Woolly This, Woolly That.

I have been in a knitting frenzy ever since I came home from Antiquity Oaks. In January, I started my first knitting project: a giant, multi-colored scarf. Well, I had no idea what I was doing, so in my fervor of "oh my goodness I finally figured out how to knit!!!", I cast on something like 180 stitches and then started... only to realize how insane this was after getting far enough into it that I was too stubborn to rip it out. Well, in the meantime, I started knitting many other, more reasonable projects, and just picked up this shawl every now and then. But I FINALLY sat down & finished it this week! I am very excited.

I also knitted the yarn I spun, courtesy of McFee the sheep, at Antiquity into a lovely white, lumpy bumpy scarf.

I'm currently working on knitting a gift for someone special. Shhh! It's a scarf with vertical stripes. I'm using 5 types of yarn: 4 are 100% wool from either Ireland or Scotland, and 1 is 100% organic cotton from the US. 

And this brings me to my sheepish complaint. Has anyone else noticed how extraordinarily difficult it has become to find 100% wool products?! Whether looking for yarn, sweaters, pea coats, hats, whatever, it's a big struggle. They keep sneaking synthetic fibers into the real thing! I wandered around a bit on Black Friday out of curiosity. Some of the only 100% wool sweaters were at upscale retailers, and of course those were super expensive. Almost everything else was a blend of wool and acrylic, or something along those lines.

It's sad. I adore my wool, but you certainly won't see me paying $150 for a sweater! Still, there are ways to afford it. I just ordered a well-priced vintage wool sweater from etsy and in October I found a second-hand 100% wool pea coat at Crossroads for under $40!

I realize some people don't know what the big deal about wool is, and I also did not fully appreciate it until I worked as a professional sailor. I would be shivering up on deck in a squall, despite my  big bulky bundle of synthetic sweaters, jackets, and rain coats. Somehow, I still managed to get wet. And other crew would be up working with me, moving with ease, wearing just a wool coat. I thought they were insane. Then I realized, I was insane. Wool is warm. Period. It stays warm even when it gets soaked. And it takes a lot for it to get soaked.

Wool is nature's fine-tuned raincoat. Even when it pours and snows, sheep never complain. But they probably snigger at the people they see, covered in layers of plastic-this, synthetic-that, moaning and groaning at the cold...