wool alternatives

[daeseage]

I decided ages ago that I was going to make my girlfriend a pair of mittens for her birthday, and recently settled on a pattern and some lovely wool yarn in red and cream. Unfortunately, I just learned that she is very allergic to wool, and I really don't want to give her a gift that will make her break out in hives! So now I need something fairly inexpensive, warm, ideally water resistant, and nice and soft, but I don't know if she will have a reaction to other common animal fibers. I thought about baby acrylics, but I don't know that they'd stand up to the abuse that a comfy pair of wool mittens undergoes, and I don't really care for working with them.

Is anyone allergic/knit for someone who is allergic and have recommendations for wool alternatives?

ETA: Thank you so much everyone for the ideas! She was willing to test out swatches (for science!) from scrap yarn as I had time to knit them, and it looks like alpaca will work for her. Those of you who thought it was the length of the fibers might be right, since the swatch of the wool I'd originally purchased resulted in hives. =[

For those of you that asked about acrylics, part of the reason is that I've had issues with using them in colorwork patterns, and also because there's a good chance that she'll be wearing these while around a stove or open flame. A singed mitten is a lot easier to repair and less hazardous than a melted one!

Comments

[fire_my_spirit]

I am also allergic, and I generally just use soft acrylics. I don't mind them, they're easy to care for, and they're always within my budget. But I would try going on Ravelry and looking in the yarn database for "vegan" options, or searching for vegan yarn on Etsy and the like. These yarns will not have any animal fibers, and on Ravelry, there may well be comments that describe how the yarn works up.

[dragonfly]

+1 I'm also allergic to wool, but any and all acrylics are just fine. And mittens--I can't think why acrylic wouldn't make good mittens.

[ghoti]

Another thought would be to make them in wool and then line them with flannel or fleece. Extra layers of warm, no allergies on hands, and cute mittens!

[pineapplechild]

Bamboo yarns could be an option, or as people have said, acrylics. Go to a good yarn shop and explain you need non-wool fibers, people are generally very willing to help you find some. I wouldn't go with a lined wool, I would worry about how much I touch my face with mittens. (Err, maybe other people don't do this. But I brush my hair out of my face ALOT.)

[synecdochic]

If you don't mind the price, linen might work well -- the issue with intarsia in non-animal-fibers is that it's hard to get the fibers locking together right to hold the color floats, but linen is less likely to have that problem. I'm thinking Euroflax here.

Barring that, if she isn't allergic to all animal fibers (just wool), alpaca or angora might work. Since a wool allergy is usually a reaction to thick-micron fibers, a thinner-micron wool like merino, or a superwash wool or merino (treated to make the fibers less pokey), might also work.

Cotton's my usual go-to sub for animal-fiber allergies, but it's hard to find a full-cotton fingering weight and cotton doesn't usually hold shape well enough to be a good choice for intarsia.

(EDIT: Meant to also say, a good way to test if the alternate animal fibers will make her have an allergic reaction: get one ball of the yarn, knit a gauge swatch, give it to her and ask her to tuck it into the palm of another pair of her gloves for an hour or so, see if she breaks out. That'd obviously be up to her if she wanted to risk it, though!)

[jamethiel]

Bamboo! That's pretty safe for people with animal allergies. Except fail, expensive.

I'm kind of no help on the expense front. It turns out if you let me loose in a yarn store, I will UNFAILINGLY choose the expensive items without even looking at the price.

[ironed_orchid]

Bamboo, cotton, and hemp can work really well for gloves. Maybe not as warm, but pretty.

[marymac]

I don't know how available it is in the US but what I usually use under such circumstances is Wendy Cotton/Cotton Baby DK or Chunky. Lovely and soft, decent colour range and wears pretty well (one butter-yellow hat has now gone through three small cousins and is still in good nick).

[iamshadow]

About the durability of baby acrylic - I've made two pairs of socks for my partner out of baby 4 ply acrylic, and they've held up very well. A lot would depend on individual brands, of course, but if it'll hold up to being walked around on for a year or two with no ravels or holes, I'd say it would hold up to mittens or gloves. It won't be as warm as animal fibres, of course, but you could try lining it with polar fleece, or double knitting or something.

