Weekly Garden Update #4 – More Garden Beds, Eggplant Germination & Re-Sowing Seeds

In this week’s garden update, we continued our journey of tilling all the garden beds we need. We admitted defeat with some of the pepper seeds and decided to re-sow a few of them. We also started two new seeds inside and celebrated that two of our eggplant cells have already germinated.

Continuing to Create Garden Beds

After a few discussions and planning sessions, we determined how many garden beds we need and where they are going. Essentially, we are turning about half of the second lot we have into a garden, which will be divided among six beds, plus one for wildflowers that will attract pollinators. Heading into this past week, we had three started, but none were completely ready to go. At the end of this week, we have four started and two ready to go with rows tilled.

Our process for tilling the beds looks like this:

One initial till that removes the bulk of the grass followed by raking to scrape the grass away from the soil.
A second perpendicular till that goes across the original one. This tilling is deeper than the first one and helps to clean up any strips of grass that were missed on the first pass. The bed gets raked after this pass as well.
Apply a layer of gypsum.
A third tilling that works the gypsum into the soil and establishes the rows we’ll plant in.
We may do a light fourth tilling right before planting to work in any soil amendments we use.

It’s been interesting to see how the soil and bed change after each pass. The first two passes leave the bed moist and muddy. But within 30 minutes, the top layer of soil begins to dry. Then, after the third pass, it starts to look like a garden with loose, workable soil between walking paths.

We’ve developed a good system for creating the beds when we’re both available to work on them. I’ll go around and create the border for the new bed. Magz follows that up with the first pass, and I’ll rake behind her. She’ll also do the second pass that runs perpendicular to the first one. I’ll then rake it off again, add the gypsum, and handle establishing the rows. It’s been a very productive system.

Eggplant Germination

In last week’s update, I wrote that we started our eggplant seeds on Saturday, March 22. These were supposed to take 10-15 days to germinate but ultimately sprouted in seven days with the first seedlings breaking through the soil on the 29th. That is a big change from the experience we’ve had with our pepper seeds, but more on that in the next section.

The eggplant variety we’re growing is Ping Tung from Baker Creek. They are an Asian variety named for the location in Taiwan where they originate. They are a thinner eggplant than the bell-shaped varieties that most are familiar with and can grow up to 14 inches long.

Re-Sowing Seeds & Starting New Ones

I alluded to this in the previous section, but we’ve had some difficulty with our pepper seeds. Of the 12 cells we started, only two have germinated after three weeks: one sweet bell pepper and one Scotch Bonnet. We haven’t had any of the Hungarian wax peppers germinate. Yesterday, we made the decision to re-sow the cells that hadn’t germinated yet – five sweet peppers, two Scotch Bonnet seeds, and three Hungarian wax seeds. I’m not entirely sure what caused these seeds to fail, but I think it was inadequate moisture. I intended to pre-moisten the seed starting mix before starting the seeds but forgot to. I also used a spray bottle to water the seeds, but I don’t think I was giving them enough water at a time. That changed when I started the eggplant seeds. Instead of using the spray bottle, I started pouring water on the cells and letting it drain through the soil. It meant I only needed to water the seeds every few days rather than daily. We’ll see how the pepper seeds do with this change in the watering process.

That day, we also started two new seeds. One is the Ishikura bunching onion, which is a Japanese scallion-style onion that grows like a green onion rather than a long day onion. This onion doesn’t develop a bulb below the soil, but instead, the tops can be cut and will re-grow. We started 18 cells of these and will sow additional cells in the upcoming weeks. We love spring onions and want to have fresh ones all growing season.

The second seed we started is a dahlia. In addition to growing vegetables, we are growing quite a few flowers this year, mostly perennials that attract pollinators like butterflies and honeybees. We have very little experience growing flowers, especially from seed, but we’re excited to see how it goes.

