Jen's Blog

knitting with hemp

I bought a knitting-with-hemp kit at Stitches (a big yarn convention) last week, and made my first washcloth with it.

Hemp is hard to knit with. Unlike wool, it has no stretchiness or give, and it made my hands tired to knit for very long. Cotton is supposed to be like this, too, but I've never tried it. This particular brand of hemp is also loosely spun, so I had to be careful to avoid splitting stitches with my needle.

Luckily, a washcloth is a small item; I'd say I spent only a few hours working on it. It's a little rough, but not in a bad way (more in a "this will feel good on my back" way). And hemp is supposed to get softer the more you wash it.