TOFUtsies

I totally understand how animal fibers are spun. I sort of understand linen and bamboo. Soy is still a bit of a mystery to me. But the one that totally confuses me is chitin. According to Wikepedia, chitin is "a long-chain polymer of a N-acetylglucosamine, a derivative of glucose". I don't understand what that means, but there may be some biology or chemistry buffs out there who do. Chitin is found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans (i.e. shrimp, lobster, crabs). Some one has figured out how to create fiber/thread from chitin. Thread made from chitin is very flexible and strong. One major use of chitin is surgical thread. As surgical thread it is biodegradable, wears away as the wound heals and has properties which actually accelerate the healing of wounds. You are probably wondering what all this has to do with knitting. South West Trading Company has a lovely sock yarn, TOFUtsies, which is a blend of 50%superwash wool, 25%soysilk fiber, 22.5% cotton and 2.5% chitin. We usually advise customers knitting socks to look for yarns with a bit of nylon which adds durability. TOFUtsies uses the very strong chitin fiber for durability instead of nylon. So you can now knit socks with yarn containing fiber made from shrimp and crab shells

TOFUtsies is very soft, feels much more like cotton than wool. The plies which make up a strand of yarn are various colours, so these yarns knit with a tweedy look to them. Some called POWERSTRIPE have a Noro-ish type self-striping effect. Right now we have 7 colours. I went on Ravelry to see what people were knitting with it. Most people were knitting socks.




Colour 728 shown above was used in a cute little pair of ankle socks with a feather and fan cuff.

Pattern at http://media.wendyknits.net/knit/featherandfansock.pdf

Colour 730

Looked gorgeous in the Knitty pattern Cachoeira (above) found at

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring09/PATTcachoeira.php

or Pomatomus (below) also a Knitty pattern

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwiwnter05/PATTpomatomus.html

Colour 798 (above) looked great in Cookie A's Monkey socks (below)

Pattern from Knitty at http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTmonkey.html

Monkey is the most popular sock pattern on Ravelry with over 14,000 posted projects

Some one had created their own ankle height version of Monkey which I liked for a summer sock.

Colour 848 looked great in socks.

Not a great picture of the socks but couldn't resist the dog. The picture below shows the yarn colours better.

Colour 921 in socks from Wendy Johnson's Socks From the Toe Up

Powerstripes Colour 930 below.

Powerstripes Citron #931

Another look at 930, a Powerstripes colour

Socks a la Carte has several great sock patterns.

A lot of postings on Ravelry were shawls. Annis (below) as it appears in Knitty created with a lace yarn

Looks very nice in TOFUtsies

Pattern at http://knitty.com/ISSUEss10/PATTannis.php


A few had knit Knitty's Citron shown below in the original Malabrigo Lace

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter09/PATTcitron.php

One posting showed the start of what I believe would end up being a very attractive Citron knit in 2 colours of TOFUtsies

I was not surprised to see a few Clapotis

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTclapotis.html

in TOFUtsies

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. In sock yarn it is about a newborn size.

One posting combined TOFUtsies and Louet Gems sock yarn to create a slightly BSJ for about a one year old.

I am working on a pair of socks, and Gabriela on some lace. We will post them when done. Come check it out, I think you might like it.

TOFUtsies
50%Superwash Wool, 25%Soysilk, 22.5% cotton, 2.5% Chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells)

8st to the inch on a 2.75mm

100 gm ball, 425 meters

Machine Wash & Dry

We have 7 colours: 728, 730, 798, 848, 921, 930, 931

And the book: Knitting Socks a la Cart

Beth

Novels for Knitters: Debbie Macomber's Blossom Street Series

In the mood for some light summer reading? If you haven't discovered "The Blossom Street Series" by Debbie Macomber, I suggest you check them out. For those of you familiar with the series, I discovered a new one this past weekend at Walmart (30% of the cover price at Walmart). "The Knitting Diaries" contains three short novels by three New York Times Best Selling Authors; Debbie Macomber, Susan Mallery and Christina Skye. To be honest, I haven't read it yet, but I have read and enjoyed immensely all of the other six Blossom Street books. In a world full of earthquakes, financial doom and gloom, federal elections etc, etc, I crave happy endings. Debbie's novels are entertaining, easy reads where all the loose ends are tied up and everyone ends up happy. Debbie has published over 150 romance novels. Knitting figures prominently in the seven books in the Blossom Street Series. If you are interested in reading this series, I suggest you read them in order, the stories sort of build on each other. "The Shop on Blossom Street" is first.

