With regard to fabric and yarn, here’s my thinking: if I’m going to make something, why not make it well, with the best materials, that perform best?

For fabric and yarn, that means, most of the time, I use wool.

Do you know the benefits and properties of wool? The fiber is incredible! Wool is moisture absorbing (holding moisture away from the body), insulating, easy to clean, low static, wrinkle resistant, durable, color-fast, fire retardant, dust mite repellant, natural, renewable, and easy to sew. Read more about wool at  DenverFabrics.com.

If you think wool is itchy, think again. Merino wool (very fine, smooth, soft wool) can be tolerated, even enjoyed, by most people who think they are allergic to wool.

As for being a food snob, here’s my thinking. I have to cook, right? We need to eat, right? Why spend money on things that are not good for us? Why cook/eat things that God did not provide for us to eat (like engineered, processed foods)? You can read much more about that at my kitchen/recipe site, GNOWFGLINS™.

Are you a snob about anything? I’d like to compile a list with input from all my readers. Share and give your reasoning. I know we can all learn and be inspired by what is shared.

Oh, be sure to start your comment with “My name is _____ and I’m a _____ snob.”

Yesterday, I watched Persuasion while finishing up Jeff’s back up wool earflap/neckflap hat. Then I started a forest green hat for my friend. She is going to give me a Thai massage in exchange. After that I’d like to make a hat for myself. I think its more than past my turn. I’m almost out of the fine wool yarn I bought from KnitPicks.com last February. Time to go shopping again. Any color requests?

Note: View my pattern here: Wardeh’s Crochet Earflap-Neckflap Hat.

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As it turned out, I didn’t have to wing the crocheted ear flap hat after all. I found a pattern! Here it is. (You may have to have a free registration at LionBrand.com to view the pattern.)

The reason I chose this pattern over all the others that were in the running was that it included a neck flap to keep the neck warm, too.

I crocheted this hat for Jeff entirely on Sunday. It did take me half the day, but it was my first try and I had a half-dozen false starts.

The only change I made to pattern was to make a chain of 4 at the very beginning, instead of a chain of 5. This made a smaller hole at the center top of the hat. Actually, I wonder now if I chained 3 only?

The pattern surprisingly did not include any ties. I used the instructions in this pattern to make those. Thank you to my friend Shari for telling me about this pattern.

Jeff wore his new hat when he was called, on Sunday night, to work all night in a storm. He said that if not for this hat, he would have felt much, much colder.

Now the girls are asking for hats of their own. I plan on sitting down with them one afternoon this week and getting them started on crocheting their own.

Yarn: Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks, black.

Update: We determined the above hat was a bit small on Jeff. So I made him another and added one more row of increase (row #13 became an increase row instead of a row that stayed the same).

Because that meant the hat now had 6 more stitches in its circumference, I shifted all the markers 2 stitches toward the front. So, marker #1 was now at stitch 12, marker #2 was now at stitch 24, marker #3 was now at stitch 48, and marker #4 was now at stitch 60. The result of this shifting is that it makes the neckflap a little wider (by 4 stitches) and the front a little wider (by 2 stitches). The width of each earflap stayed the same, just shifted position.

Also, we determined the ties were not long enough, so I added about 12″ to the length of each yarn piece that makes up the tie (since each piece is folded in half, that makes the resulting tie about 6″ longer).

These are the 100% merino wool interlock shirts I just finished for myself. They all started out in the natural color and then I dyed them. Two blue, one brown and one black. The pic of me in blue is not very flattering, is it? Well, what can I say. I slept in that shirt last night and it got stretched out. I kept warm though.

For more on my technique, read how I made Jeff’s merino wool interlock baselayers. Or read about all my merino wool interlock projects.

*2 of these pyrex rectangular refrigerator storage dishes, $3.99 each. Kind of high in price, but these are classic and oh, so useful. There was another for $4.50 at another store, but I passed on that one.

*An Old Navy Wool Barn Coat for Haniya, around $4 thanks to my mom’s senior discount. I’m going to copy it, because it the style I’ve been wanting to capture for all our wool coats. I have some blue boiled wool, enough to make one for Naomi at least.

*5 round pyrex bowls, no lids, around $5 for all

*8 pairs of jeans, $1 each, for making reusable shopping bags

*Lodge Cornbread Skillet, $14.99. You can read the story about that in my GNOWFGLINS™ post.

