are mitts, not mittens.