Then "A Good Yarn" is #2

The Shop on Blossom Street and A Good Yarn revolve around a yarn shop, it's owner Lydia and her group of knitting class students. Book #3, "Susannah's Garden" is about the flower shop next door to the yarn store. How cool is that coincidence. (If you have never visited Serenity Knits, we have the most incredible flower shop, Blooming Wellies, next door to us)

#4 is "Back On Blossom Street"

#5 "Twenty Wishes"

#6, Summer on Blossom Street

#7, her most recent, "The 21st Wish", is a follow-up to" 20 Wishes". It is part of a 3 novel anthology called "The Knitting Diaries"

I thoroughly enjoy Debbie's novels. They are not deep or complicated or award winning novels, just simple entertaining stories that frequently hit the New York Times Best Seller List. So I am obviously not the only one who enjoys them. We have copies of several of her Blossom Street books at the store which you are welcome to borrow if you would like.

Beth

Flip

With Easter around the corner, I thought I might re post a blog entry from last fall. Last October we lost one of our pets due to poisoning from contact with a lily. We did not know lilies even in small amounts are fatally toxic to cats. It is unbelievable how big a hole in you life can be created by the absence of a silly 8 pound ball of orange fluff. Flip was just over 3 years old.

A delightful, silly little critter.

We were not entirely sure what breed she was but there is a very good chance she was Maine Coon. She had these crazy furry paws. She was also a cat who seldom went any where slowly, and loved to execute rapid sneak attacks on our other pets, especially Misty. She would barrel down the hall at top speed, jump at/over Misty and slide (very little traction with those furry paws) over the kitchen tile floor right into the wall!!!! Then she would just give you this look that said; "I meant to do that", and scurry off.

She always had to be in the middle of things. My daughter is in law school at Queens but comes home frequently. Flip would waste no time letting her know if she wasn't getting enough attention.

Flip did not respect boundaries. If she could reach it, it was hers.

She loved my yarn. If I left yarn unguarded it would often disappear. Usually she would wait until I left yarn unattended and then make off with it. I do most of my knitting in our family room. We have two couches together in one corner, I usually sit there to knit and a large stash of yarn tends to accumulate in the corner between the two couches. Often Flip would perch on the arm of one couch staring at the yarn, just waiting for me to leave so she could steal something. I always found this pose of hers so amusing, wish I had a picture of it because it reminded me so much of one of my favourite cartoons, "Snoopy the Vulture"

Flip has been gone since last October, we still miss her. But we still have lots of furry company.

Misty, aka Mystical, aka Misticat, at 14 is the matriarch of the herd.

My Bella. One of the many common interests Karen and I share is our fondness for animals. Karen also has a Black Lab purchased from the same breeder where I purchased Bella. Sierra is a couple of years older. It is kind of nice to think Bella and Sierra are probably at least cousins if not possibly siblings.

The newest addition is Sylph.

Sylph is not fond of Bella. Bella has bad knees and can't manage the stairs. So Sylph usually hangs out on the stairs or the window seat on the landing.

The following is a repeat of last October's post on lily toxicity as a warning for all cat owners as you are considering floral purchases you might be planning for Spring/Easter.

The following was originally posted October 2010.

It has been a very sad weekend in our home. And it is very bitter pill to swallow knowing it all could have been prevented if we had known that:

LILIES OF ANY KIND, EVEN IN VERY SMALL AMOUNTS, CAN BE FATALLY TOXIC TO CATS.

I have owned 7 cats over the last 30 years and am an avid gardener. I am so annoyed with myself that I did not know. Many, many knitters are also animal lovers. If like me, you were not aware of this danger to your cats, I hope this information will help prevent a similar tragedy in your home. Following the events of this past weekend, some Internet research has revealed that lily toxicity in cats has only been widely recognized in about the last 10 years. So if you have been relying on older sources of information, they may not have stressed or even mentioned this danger to your beloved pet. My sources for this information are the vets who cared for our cat Flip, and the Internet. Smaller details may not be perfectly, scientifically correct, but the bottom line is not in doubt: If your cat ingests any part, of any species of lily, it will be fatal in an extremely high percentage of cases. In large amounts, the cat becomes extremely ill and dies within a few hours. In smaller amounts, if the cat survives the initial ingestion of the plant, the toxins cause permanent kidney damage. In many cases, the kidney damage is so severe, it causes death or necessitates euthanasia. The insidious part of the lily issue is that even cats which normally might not bother with your plants are at risk. Many cats get bits of pollen on them just by being near or rubbing up against the plant, which then is ingested when the cat grooms itself. This is what we believe happened to our little darling Flip. She was not particularly interested in munching on plants. I had a bouquet of flowers on the island in the kitchen - daises, chrysanthemums, freesia and lilies. The lilies had started to drop petals but most of the others were fine, so I just left them. Our best guess is that Flip decided to investigate some petals which may have fallen on the floor, some pollen became attached, which was then ingested during grooming. It was probably only a very small amount of pollen, but enough to shut down her kidneys leaving us with no real option other than euthanasia. How cute was this face.

Studying - did we discover an especially important bit of information needing highlighting?

Nothing like a good stretch.

She was a beautiful, funny, gentle, little creature who gave us much joy and will be so, so missed. I found a website sponsored by The Cat Fanciers' Association which lists plants toxic, and non-toxic, to cats. You can check it out if you would like more information.

http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

Beth