Did you know that merino wool is not just a beautifully soft and lovely yarn? This year, I pledged that I would keep running in winter. Since I am a forever-cold-body person I did a research on what sort of things are good to wear outside when you exercise… and I was really surprised that I landed on MERINO WOOL! They are used for so many winter sports clothing (cycling, mountain climbing, skiing.. you name it!).
So here are some facts I found on merino:
Regulates body temperature without over heating.
Merino fibres has lots of tiny pores on their fiber which traps air. This acts like a layers between your body temperature and the outside environment keeping you warm when the weather is cold, and vice versa.
Apparently Merino has high warmth to weight ratio. which means lots of warmth with less amount of fibre.
Merino wool wick moisture away so that your body feels nice and dry.
Merino is a hydrophillic (mening loves water!) fibre and can wick up to 1/3 of its weight.
Merino wool is naturally anti-bacteiral.
This means that the fabric is resistant to smell (unlike the sysnthetic counterpart).
The reason for this is that bacteria prefers to grow on an even surface with moisture but merino wool fibre has uneven surface and it draws water keeping the surface dry.
So I thought I would knit something for myself a nice little project using merino wool…

Free glove pattern Rayna by Artesano. Haven't knitted selbuvotter for ages!
Pattern: Rayna by Rita Taylor, a free knitting pattern by Artesano.
Yarn: Artesano Superwash Merino (100% machine washable wool; 112m / 50 g ball). I used Purple (3158) and Baby Peach (8413).
I LOVE knitting selbuvotter of all kinds. This was perfect because it is knitted with DK weight yarn so it’s nearly finished!

So warm and so cute!
If you are a merino geek, you might have heard of some controversial issues about museling on merino sheep. I don’t know much about this issue but the fact that people talk about it, it must be an important aspect of wool production. I think some of you would be happy to know that Artesano Superwash Merino wool comes from Peru and I have read that the practice of museling does NOT happen in Peru – it’s good to know these facts.

Front view of the glove.
Also I recently found out that Artesano is giving out free knitting pattern by Nick Atkinson when you complete a quick questionnaire. And out of those who has completed a questionnaire, 5 people will win the Superwash Merino DK in their colour choice to knit the garment!!!! The deadline is 17th Feb 2012.
I have done it already
I think the pattern is beautiful (see below). Isn’t it nice? It’s so clever that the diagonal eyelets are worked on the yoke. It continues even across the buttonband! I so want to knit with a red (colour: 8083) or teal (colour: 6701). I also think grey (colour SFN41) would look gorgeous.

This is going to be a beautiful cardi that you can knit up quick!
So much fun in winter.
Happy knitting!
































I have a FREE PDF sewing pattern download to share with you
My my lunch is often shoved into a plastic bag last minute before I leave home. It has come to a point that I really needed a nice bag that I can quickly put my lunch in it and grab and go out.
I won’t bore you with too much mechanics of this bag. Though if I were to mention just one thing about this bag is the contrasting wide gusset which allows you to put a fairly large Tupper Ware (which has your yummy lunch in it). I have used Colourful Japanese Fans (natural) fabric and
You can download the pattern directly by clicking 

















