Last month I shared how to knit and crochet conductive tips that can be sewn on to any pair of gloves, rendering them touchscreen gloves. The yarn I used for that easy DIY was Feel Good Yarn Company’s SilverSpun Sport, which comes in six colors. It’s not your traditional yarn. While made with cotton, nylon and spandex, actual silver is wound into this yarn, giving it some special and unique properties, including the conductivity which made touchscreen gloves work.
That’s probably your first question, because it was mine too. The concept of putting precious metals in fibers has been around for a very long time. Silver in particular possesses antimicrobial and thermal properties that make using it in clothing make sense. If you knit a pair of socks with SilverSpun yarn, the antimicrobial properties of the silver help your socks, well, stink less. Clothes get smelly when bacteria takes up shop, so making it with something that inhibits bacterial growth is practical.
Another interesting thing I learned when reading up on the history of silver in medicine was that about 100 years ago, it was common practice to suture wounds with silver wire to reduce infection rates. As far back as ancient Greece, people would use silver vessels to keep their water or wine fresh.
For more on silver as an antibacterial agent, I found The Silver Institue’s website useful.
On top of the health benefits, this yarn is also straight up conductive. In fact, SilverSpun is, to my knowledge, the only option out there for hand making touchscreen gloves like the ones I shared last month.
Interesting, but how does it knit?
I have a new pattern coming out next month designed to take advantage of SilverSpun’s therapeutic properties. In an interview Feel Good Yarn’s founder did with the Woolful podcast, she discussed the incredible feedback she’s gotten from folks with repetitive stress, circulation and other hand issues, which sometimes give me trouble, particularly when winter knitting. I thought it would be great to have a pair of therapeutic hand warmers to help keep up circulation as I knit, plus the antimicrobial properties of the yarn mean that I won’t have to wash them all the time since they won’t pick up smells. (With other hand warmers I’ve tried, forgetting I have the warmers on when I pet my dogs tends to their needing laundered a lot.)
I’ve knit up my first sample of these mitts, shown above (my ends still need woven in), and here are the highlights I have to share after having worked with SilverSpun a couple times now:
- This yarn comes preshrunk, which is a great thing not to have to worry about.
- Its 3% spandex content makes it stretchy.
- The yarn is really soft to the touch. You’d never know SilverSpun has metal in it unless you look really close and see the color variation in the yarn.
- The colors the SilverSpun sport is available in are great for fall, plus the creams and greys available offer up a nice, neutral palette.
- SilverSpun yarn has memory, so it “remembers” the shape it’s been put in.
All in all, I recommend trying out this yarn, particularly if you have someone special to craft for. A diabetic uncle, a grandmother with arthritis who can’t craft as much anymore, a cell phone-addicted teen – these are all people who would be ideal to make handmade gifts for that take advantage of SilverSpun’s unique properties. They’re gifts they will really appreciate!
Enter to win a skein of SilverSpun!
This yarn is great, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Enter here to win a skein of SilverSpun Sport yarn in your choice of color.
Yarn pictured and being given away was provided by Feel Good Yarn Company, which is a current sidebar sponsor of this blog. Information is from Feel Good Yarn’s website and listed interviews. Information in this review should not be considered medical advice. Do not self-treat a condition without consulting your doctor. Opinions expressed are my own.
I recently purchased some yarn from “Feel good yarns” for a Christmas gift for a friend, who made a request. But, once my husband, saw the skein, another request came in. Really, nothing for me, the knitter and everyone else gets the items. Fair???
I think not! (But of course that’s how it always works, doesn’t it?) ;)
My boyfriend and I have been binge watching the first season of “The Knick.” There were a couple of episodes where the doctor’s talk about using silver thread for operations in general (people died less; they didn’t know why though) but particularly for heart surgery because cat gut blocked the heart’s electrical signals whereas the silver conducted them and prevented further heart problems while healing. I don’t know how accurate that is since it’s a TV show but it seems like pretty sound logic.
I don’t think you need to weave in the ends at all. They look pretty as a fringe!
Wow, I had no idea about these benefits. My mom is diabetic and a crafter so she could definitely use something made out of this. Thanks for the giveaway!