KnittedDayDreams

SPOILER ALERT: it’s a lint roller

I have seen so many people knitting with mohair over the past few years, but only tried it myself last year.

I started to knit an oversized top, I won’t share the pattern name because I got so close to the end and…it didn’t fit.

I gauge swatched, measured myself and the knitting, knitted to almost the correct length, and it was way too short!

I think I was actually over that project by that point too, so I was both annoyed and upset that it didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to!

One thing I never really heard anyone mention when using mohair is how it can get everywhere!

Yes, a fluffy yarn can shed…who would’ve guessed?!

It ended up on my clothes, pyjamas, in drinks, food and my mouth…bleurgh.

On a similar note, I have a spinning wheel – an Ashford Kiwi 3 if you’re interested. Still yet unnamed, as her name hasn’t come to me in the almost 6 years that I’ve owned her…maybe one day!

I learnt to spin on a workshop with Cathy from LazyKate Textiles in 2018, and if I remember correctly, we were asked to wear old clothes we didn’t mind getting a bit messy and an apron too.

That led to me, when I first got my wheel, always covering my legs with a cloth of some sort to try and protect my clothes from the fibre I was spinning with.

Which sort of worked, and also sort of didn’t.

If you’ve ever spun anything, you will know that fibre sheds everywhere! No matter what animal it came from, short, medium or long staple length, it will still end up all over your clothes!

This year I knitted another garment using a strand of 4ply merino and a strand of lace weight mohair. Luckily, it all worked out this time, and the experience was much more enjoyable (plus the garment fits too!)

But again, I was ending up with mohair everywhere.

Which, although a lovely colour, I didn’t enjoy it ending up in all the aforementioned places!

Cue a trip to B&M (unfortunately my favourite Home Bargains was closed for refurbishment, so I had to go to second best B&M)

And I bought the best thing ever – a lint roller!

I don’t know how it came to me, in a dream perhaps (or just in a moment of rational thinking) this would solve all my problems!

Now, I come from a family who never owned a lint roller. Did we never have lint on our clothes that needed rollering off I hear you ask – who knows? It is as much a mystery to me as it is to you!

So, a lint roller was a bit of a mystery object, seen only on films and tv shows, when an important man would have lint on his suit that must be immediately rollered off!

Like, I understand the concept and how they work and all, but having never owned one or even touched one, what if I was wrong?!

I wasn’t wrong (for once!)

IT WORKED!

And it worked so well, I’m so pleased!

Do a bit of knitting, lint roller out and that mohair is gone!

Do a bit of spinning, lint roller out and that fluff is gone!

Well, you get the picture!

So now, I present to you, the one essential tool that I never hear anyone mention – the humble lint roller!

Presenting my lint roller – complete with mohair fluff! Standing on top of one of my own patterns – the Bubbling Cauldron Book Cover! Available to buy on my Ravelry page & my Payhip store (shameless plug!)

Go and try it, it works so well!

Jen x

ps B&M and Home Bargains are both discount shops in the UK, they are much of a muchness, but somehow Home Bargains is better, don’t ask me why!

pps I know that ‘rollered’ isn’t the right word, I keep getting red lines telling me, but rolled off just doesn’t sound as good as rollered off does it?!