Silk Blends, Alternatives & What to Use Instead | All About Silk Part 5

PART FIVE: Silk Blends, Alternatives & What to Use Instead 🐛🧶 We made it. 😭 After five episodes of microscopic protein structures, ancient China, the Silk Roads, spider farms, samurai armour, surgical sutures, silkworm goddesses, resurrection, mermaids and international caterpillar espionage... we're finally answering a very practical question: Do you actually need to knit with silk? In the final episode of All About Silk, we're looking at what silk actually contributes to a yarn, why it's blended with fibres like wool, mohair, cotton, linen, alpaca and cashmere, and what you can use instead if silk isn't right for your project. Because there isn't one perfect “silk substitute”. If you want drape, that's one problem. If you want lustre, that's another. If you want coolness, softness, strength or stitch definition, you might need something completely different. We also look at linen, cotton, nettle, bamboo-labelled yarns and regenerated cellulose fibres, plus why words like “natural” and “plant-based” don't necessarily tell you how a fibre was manufactured. And then there's the yarn whose label says it's made from... 100% seaweed. 🌊 We're not dealing with that today. We've been here for five episodes. 😂 🧶 Patterns worn in this video 🌿 Pumpkin Vine Wrap by Arly Knits Knitted in Onion No. 4 Organic Wool + Nettles, colour Brown. https://www.woolpoint.eu/en/c/yarns/o... The Pumpkin Vine Wrap pattern is coming to Arly Knits. I’m currently working on getting the pattern ready for release, and I’ll share more when it’s ready. 🧶🌿 🐛 The All About Silk series Part One: Everything Knitters Get Wrong About Silk Silk construction, behaviour, growth, gauge, blocking and choosing the right silk for your project.    • Everything Knitters Get Wrong About Silk (...   Part Two: The Strange History of Silk: How a Caterpillar Changed the World Ancient China, silkworm domestication, the Silk Roads, Rome and legendary international caterpillar espionage.    • PART TWO: The Strange History of Silk- How...   Part Three: Silk Beyond Knitting Spider silk, samurai armour, medicine, musical instruments, parachutes and modern biomaterials.    • Silk Beyond Knitting: The Incredible Thing...   Part Four: The Strange Stories of Silk Silkworm goddesses, death and rebirth, rituals, mythology, legendary silk heists and mermaid silk.    • PART FOUR: The Strange Stories of Silk 🐛🧙‍...   Part Five: Silk Blends, Alternatives & What to Use Instead You are here! 🐛 And that's officially the end of All About Silk. Thank you so much for coming down this completely unreasonable rabbit hole with me. 🥹 🛍️ ARLY KNITS CATALOGUE SALE My catalogue sale is still running for another three days! If there's an Arly Knits pattern you've been thinking about making, now is a very good time to grab it. 🧶✨ https://www.arlyknits.com/collections And next... I've knitted it. I've worn it. I've held it together with cotton. And the label says it's made from 100% seaweed. Which raises a fairly obvious question: How the hell do you turn seaweed into yarn? 🌊😂 NEXT: ALL ABOUT SEAWEED One video. I have learned my lesson. Probably. #knitting #silk #yarn #fibrescience #knittingtips