[rivenwanderer]

I know someone who has a problem with wool but not alpaca, so I second the suggestion to test alpaca out! Alpaca isn't particularly expensive, and it's got all the lovely animal fiber properties that wool has. (If you shop for it online and can't pet the yarn before buying to check for softness, look for fine, superfine, or baby alpaca, which is softer.)

[twistedchick]

Re the durability of acrylic: I still have and wear mittens my mother made for me in acrylic that are about 30 years old. It was a good-quality (name brand) worsted weight yarn, and even after years of washings it's held up. The thing is, low-quality acrylic can cause as many problems as wool -- it can have broken fibers that cause itching and nasal allergies, for instance. If you buy a better quality, it should last very well and be warmer than cotton or the other alternatives.

wool allergy

[knit_dream]

Most people who are allergic to wool are actually allergic to the lanolin on wool, so a wool that has been very processed might work for her. What is the nature of her allergy?

You might try a blend that includes camel hair for warmth. Alpaca is also very warm.

[minxy]

My Mom claims to be allergic to wool, but she means it in a less "anaphalactic shock" way and more a "that's uncomfortable" way. I have had really good luck with socks made with mostly superwash wool (a majority of folks are allergic to the extraneous threads that the superwash process removes. Sadly, this also removes it's awesome colorwork qualities,) and partly something else. So superwash wool/cashmere/bamboo is awesome. So is superwash wool/cotton/nylon, etc.

There's no one size fits, though. My Mom only ever said that she "can't wear wool", so it's a gamble.

[piplup]

My girlfriend is sensitive to wool, so I usually use bamboo or nicer acrylics for her. Superwash tends to not cause any issues, but I try to limit it down to just using it for accents instead of a whole garment for her.

[rainne]

+1 for the bamboo. They are SO SOFT.

[rainne]

Query re: your icon. "Stim"?

[iamshadow]

Stim is shorthand for self stimulatory behaviour. Everybody stims - from clicking pens, to touching lips, earlobes, to jiggling your foot while studying. (In neurotypical children it's labelled 'self-soothing' and is counted as a positive. In autistic children it's often labelled negative, and therapists try to remove it.) I'm an autistic adult, and knitting and spinning are things I find rhythmic, soothing, and fun. They're also something you can easily do in company without being labelled rude or antisocial. They're great cover - you can't read a book in company, but if you're not making eye contact whilst knitting, no one tends to take offence.

[rainne]

Ahhh, okay! I did not know about the difference in that kind of behavior between neurotypical and non-neurotypical kids. That seems odd. Why would you allow a behavior to NT kids and deny it to non-NT kids who, it would seem to me, would need it more? (I freely admit to knowing next to nothing about the issues surrounding autism, and I welcome any and all information you'd be willing to provide. You can also feel free to PM me, if you like.) :)

[iamshadow]

It tends to be the intensity of the stimming (how much it dominates the child's life and routine), but also the kind of things autistic kids do to stim are seen as problematic or socially unacceptable. Hand flapping is a classic behaviour that lots of autistics have in common; I do it a bit myself when I'm over-excited, and I'm in my thirties. Some kids are so wrapped up in stimming that it's literally all they do, so toning it down is the only option for anyone trying to educate them. Sometimes, though, there's a bit of a heavy-handed emphasis on normalising kids so that they pass, which I feel a bit dirty thinking about, but I also understand that autistic teens and adults have been bullied, attacked or even killed by members of the public simply because they don't appear normal. So it's an issue I have conflicting feelings about. I don't think autistic people should have to try and be normal to be accepted for who they are, but I do know that it's often safer if they can appear that way.

Passing = complicated, whether talking about race, religion, sexual orientation/gender, or neurodiversity.

(I should also add that some kids also have stims that include self-harming, or potentially dangerous behaviours, which I totally understand the need to control.)

[rainne]

Ahhhh, I see.

You're right, passing is hella complicated.

Thanks for making me a little bit more informed! :)

[iamshadow]

No problem!

I'm just amazed I was able to concisely sum up the issues. And all without bringing my current fandom, X-Men: First Class into it! (So many good examples of the points I was trying to make in that film. :D)