Up Next

The goal this week will be to create rows in garden beds three and four. If we’re able to get started on the final two beds, that’d be great. It could also be overly optimistic, though. We also want to direct sow some seeds in our garden beds. Some of the greens and flowers can be started this early.

Happy gardening!

March 31, 2025 1

My Super Nova Girl

Daily writing prompt

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

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Okay, so technically the math of this doesn’t quite work, because Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century came out when I was six, but I believe the Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space was released before this, so I’m counting it. My first dream life plan, before fashion design became my dream, was to become an astronaut and live in a space station like Zenon. Her space station was in orbit above the Earth, so easily accessible that they were a shuttle flight away. The space station was a cool futuristic community with hologram teachers, neon and metallic clothing, interesting interior design, a cafeteria with windows that displayed the glory of outer space, and a view of the Earth below. They had zap pads that were a precursor to our modern-day smartphones. Zenon was resourceful, dumpster diving and DIY-ing jewelry, clothing, and art. It was so inspiring!

This dream was quickly brought to reality in 2003 when I watched the Columbia space shuttle explode. Space was not the perfect playground I imagined as a kid; it was dangerous, not glamorous, and certainly not as simple as a plane ride upwards. The Magic School Bus originally sparked this interest in space. Ms. Frizzle’s adventure across the galaxy made it seem easy! The bus transformed into a space shuttle and quickly travelled from the Earth through the inner planets of Venus and Mercury, passing the sun and moving beyond to the Moon, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, and don’t fight me, Pluto. I will not comply. Pluto should be a planet. They easily landed on planets with ready-to-go pressurized air packs for exploration. How fun would that be? All in one day of school, it was the length of a field trip, not a 100+ years of travel. Wild.

It was not the scary vacuum of Gravity nor the challenge of Apollo 13. It seemed like a safe and wonderful place to exist. But as the star burns up in an explosion, so does the dream of life as a Super Nova girl at Protazoa’s concert in space. Before Aespa’s Supernova, this song was my only y2k-inspired Supernova jam. I hope you enjoy it. Have you ever watched Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century?

March 28, 2025

Potato Technology’s 2024 Autumn Winter Collection

This collection was about upcycling, trying new techniques, and making things that expressed what I like wearing based on previous designs I have made, but with a twist. The items I designed were 75% sourced from existing materials. They were upcycled from items in my closet, hand-me-downs from my mom or grandparents. They were made from destashed yarn I acquired or fabric that had been in my stash for a long time. I focused more on creating with natural materials like wool, linen and as always, I love cotton.

Vests were made from pillow cases and flannels. I re-worked a sweater from the existing sweater and leftover yarn. I dyed denim, deconstructed denim, and made some interesting new shorts and skirts. I combined leftover flannel from Christmas stockings to create a plaid and denim kilt. I used the cut-off sleeves of flannels from my vest projects to create a skirt from four flannel sleeves. I dove deeper into the world of trousers with two new patterns – a floral and railroad stripe. With each pair, I experimented with fastenings and pockets. I constructed my first “Mr. Darcy” shirt from teal linen using Bernadette Banner’s instructions for the body. I put my own spin on the collar, choosing a wider collar similar to a sailor collar that is popular in anime and J-fashion.

This was the first season I experimented with colorwork in knitting. I made a knit star motif hat from yarn that was leftover from my Magic of Scrap Yarn Cardigan. I made leg warmers, a squirrel motif mitten, and a melange of acrylic and wool to create this ear flap hat that reminds me of medieval European helmets. Although this season of creation was chaotic, I’m not sure if I even included all the projects I worked on, it was a time of great learning. It taught me that fashion design is more than taking raw material and cutting it into a new form.

Great design utilizes new and old. Fashion is about reusing, not wasting, and making things beautiful with careful craftsmanship. It does not mean it needs to be expensive, or need to be made by a great master couturier, it just needs to serve a purpose. We have lost sight of the purpose of fashion, but these projects of upcycling have reminded me that fashion is more than shopping, it is more than consumption, it is about the materials, the vision, the function.

