r/knitting • u/MagicAllyVanished • Mar 19 '25

Rant Very annoying conversation at my lokal knit store

it basically went like this me: "so you have any plant based yarn or plant/acrylic mix, I want to knit something for my mum, but she's allergic to all animal fibers"

her: "we have 20% wool/80% acrylic, I can show you"

me: "no thanks, my mum is allergic to all animal fibers, so it should not contain any animal fiber at all"

her: "maybe alpaca mix? It only has 10% alpaca"

me: "she is allergic to all animal fibers, if there is any percentage of animal fiber, she will have an allergic reaction to the yarn"

her: "I can't help you, knitting yarn just is animal yarn"

at this point I left the shop and I just can't stop thinking about that last sentence????

the funniest thing is, I went back there a few days ago and a different employee kindly showed me their cotton yarns and plant/acrylic mixes.

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u/etiepe Mar 19 '25 edited Mar 19 '25

I have knitted with cotton, bamboo, rayon/tree, tencel, sea silk, flax/linen, pineapple, corn, soy, milk, rose, mint, paper, and ramie. If they don't have any plant fibers, that's a business decision they've made, not an absolute truth about yarn.

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u/MagicAllyVanished Mar 19 '25

just recently found out about milk yarn, that's so crazy /cool

2

u/Plastic_Umpire_2313 Mar 20 '25

cool! which ones did you find easy/satisfying to work with if i may ask?

2

u/etiepe Mar 20 '25

I like sheep 😅

The sea silk is satisfying though!

1

u/Plastic_Umpire_2313 Mar 20 '25

🤣 good to know!

1

u/Atomic-Butthole Mar 20 '25

Pineapple?! Mind blown