It's like using the good china

I want you to knit yourself some fancy washcloths

Last year, the amazing Hunter Hammersen, designer of stunning shawls and perfectly patterned socks and incredible tiny things, let me know that she had turned a bundle of yarn I’d sent her into … well, into washcloths.

I was curious, because I had only ever before thought of washcloths as being simple squares knit or crocheted out of dishcloth cotton. Something practical for washing dishes. And the yarn I’d sent Hunter was something altogether different. It was a silk/linen blend that is one of the pricier ones I carry (a full skein of the worsted weight is $36, so definitely not dishcloth cotton). I’ve knit this one into summer tops but haven’t fallen in love with it, so you haven’t seen it in my shop before. I’d sent it to Hunter as an afterthought because she’d put out a call for washable plant fibers. (Silk is a protein, or animal, fiber, but I thought it might suit her needs.)

I should have known Hunter would turn this into something magical, but I was not prepared for how deeply this project would hit my heart.

I am going to shamelessly purloin Hunter’s blog post from today about this project, named Lather, because when she explained to me what she’d done with that bundle of silk and linen, my jaw dropped and it resonated so, so deeply. This was something I needed to do, too.

And I want you to have the same reaction I did. One of awe, recognition, support, and a feeling of learning to deeply love your very own self.

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Lather
by Hunter Hammersen

There are folks out there who make their money by teaching you to hate your body then selling you something to fix or hide what they say is wrong with you. And oh, oh they’re good at their jobs. They’re so good at it that you probably don’t even notice how often they subtly suggest that you’re too fat or have too much cellulite or too many stretch marks, or that you’re too old or have too many wrinkles or too many gray hairs, or that your pores are too big or your eyebrows too sparse or your teeth too crooked.

But once you start to notice, you’ll see those messages everywhere. Which is infuriating! But it’s also the first step to making yourself less susceptible to that garbage. Because once you notice, you can ask why you’re being made to feel bad, who benefits from those bad feelings. And once you start to do that, a lot of those bad feelings just go away. And then? Well then you can start to experiment with what it’s like to have nice feelings about your body. To be kind to it. To treat it gently.

That process will look different for everyone, but for me, a big part of being kind to my body is taking delightfully extravagant showers. The kind where you tidy up the bathroom and light your favorite candle and put on some good music and deep condition your hair and use the yummy smelling soap and the very fancy washcloth and whatever else makes the process feel good.

And I swear it helps. It helps so much. Because it’s hard to hate something you treat kindly and gently. And it’s so much nicer to live in a body you’ve come to care for rather than one you’ve been taught to hate.

These are Hunter’s Lather washcloths, knit out of my Luna silk/linen in Foxtail (the pale yellow; worsted weight) and Raii (the electric yellow-green; fingering weight).

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These are my Lather washcloths. I was not adept at brioche when I cast on my first one, but after a few days, I mastered it and could not stop knitting these little leafy cloths. I now have a tidy stack of 7.

I am so delighted to bring you a kit, yarn, and teaching bundle (yes! brioche-for-beginners!) all centered around the idea of caring for yourself in the same way you should use the good china.

Today is special occasion enough. You are enough.

If it’s in your budget to splash out on a luxe kit, I’ve put every bit of heart and joy into this package. It not only has the same silk/linen yarn I sent Hunter (in a choice of colors) but also a bundle of handmade things to care for your body: handmade soap in fresh orange blossom scent, my own handmade avocado balm, and so much more.

You can also buy just the pattern and use stash yarn. You can buy the pattern and some of my silk/linen yarn.

I’ve also thought of the folks who are beginners to brioche knitting, and have invited my colleague, Kavitha Raman, to join the Lather party and teach a brioche for beginners class. If brioche feels daunting to you, you can add on her bundle, and Kavitha and I will join you (live on Zoom; recorded for later review) and Kavitha will make sure you get the hang of it.

Practical talk …

Today’s launch comes in a little bit of a spicy time of life. Sometimes life is like this. Caring for family members, managing Grownup Stuff, taking care of our brains as much as our bodies … for small, solo-person businesses, all this can require flexibility and creativity.

I’ll be out of the studio for the next few days (I am getting ready to make a very short trip to Yosemite—in the snow, friends!—that had been postponed), so I’ve marked most everything in this collection launch as a preorder.

But the truth is that I’ve dyed quite a bit of yarn in advance and the gorgeous orange blossom soap (handmade for you by Tuft Woolens!) is already made and curing. (Did you know that soap needs to cure for a full month before it can be used?!) So, yes, it’s a preorder. But there’s a good chance that if you order this week, your kit will ship a lot sooner than the usual 4-6 week timeframe. But I’ve put that in there just to be safe, and also because I never know how many of you will want to make a particular thing.

So, if you want to make some very fancy washcloths with me, whether as a gift for yourself or for someone else, then I want to make a kit for you.