March 26, 2025

Crafting in 2025

To and fro my footsteps roam, upon the miles of white, fluorescent aisle – vast, void, verigated, vexing wanderings. Where to next? Weaving textiles. Fiber miles spin, spun into nothingness. A paywall of digital footprint. Add to cart.

March 26, 2025

Weekly Garden Update #3 – Germination, Compacted Soil & Rain Barrel

In this week’s garden update, we have a lot to go over. We have updates regarding our seedlings, began creating our garden beds, realized what our soil is like, and began addressing a water runoff problem. Finally, which seed did we start? Let’s dive in.

Houston, We Have Liftoff! (Or Germination)

It was touch-and-go for a bit, but our first seeds have started to germinate. On March 8, we started 12 cells of pepper seeds – 6 sweet peppers, 3 Scotch Bonnets, and 3 Hungarian Wax. The seeds were supposed to take 10-15 days to germinate, so as we got to the 2-week mark, we started getting a bit nervous that they weren’t going to germinate. However, when I checked the starting tray on Saturday (March 22) morning, one of the sweet peppers seeds had germinated. Wonderful!

Then, later that day, I went down to check the tray again and one of the hot peppers had sprouted! The next morning, I set up our grow light and configured the settings so the light stays on for 12 hours, so the plants should begin to take off. The first seeds to germinate each year is such a monumental occasion. It feels like it takes the concept of a garden and turns it into a reality.

Starting to Till the Garden Beds

In last week’s update, I shared that we received our rototiller and were waiting to begin the tilling process. Last Wednesday afternoon, we got it in the ground, and it was more difficult than I anticipated. I believe I have used a tiller before but can’t remember with 100% certainty, and if I have used one, it was only to turn over soil that had already been used for gardening. I’ve never established a garden from scratch. And if you haven’t used one, lugging a 30-pound machine around and preventing it from bouncing is a workout.

Our lawn has very thick grass and the ground below it is soft, almost like a peat bog with compacted soil. There is basically no top soil, so if there’s any moisture in the ground, it’s essentially soft, muddy clay. Your feet sink into, and the soil sticks to your shoes. It was a bit disheartening to realize the soil’s composition, but not unexpected given that loamy clay soil is common in this part of Pennsylvania.

We began by roughly determining where we want our beds to be, and on the first pass, we focused on removing the grass. That was largely successful, and after raking, we could see the soil. The second pass was deeper and started to turn the soil over, which is when we noticed that we need to address the moisture/drainage issue of the soil. Clay soil is wonderful because it’s full of nutrients and minerals, but not so great because it doesn’t allow excess moisture to drain. Over time, this will be resolved through the addition of organic compost, natural soil breakup from plant roots, and cover crops in the fall and winter.

Immediately, though, we have to address the issue before planting this season, which we’re going to do with gypsum. Many of the Google search results I found pointed us in the direction of gypsum, which is a naturally occurring mineral that breaks up soil and improves drainage. Thankfully, it’s also cheap at $10 for a 40-pound bag. Our plan is to spread it on top of our garden beds and till it into the soil a few inches. In the meantime, though, we’re already starting to see the soil dry out. Within 15 minutes of removing the grass, the top layer of soil starts to dry out, which is a remarkable improvement.

Diverting Downspout Runoff

Compounding the issue of our loamy clay soil and thick lawn is that one of the downspouts on our garage directs water into the part of the yard where our garden is going. Our garage roof isn’t big, but the amount of water draining off it is enough to exacerbate an existing problem. One option is to divert the downspout to have the water exit in a different location, but it would still make our drainage problem worse. Instead, we decided to use a rain barrel as a catchment device. On Saturday, we bought a 55-gallon blue plastic barrel from Rural King that was previously used for food, so once we thoroughly clean it, it’ll be safe for watering our garden. We have discussed having a rain barrel, but the plan was expedited as a result of the downspout and drainage problems. We still need to buy a spigot and filter, plus we need to figure out a platform, but we’re on the right track. We’ll provide more updates once we install the rain barrel.

