Arm Blanket
When photos began emerging showing folk knitting on their arms using roving, I shuddered. Merino is probably one of the more expensive of the wool fibres and to make a full sized blanket it would take pounds of the stuff. For example 100 grams of merino roving (plain Jane natural white) would cost about $15.00 Cdn. For a small blanket, you would need at least a couple of kilos (5-6 pounds). Once you had it made, it would be extremely difficult to clean because it would be extremely bulky and it would not fit into a washing machine, nor would you want to. So putting it into the bathtub would be one way to wash it, but fully saturated wool is extremely heavy and how would it be dried? It could not be hung up but would need to be laid flat somewhere. And it would take ages to dry.
But that's just one factor.
Roving is unspun fibre. As such you would be knitting with loose fibre that has zero structure, therefore zero stability. It would not be able to withstand abrasion and I'm not sure that knitted on something the size of someone's arms, it would even stand up to just laying on the back of a sofa.
The above link sets out in clear terms why someone would not want to arm knit a merino (or any other type of roving) blanket.
Hair type fibres such as alpaca or llama would be even worse. Those fibres are slippery and would tend to pull apart even faster.
In my opinion, knitting a roving blanket on your arms is a very bad idea. The very definition of conspicuous consumption, an example of waste. A waste of your time, your money and a very nice fibre in a format intended to be spun not worked with as is. Unless you are felting it. But again, it is the raw material to make something that will have stability, will withstand abrasion, will last for more than a month or two.
So my advice? Buy the merino. Spin it. Knit a lovely blanket with one third the fibre and have it last for years, not a few weeks. Don't know how to spin? Buy the spun yarn.
When photos began emerging showing folk knitting on their arms using roving, I shuddered. Merino is probably one of the more expensive of the wool fibres and to make a full sized blanket it would take pounds of the stuff. For example 100 grams of merino roving (plain Jane natural white) would cost about $15.00 Cdn. For a small blanket, you would need at least a couple of kilos (5-6 pounds). Once you had it made, it would be extremely difficult to clean because it would be extremely bulky and it would not fit into a washing machine, nor would you want to. So putting it into the bathtub would be one way to wash it, but fully saturated wool is extremely heavy and how would it be dried? It could not be hung up but would need to be laid flat somewhere. And it would take ages to dry.
But that's just one factor.
Roving is unspun fibre. As such you would be knitting with loose fibre that has zero structure, therefore zero stability. It would not be able to withstand abrasion and I'm not sure that knitted on something the size of someone's arms, it would even stand up to just laying on the back of a sofa.
The above link sets out in clear terms why someone would not want to arm knit a merino (or any other type of roving) blanket.
Hair type fibres such as alpaca or llama would be even worse. Those fibres are slippery and would tend to pull apart even faster.
In my opinion, knitting a roving blanket on your arms is a very bad idea. The very definition of conspicuous consumption, an example of waste. A waste of your time, your money and a very nice fibre in a format intended to be spun not worked with as is. Unless you are felting it. But again, it is the raw material to make something that will have stability, will withstand abrasion, will last for more than a month or two.
So my advice? Buy the merino. Spin it. Knit a lovely blanket with one third the fibre and have it last for years, not a few weeks. Don't know how to spin? Buy the spun yarn.
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