The ideal yarn for baby blankets?

coggietm wrote:
For babies I like cotton, Encore ( which is a mix) or straight
acrylic. These are mostly because the mom doesn't have to hand wash.
For acrylic , I do tend to use Bernat or Caron, as it is not as
scratchy as Red Heart IMO.
Coggie

When my dd was expecting her first, she notified me that anything I knit
for the baby would, repeat WOULD be in acrylic, so that it could be
tossed in the washer, then the dryer, then put straight back on the
baby. I acceded to her wishes, but was very fussy about selecting high
quality, soft yarns. Those clothes went right through all three of her
kids and are still good, as well as good looking and hard wearing.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Olwyn Mary wrote:

When my dd was expecting her first, she notified me that anything I knit
for the baby would, repeat WOULD be in acrylic, so that it could be
tossed in the washer, then the dryer, then put straight back on the
baby. I acceded to her wishes, but was very fussy about selecting high
quality, soft yarns. Those clothes went right through all three of her
kids and are still good, as well as good looking and hard wearing.

There's someone on one of my knitting mailing lists who is a nurse and
has seen LOTS of babies with horrid burns from melted acrylic when there
was a fire.

Personally, I am growing to like cotton yarn very much.

--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.

On 2007-08-17 08:11:21 -0400, (Jake Wildstrom) said:

The Prophet Padishar Creel , known to the wise as
, opened the Book of Words, and read unto the
people:
What would be the idea yarn (brand as well) for a baby blanket? I
have done one in cotton but it isn't very colorfast. One in a 75%
acrylic 25% wool blend but I am worried about pilling and allergies.

Technically 100% Baby Alpaca is supposed to be very very
hypo-allergenic. We use an undyed 100% Baby Alpaca fiber that has been
washed in our rooms at our hospital to help prevent allergies when
we're unsure who will be in the bed.

I make all of my baby items with a natural fiber and supply the mother
with very very simple cleaning directions. Fill the sink or a tub with
luke warm water, a cap full of the supplied wool wash product, let sit
for 15 mins, all done. Very few things don't come out when you do that.

The most recent baby I've been knitting for had a mother that cried for
everything to be machine washable acrylic. I knit with wool anyways,
sent her the directions with a bottle of a light wool wash, and she
says it's so much easier than she expected.

In regards to babies not being able to wear wool due to possible
allergies -- throughout history and even into the 50's, that's all they
wore. It breaths much better than Acrylic, so it keeps them warmer but
also whicks to help cool off. A fine wool is great to wear in the
summer (obviously Lopi wouldn't be).

Of course, there are also plenty of machine washable wools
(specifically merino) that are quite soft, can be thrown in the wash,
and the treatment process to make them machine washable has removed all
of the components that cause MOST allergies.

Joseph

I love baby alpaca for baby human gifts. I've never machine washed
it, but I like the softness of it for babies.

I also like superwash merino. I've used Cherry Tree Hill Superwash
Sock yarn, incredibly soft, but awfully thin and kind of expensive for
a blanket. CTH makes a DK and/or a worsted superwash merino, too.

I would purchase a few individual skeins of different fibers you'd
like to try, swatch them up and so to them what you will to see if
they meet your standards.

As for affordability, I like Elann.com and Knitpicks.com. I can
usually find good natural fibers at excellent prices. (NAYY). All
the mom's for whom I've knitted or crocheted gifts using natural
fibers have been delighted. I always include simple cleaning
instructions.

Hesira

On Sep 9, 1:38 am, Joseph wrote:

Technically 100% Baby Alpaca is supposed to be very very
hypo-allergenic. We use an undyed 100% Baby Alpaca fiber that has been
washed in our rooms at our hospital to help prevent allergies when
we're unsure who will be in the bed.

I make all of my baby items with a natural fiber and supply the mother
with very very simple cleaning directions. Fill the sink or a tub with
luke warm water, a cap full of the supplied wool wash product, let sit
for 15 mins, all done. Very few things don't come out when you do that.

The most recent baby I've been knitting for had a mother that cried for
everything to be machine washable acrylic. I knit with wool anyways,
sent her the directions with a bottle of a light wool wash, and she
says it's so much easier than she expected.

In regards to babies not being able to wear wool due to possible
allergies -- throughout history and even into the 50's, that's all they
wore. It breaths much better than Acrylic, so it keeps them warmer but
also whicks to help cool off. A fine wool is great to wear in the
summer (obviously Lopi wouldn't be).

Of course, there are also plenty of machine washable wools
(specifically merino) that are quite soft, can be thrown in the wash,
and the treatment process to make them machine washable has removed all
of the components that cause MOST allergies.

Joseph