Starting Eggplant Seeds

Saturday was also the day we started our second type of seeds: eggplants. Like the sweet peppers, we started 6 cells of these with 3 seeds in each cell. These will take 10-14 days to germinate, similar to the peppers.

Up Next

We won’t be starting any more seeds indoors until April, but if we get our garden beds prepped in time, we will be planting mustard greens outside. On Friday, Magz also tilled a bed at the back of our property, which we’re going to use for wildflowers that will benefit pollinators like butterflies and honeybees. That area of our property doesn’t get the best sunlight (partial) and is close to a drainage ditch, so we don’t want to grow vegetables there. We’ll be ready to plant those flower seeds as soon as the weather is consistently warm enough and the soil is where want it.

We’ll also continue to prep our garden beds with the tiller and gypsum. In the meantime, do you have any experience with a rain barrel or other catchment system? How about poorly draining soil? We’d love to hear how you’ve navigated it and apply any tips you have. Happy Gardening!

March 24, 2025 3

Difficulties of Buying Local

Nearly everyone you talk to expresses a desire to shop locally and support small businesses rather than buying things from Amazon and Wal-Mart. Magz and I are no different. We enjoy buying things in person and from a store in our town and try to use Amazon Prime if we strike out elsewhere. An issue we’ve been encountering is that our local stores rarely have what we need in stock, and nowhere has this been more of a reality than with garden supplies.

Our Local Stores

We live in a small town of about 8,000 people. The population has stayed almost the same since 1990. We are surrounded by towns with even smaller populations – 3,500, 800, 1,900, and 2,000. To get to a town with more than 15,000 people, you need to drive about 30 minutes. Our town isn’t void of stores, though. We have an Ace Hardware, a Tractor Supply, an Agway Feed Store, and a small Wal-Mart that doesn’t have a grocery section. Those stores all carry some gardening supplies, but because we are in the center of many small towns, as well as three colleges within a 10-mile radius, these stores have to cater to a large area and a wide array of shoppers.

Ace Hardware has a small selection of seed-starting items, a great selection of hand tools, and a small offering of engine-driven equipment, with most of the in-stock items being fairly pricey STIHL products. Tractor Supply has more power tools, including affordable options, but our local store wasn’t going to have any in stock until April. We could have ordered the tiller we bought at a higher price and shipped it to our local store for free or paid to have it shipped to our house. Either way, it was going to be more expensive than what we got from Amazon.

Agway has a lot of gardening items but few tools. It’s a great store for buying top soil and mulch in bulk, soil implements like diatomaceous earth and fertilizers, and seed-starting cells, but our local store doesn’t carry any tools. Finally, we get to Wal-Mart. We generally don’t like our Wal-Mart. Because it’s a small store without a grocery section, it is limited in the items it carries, and to maximize the number of aisles, there is a less-than-average amount of walkway space between aisles. They have a gardening section with some seed-starting stuff, but ours doesn’t carry cultivators or tillers nor does it keep soil additives in stock. You can buy everything online through Wal-Mart, but that’s no better than purchasing from Amazon.

Moving outside of our town, you need to drive about 30 minutes to shop at a Lowe’s or Home Depot. When we were at Lowe’s a couple of weeks ago, we were pleased with the gardening section they had but didn’t see any gas-powered tillers. We also recently learned that some Tractor Supply stores have a garden center. The ones closest to us don’t have garden centers, but there are a few within 45 minutes that do. In the future, we’ll check one out and see how much more it carries compared to our local store. There’s another feed store about 20 minutes north of us that we want to visit this year to see if they have a better selection than our local Agway.

