Sunday, October 12, 2008

Hemp for the Gold!

I'm an active lurker on the community website ravelry.com, but recently I participated in the ravelympics. What is ravelympics? Here is the official description:
"The First International Ravelympics Summer 2008 are open to any knitter or crocheter on Ravelry ready to challenge themselves to complete a project (or projects) within 17 days during the Summer Olympics."
I joined Team Chicago and I signed up for the Home-stuff Hammerthrow. I had been planning on making some hemp washcloths and this was the perfect opportunity to get me to actually do it. They turned out great:

I used 100% hemp yarn called allhemp6. It was the first time knitting with hemp for me and I really liked it. I got three washcloths out of one 12-dollar skein, which is a lot cheaper than buying uglier ones online already made. I think next time I can get four out of a skein if I do the math right. I also bought a bunch of raw-looking natural hemp yarn and I'm making more washcloths out of that. It's not nearly as nice to knit with, but the end result produces a lovely organic cloth that will perform up to Olympic standards in the kitchen.

The reason I used hemp is because hemp has natural anti-bacterial properties and will not mildew. Hemp fabric also gets softer the worse it's treated so it is a real work horse of a cloth that takes no special care.

I'm a hemp lover now!

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