Nancy Bush published a pattern for French Bath Mitts in the March/April 2005 issue of Piecework Magazine, and they've been sitting at the back of my mind all this time. Not long ago, the Emperor mentioned something about wanting a scrubby mitt for the bath, and Nancy's pattern floated closer to the surface as I put a ball of cotton yarn on my shopping list. But, while visiting Missoula, Montana recently I popped into a new yarn store there and the clerk mentioned that people had been purchasing aMaizing by South West Trading Company to use for making dishcloths. AMaizing is one hundred percent "corn fiber" and before you go eeewww wait a minute. Here's what their website says about how it's made:
Corn fiber is manufactured using new, cutting edge bioengineering technologies. It is produced by the poly lactic acid from corn. Then a liquid “batter” is created and cooked, then the fiber is produced by wet-spinning and stabilized by acetylating, and is then cut into short staples after curling and thermoforming.
AMaizing is a tape yarn and is machine washable and dryer-safe. I asked the Emperor to pick out a color, and he chose this rich, dark purple and almost immediately I set about making his mitt. This yarn doesn't split, and the color didn't migrate to my hands or the needles while I was working with it. Anyway, in just a few days I was able to hand the Emperor his mitt and let him try it in the shower. Success!! I had enough yarn left over to make myself a flat washcloth with a crocheted lacey border. The fabric is crunchy yet soft, and makes a great scrubby mit.
I've also been idly working on a Ganomy Hat, a pattern created by Elizabeth Zimmermann. My spinning buddy R-- made several this summer in anticipation of either selling them or giving them as holiday gifts, and I'd never seen one "in the flesh" before. It has a unique construction, basically utilizing sets of increases and decreases to give it built-in earflaps and an interesting texture and shape. R-- topped hers with one of those funny overhand knots, and EZ's pattern suggests putting a ping pong ball in the point to make the hat bouyant ("in case of emergency"), but I'm thinking a knot would look best. R-- has great taste.
The Emperor's Secret Christmas Sock is still going strong. The Kaffe Fassett sock yarn is so interestingly striped that you can't help sticking with your knitting to see how it's going to come out.
That's all the knitting knews for now. I'll come back with some pix later!
No comments:
Post a Comment