What to Do When You Want to Shop Local But Can’t

This was a dilemma we found ourselves in. Since we started planning this year’s garden, we’ve looked for local options when making purchases. We did end up buying our starting tray, starting mix, and gloves at our closest Lowe’s. That wasn’t in our town, but it was in person and regional. The frustration has come when looking for larger tools, such as a tiller or cultivator. The tiller we bought, an Earthquake model with a 43 cc, 4-cycle engine, is sold at a lot of stores, including Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, and Wal-Mart, but none of the stores in our town had them in stock. Menards actually had the best sale, but the closest store is about 50 minutes away, and we were unsure if we’d be able to get there before the sale expired. The only other place we looked into was Family Farm & Home, with the closest location about 45 minutes away. We love the drive, but there was no way to check the store’s stock without doing so in person, and driving that far only to learn it wasn’t in stock seemed like a bad gamble.

It’s a very frustrating spot to be in: wanting to shop locally and in person but being unable to. You don’t want to give in to online shopping for everything, even when it’s cheaper and you’re already paying for an Amazon Prime membership, but we have found ourselves with no alternatives recently. Sure, we could have paid $100 to have a tiller shipped to us from another store or waited for it to be shipped to the local store. We also could have driven to Menards or Family Farm & Home, but at that point, we’re not shopping locally. Family Farm & Home is in a different county, while Menards is in another state. In all these situations, we’d either be paying more money, waiting longer, or taking a chance on it not being in stock. Amazon was simply the best option, and I think that’s okay.

We should be allowed to give ourselves a pass when Amazon is the best option. We also shouldn’t be forced to feel bad because we don’t want to overspend, drive long distances, or buy an inferior product. I think we should look for a local option first, but if the stores in your town won’t carry what you need, it’s not your fault. We ended up buying the tiller that best fits our needs and budget, and we’re happy with it, which is the most important thing.

I try not to complain about things in my writing and won’t make a habit of this, but I’ve been processing these thoughts for quite a while now, and it’s not just with gardening supplies. Do you struggle with the pressure of buying locally or the guilt of shopping online? If so, I hope you can get some reprieve from it and feel confident when you make the best decision for your needs. Happy gardening!

March 20, 2025 1

Weekly Garden Update #2 – Buying Our Tiller

This week’s garden update will be brief, as we haven’t started any more seeds and are in a holding pattern as we wait for the ground to dry out. All of the snow has melted and has been followed by some rain, so our soil is quite saturated.

In last week’s update, I mentioned that we may be starting eggplant seeds this week, but after consulting the seeding starting spreadsheet, we realized that this weekend was a bit too early. We’ll actually be starting them this week, likely Thursday. Instead, the big thing that happened this week was that we bought our rototiller.

Which Tiller Did We Buy?

Buying a tiller or cultivator is a big decision; much bigger than I thought it would be. In the future, I’ll likely write a standalone article that discusses what went into the decision we made, but for now, we bought this tiller:

It is an Earthquake 40 cc 4-cycle tiller (technically, it’s a mini cultivator) that can till up to a 10-inch wide path at one time. Two of the tines can be removed to till a narrower path, and it has a working depth of 8 inches. We bought ours from Amazon, although it is also available at Tractor Supply, Lowe’s, and Ace Hardware. We wanted to buy locally, but the Tractor Supply in our town didn’t have it in stock, Ace was far more expensive than Amazon, and the closest Lowe’s to us is about 30 minutes away. Meanwhile, Amazon was able to deliver it the next day.

It arrived on Thursday afternoon, and it only took about half an hour to put together. Afterward, I had to give it a go and see how it worked. The engine fired right away, and we did a quick trial run in the mulch bed by our back porch and in our yard. It worked extremely well in the mulch bed, which was expected, and did pretty well in the yard, which has never been tilled. We weren’t expecting it to have much success in the yard since the ground was very wet and we hadn’t set the depth on the tiller yet. We’re very excited to have a tiller and can’t wait to get our garden laid out. The plan is to till the garden later this month, but if it dries out before then, we’ll likely start sooner.