*2 more pairs of jeans, $1 each, which fit me. I bought them thinking they would be bags but I got home and they fit really well. In fact, I’ve now decided that Eddie Bauer Natural Fit Jeans are my favorite. So if anyone has any in size 8 (Tall) lying around, let me know. The Tall is a little too long, so I had to hem the ones I brought home, but regular are always too short for me, so that’s fine with me.

It comes fully assembled and very easy to figure out.

I am surprised that I’m happy hanging the wool over the bars, instead of laying it flat. But it seems to be fine. The water tends to fall to the bottom of the garments, so if a garment is not dry yet, the water can be found in the part that is lowest to the ground.

There are 16 bars from which to hang garments on the top level (which can be set to a ‘V’ too, not just flat like I’ve got it) and there are another 5 bars at mid-level for hanging more garments. That’s alot of capacity! I thought maybe I’d be buying another rack, but right now, I’m good with one.

The butterfly drying rack fits in the corner of our family/sewing/exercise room, right by the pellet stove. If we would start using the pellet stove this winter, I bet the wool would dry much more quickly. Still, already I’ve seen improvement in the timing.

One of the biggest benefits this rack has brought to me is that all the drying garments are off the floor and now fit into the one corner for drying.

About the wool: Baby-soft 100% merino wool interlock, 12-ounce. This wool is certified Oeko-Tex Standard 100. In order to receive the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certification, a cloth must undergo tests for harmful substances and be found to pose no risk whatsoever to health. The wool is completely manufactured in the USA. The manufacturer could even identify the ranch where the sheep are from, if we wanted!

one size fits all

available colors: black, dark olive brown

Price: $15, includes FREE shipping & handling in the US.

(Please contact me for an international shipping quote.)

Not available for purchase at this time.

To wash: Hand wash in cool water or use the wool cycle on a front-loading washing machine. Lay flat to dry. Preferred detergent: Kookaburra Wool Wash.

It is normal for your 100% merino wool ear warmer to stretch out after many wearings. Wash and lay flat to dry and it will spring back into shape.

When in Eugene, we’re also going to Trader Joe’s. I haven’t been in months. I haven’t needed Trader Joe’s so much because I’ve transitioned away from them, either to Hummingbird Wholesale (also in Eugene, but they deliver right to me) or to local sources of food. But, still, I do get some things there, such as dark chocolate , vanilla, dish soap, shampoo/conditioner, olive oil spray, and teas. We definitely could use some of the chocolate. Or I could.

Another thing going on here. We have so many wool garments now. They can’t go in the dryer so the house is littered with drying wool here and there. In my online research yesterday, I settled on Joyful Spin Cycle’s Butterfly Clothes Drying Rack. It is a spendier one, but high quality and hopefully will clean up my wool-drying clutter. I ordered it in chocolate brown yesterday and got a notice that it had shipped within 10 minutes. It will be here Monday. That is so fast; great service!

I’ll be sure to share how I like it. If it works, I plan to get at least one more. That is how much wool we have drying constantly.

I promised my mom and dad that when they’re here in November, I will make each of them a wool t-shirt as birthday gifts. Both of their birthdays are in October.

As a fun thing, and perhaps a money-maker, I used up a whole bunch of of the 100% merino wool scraps by making headband/ear warmers. I wore one of these all winter last winter, and I love them. They do get stretched out after many wearings, but the fix is easy. Wash on gentle/hand-wash/wool cycle and then lay flat to dry. Naomi and Haniya helped me dye them and they really enjoyed that. The colors are: periwinkle, teal, grey/silver, and black. I plan to put them in a basket for sale at my friend’s bookstore. Perhaps here on this site, too, if I can get a little shop set up.

Naomi and I dyed a bunch of the kids’ wool shirts today. (The dyes I ordered arrived yesterday.) We were eager to see the colors in real life, not just powder or on the screen! I planned on each child having three wool long-sleeve t-shirts for the winter.

First up: periwinkle. Next: teal. Third: stand-by black. (Black not shown. Use your imagination on that one.)

The close-up of the neckline shows a very nice 1/2″ neckline binding applied with my Janome coverstitch machine. Naomi took the picture of the neckline for you.

This 100% merino wool interlock (from Covered Caboose) is the easiest fabric I have ever sown. It is a dream. I love that God made wool with incredible properties (insulating, antimicrobial, water absorbing, water repellent, etc.) that make it useful in our clothing; its value has been proven throughout the ages. I’m thankful that we have access to such fine and useful material!