Wool Yarn: A basic charity alternative
3 reasons to use wool yarn on charity projects
Wool yarn is not used as often as acrylic yarn on charity knitting projects for a couple of reasons. For one thing, wool yarn is generally more expensive to buy. It is also harder and more expensive to care for, so it's not necessarily a good choice for charity knitting for low-income folks or for street-related projects.
THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOOL YARN
But, in some instances, wool yarn is the perfect choice for charity projects. Here are some of the characteristics of wool yarn that make it appropriate:
- Wool yarn is 'elastic' or 'resilient,' which makes it wear very well
- Wool yarn is very warm
- Wool yarn is highly absorbent (it releases moisture slowly)
Those are three good reasons to use real wool yarn on some charity projects!
CHARITY PROJECTS THAT USE WOOL YARN
There is a charity project known as Afghans for Afghans, which collects and donates clothing, for both children and adults, to Afghanistan. A mountainous country, Afghanistan has very severe winters, so goods knitted with acrylic would not be suitable. For this reason, the project asks, on its website, for all donations to be knitted in pure wool as often as possible.
If you are knitting socks, hats or scarves for low income families or poverty projects, even here in North America, wool yarn is the right choice. The socks will keep feet much warmer than acrylic yarns, and wear much better - which means that the socks and hats you've knitted for charity will last much longer.
Another charity project that you can use wool yarn for is slippers. Because they don't have to be washed as often as socks, they'll wear much better than any man-made fibers - and keep the recipients' feet much warmer, too.
By the way, many recipients of goods knitted from wool yarn will assume that it isn't washable, but that's not necessarily true anymore of modern wool yarn. If you use wool yarn for charity projects, be sure to pin a note to the goods with the washing or other care instructions (which can be found on the label).