What’s Next?

As mentioned in the intro, we were originally planning to start our eggplant seeds this weekend but realized it was too early. Instead, that will happen this week. Those will be the only other seeds we’ll be starting in March. Everything else will be started in April or May. Happy gardening!

March 17, 2025 2

Cracking Pinecones

The other day, I was at the back of our property with Kyle with our tiller. Above us was this pine tree we believed to be mostly dead, yet behold these little pinecones were growing, cracking open actually. The sound was this bizarre melody of crackling, like rice krispies in milk.

March 14, 2025

Fashion Feels So Off in 2025

I was talking to my friend recently about fashion week, we bounced between NYFW and PFW in our discussions, primarily NYFW and we both remarked how the spark is gone. Growing up we both lived for those massive February and September issues of American Vogue, but as adults, neither of us read the fashion magazines nor are we swept up in watching a runway show stream on Youtube. In college I remember watching runway shows between classes, soaking up the atmosphere of the music, the makeup, the silhouettes strutting down the long walk away. Now, I hardly care about fashion week. My favorite moments of fashion week are no longer the collections and focus on Hyunjin’s interactions with Donatella at the Versace show and Felix’s runway passes for Nicholas Ghesquiere’s Louis Vuitton Women’s collection.

Out of the two of these collections – Versace and Louis Vuitton, I guess I pay attention to and prefer Donatella’s work, but I’m not looking at the collection, I’m focused on the spectacle anymore with these fashion shows. Versace shows at Milan Fashion Week, not Paris for clarification. I watched a highlight of PFW from Fashion Roadman and was underwhelmed. Even Alexander McQueen cannot get me hyped for the runway anymore. I saw there was a Carhartt collaboration with the brand Sacai which was quite frustrating to me. I’ve worn Carhartt before and it is not my vibe. Some shows reused old items, sorry they presented from the archive, from previous collections for “sustainability” and there was a collection addressing war, which feels a bit like that infamous scene in The Devil Wears Prada.

I know it sounds harsh, but I wish brands would do more for countries around the world than present a “statement” against war with military-inspired pieces when these brands are part of huge conglomerates that have the resources and influence to make a difference and instead, they use fashion to make money from exploited workers. And maybe that is why fashion in 2025 feels so off – fashion is not fun anymore. We know too much, the fashion machine has destroyed so much and is the capitalist monster filled with egos and performative greenwashing.

I’ve mentioned before that I find more inspiration from K-Pop than fashion magazines and that holds true for me in 2025. I’m more interested in customizing my wardrobe and making things personalized to my tastes than following the trend cycle because the trend cycle is regurgitating things from my lifetime that I’m already interested in, such as ballet flats, but assigning them an expiration date and I disagree. By the mid-2010s I was tired of ballet flats, but I had worn them for 10 years at that point and was interested in something new to replace my worn, falling-apart flats. I’d rather pick a reference and get inspired, like watching Seinfeld and writing notes for an outfit I’d like to emulate. But that doesn’t fit with the fashion cycles and seasons, so it’s making the fashion shows seem pointless to me.

But the most off-putting thing I’ve seen this year is the discussion – ‘The Death of Personal Style’ which I have seen explored by Drew Joiner, Mina Le, and Nicky Reardon. This topic has been debated across the internet in spaces I don’t visit like X or TikTok, but I think people are bored and claiming personal style is dying because we need some fresh inspiration. I’ve been in a creative slump so far in 2025 with writing because the internet spaces I hang out in have been so negative this year. Like a communal ennui has rolled in, shrouding creative people in a fog. It’s been hard to not buy into the mindset and I’ve been a member of the club after seeing how worried my loved ones are that are facing being cut from their job or their career sector being gutted. Fiber artists and sewists are definitely in a delicate place right now, finding a new normal after Joann’s.

Yeah, it’s weird. I hate change, and I fear the past being repeated, but something struck me last night after watching two videos that have nothing to do with fashion but humor me. The YouTube creator Suibhne (Swee-nee) makes historical content about countries around the world, I in particular chose The History of Korea and The History of Japan to watch, and it’s heavy. What happened between Korea and Japan in the Sino-Japanese War has had lasting consequences, but so has European colonialism in Asia and America’s forced opening of Japan through Commodore Matthew Perry.

Watching these videos that recount the atrocities of WWII in the Pacific reminds me that the overall concern of what is happening politically in the world and in my home country is coming from a noble place. I think overreaction or potentially appropriate reaction is important to keep any bit of the past from being repeated. It’s staying vigilant, like the servants in Luke 12 who were waiting at the door for the master of the house to return. Complacency is never a good thing.

Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.
Luke 12:35-36 ESV

So instead of being concerned by the social worry of WWII attitudes re-emerging, I should see it as a positive that people are taking things seriously and are unwilling to let evil take root again for the good of all. Even when I consider how fashion seems so dark because of unethical labor practices, sometimes I wish I didn’t know about the darkness, and instead I should consider how knowledge is not the enemy, the unethical practices are the enemy. Shopping is not as fun, but why is my pleasure more important than the rights of garment workers? It’s not all about me. Knowing this information is not the end point either, we put the awareness into action for change. So fashion feels off, but I think we’re tilling up ground for something new, not destroying something joyful for us fashion lovers.

I wish you hope, joy, and peace wherever you are. Thank you for taking the time to spend it with me today, dear reader. Until next time ❤

March 13, 2025

I Accidentally Felted My Magic of Scrap Cardigan

In the summer of 2024, I returned to an old fiber friend, wool, and introduced a new natural fiber – alpaca. When I began knitting in the early 2010s, I bounced between wool and acrylic fibers, not really looking at fiber content and instead looking at the pretty colors and my stitches so I didn’t drop one. Oh, how times have changed! When you love something you begin to obsess, dig, and it becomes a fiber woven into your identity. That’s where I found myself as a knitter for 10 years. I am constantly thinking about fiber content when planning a new project because it’s more than just the make that matters; it is how the garment is worn and washed for many years to come.

Wool

I think we have deep scent memories just like how wool fiber remembers the shape it is blocked into with water and pins. The scent of wool is woven deep into my memories of traveling to Ireland as a child in 2001. It is the fiber my Grandma wore most of the year. She was always cold, even in summer. Wool has always seemed a bit scratchy to me. It triggers my neurodivergent aversion to certain sensations. It was not a fiber I would choose to wear a whole sweater out of, although small accessories I could handle. Coats were fine too, until they weren’t.

After my grandparents passed away, within 6 months of each other I suddenly had things they used to own. Clothing being one of those things, a lot of those clothing items contained wool. I couldn’t stand the fiber being near me. I’d get a head, a migraine really. I’d feel stuffed up and allergic, at least I thought. From 2020-2024 I avoided the fiber. Begging my mom not to knit me anything in wool. I rounded up the wool items and put them in quarantine in a box in my house, the “allergy” being such a wave of anguish to my body. Looking back on it, I can see it was an expression of grief and stress. That smell of wool, it felt like a ghost lingering in the shadows of my mind not a normal fiber. Grief makes things so weird!

Acrylic

Under this belief of a wool allergy, I pivoted solely to cotton, bamboo, linen, and acrylic. If you are looking for a cheap and cheerful fiber acrylic is your yarn. It’s everywhere in the big box stores and that’s exactly what I did. I experimented with Red Heart, Big Twist, and Caron. They come in value packs and the worsted weight is an excellent fiber weight to use when learning how to create complicated garments such as wearables like sweaters that involve sleeves, shoulder shaping, and necklines. I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, it’s part of the learning process, yet using these affordable and easy-to-source yarn options took the trepidation out of the creating process.

Acrylic is seen as the “low-brow” yarn for a lot of the knitting community. It’s looked down upon for not being a natural fiber. Take organic and insert natural fiber and it is the same sort of elitism. But honestly, aside from how it’s made, acrylic being a polyester fiber, I don’t get the hate. It’s washable. These garments I was able to block in the dryer. As a knitter who was new to blocking this process taught me how and why blocking matters without the high stakes of felting, shrinking, or destroying my hard work during the wool sweater blocking process. It’s an approachable fiber for beginners.

Fiber Curiosity

Acrylic was my bread and butter, but after a while, we all crave some variety. For winter sweaters the other fibers – cotton, linen, and bamboo aren’t going to cut it. This is where some field trips came in! I’ve mentioned Keystone Safari before on the blog, it’s a wildlife preserve and education center in my region and they have sheep, alpacas, yaks, camels, and llamas. All of which I feed and pet without any allergies! This is where I began to question my “allergy” to wool. How could I spend time around these fibers, in their natural state where there would be more allergens like hay and not have a reaction (when I’m actually allergic to hay and grass)? It didn’t add up.

So in 2024, I began to run experiments. In the yarn shops, I’d pick up wool and alpaca-specific skeins and feel them in search of the truth! At my mom’s house, I’d ask her to see her skeins of wool and I’d do the same, even sticking them in my face, demanding they show me an allergic reaction. Nothing happened. Nothing. Could it be, that was I ready to find my true knitting form? A natural fiber artist, possibly a spinner, with a vast knowledge of wool, alpaca, mohair, and more? Yes, it was time.

Magic of Scrap Yarn Cardigan

So how does felting come into play in this story? It doesn’t sound like a story of woe, but it is. I was quite inexperienced with wool and how one cares for wool, that lack of experience came back to bite me with this lovely cardigan. I made this cardigan from wool extra skeins from my mom. Some of those skeins I put right up into my face to see if the wool would make me allergic. But this cardigan was not just a project of wool, it was a project made of extra wool skeins, wool-acrylic blend skeins, and acrylic skeins. Those fibers require different strategies to care for them properly.

This was my first mistake. I mixed fibers willy-nilly without thinking about each one has unique advantages and disadvantages. Wool is naturally anti-bacterial and requires very little cleaning. You can spot clean and refresh in the air or the snow. But you can’t throw it in the washer, and if you wash you must be gentle to the fibers with delicate movements and gentle water temperature, or else it will felt. Acrylic on the other hand is very durable. You can wash it in the washing machine without worrying about the possibility of felting the fiber. Acrylic fibers do not felt. It does not have anti-bacterial properties though so you clean it. Can you see where this is going? I screwed up the washing portion of this project.

I washed it in the washing machine without thinking and the cardigan shrank. Next, I tried to stretch the cardigan as it dried, while it was wet. Not gently, although the washer had already set the stage for stressed wool fibers. The cardigan no longer fit my person. To remedy this I thought I would hand wash delicately and attempt to re-block the cardigan. This was the nail in the coffin. This fatal mistake transformed the project from a knit cardigan to a felted mess. It was too far gone, like a burnt cooking disaster. There was no coming back from this, the damage was done.

I began to panic. How would I continue using wool and alpaca? I was currently knitting wool socks, um how was I going to wash those? Was I screwed? I was convinced I could never hand wash again without feeling sick to my stomach. I had to find a new solution. Steam. Steam was the answer. I have an iron, an iron with steam. Could I use this instead of purchasing a garment steamer? The answer amazingly was that simple! I steam my wool and alpaca projects now and the steam helps them bloom, they almost block from the steam along. It’s incredible. Just a little steam and the fibers refresh, safely! It’s transformed how I care for my knitwear. Sometimes these creative misfires lead us to places we may not have tried without the failure as a catalyst to try something new. I feel equipped to work with natural fibers, confident that if I spend months on a project I can care for said item for years to come. Have you tried streaming your wool garments before?

March 13, 2025