I was thinking about a new (to me) thought the other day. How does a wool allergy affect people who enjoy embroidery? Some embroidery styles, such as crewel embroidery, are done almost exclusively in wool thread. What does this mean for people with wool allergies? Or even just people who have sensitive skin and can’t stand the prickliness of some wool?
Do you have a wool allergy? How does that affect your embroidery? Does it mean that if you see a style of embroidery that uses wool, that you immediately think “well, that’s not for me!”, or do you think “I wonder how I can adapt that to make it work for me?”
Have you substituted cotton threads for the wool ones that are supposed to be used? Has that formed a satisfactory solution for you? What other ways have you found around the problem?
I suppose with books like Hazel Blomkamp’s “Crewel Twists” that people with wool allergies can find a way into crewel embroidery, using yarns that are not wool. That’s possibly been really helpful.
For people where it is not an allergy, but just a skin sensitivity issue, I wonder if using soft wools such as Bella Lusso or Renaissance yarns, rather than the slightly more prickly ones such as Appletons or to a lesser extent, Fine D’aubusson, would help?
Anyway, it was just a new thought for me, and one that I explored a bit in my mind, so I thought I’d ask people for whom it may be an issue. What are your thoughts? Is this an issue for you? How do you deal with it?
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
A response emailed to me by Sharon:
“I can’t wear wool next to my skin. No sweaters, but I can wear a wool skirt (with a lining or a slip) or a coat. It has never bothered me to sew with wool threads. They don’t lay in close contact with my skin for long enough to bother me.
On the other hand, I have knitted socks that are 100% wool, and they don’t itch too bad after a few hours. I have several more skeins of pure wool sock yarn to knit up, but haven’t decided if I will use it for socks or for something else.
I have a few wool shawls that I can only use when wearing long sleeves, but I have to wear long sleeves with a woven acrylic shawl, too. Wonder if it’s wool sensitivity or something else — sensitivity to scratchy fabric, maybe.”
Another emailed response, this time from Kim:
“I cannot wear wool but it does not bother me to stitch with it. Perhaps that is because if one uses a laying tool, about the only time one touches the thread is when putting it into the needle. I’ve used Medici (miss that one!), Paternayan and Appleton without a problem.”
Hi Yvette,
i get a skin reaction, red and angry and sometimes a respiratory reaction. I have been able to use Fine D’aubusson, and Appletons if I do short stitching sessions and keep my hands moisturized. I also like blending in a strand of cotton. I cannot use the DMC brand at all.
Wow. That’s a fairly major reaction. I’m glad that there are some that you can use if you need to, but it must be frustrating for you at times.
I can’t work with wool for more than a few minutes – and that includes things like felt. This reaction started in my early twenties. Every so often I try again with some soft and beautiful wool, thinking maybe the irritation will be less, but it still hurts. If I really, really have to use wool for a project, I wear hand cream. I stop as soon as it gets painful – which is usually after about fifteen or twenty minutes. Then I wash my hands and don’t come back to it for at least an hour after the pricking stops. Not much fun, but possible.
Not being able to wear or use wool got me started making plastic-canvaswork boxes using acrylic yarn, I’ve been doing these since about 1980 and still enjoy creating them occasionally. I’m not particularly attracted to traditional crewel, so that isn’t a great loss to me. I have no problem with cottons, linen, metallics, rayon, synthetics and silk. So there are plenty of other styles and techniques that I can explore. And I do, I do!
Thanks Sue. I’m sorry to hear that it’s such an awful experience for you. But I’m glad that there are many other products that you’re able to use instead. 🙂
The one time I gave Crewel a go it was with Appleton wool and it was really not a good experience. It was really itchy and prickly. I haven’t touched the stuff since. I will have to look into the other wools you mentioned to see if it will be better. But I love Hazel’s book and can’t wait to try out the patterns. To be able to do crewel and not have to use wool would be amazing.
Hi Dima, I am not a fan of Appleton crewel wool at all. I find that it goes thick-thin rather a lot, and is quite wiry. I have used some of the Renaissance wools and Bella Lusso wools and they are so lovely and soft. They don’t seem to have the same thick-thin problem either. Just keep in mind that if you’re doing crewel with a yarn other than wool, it isn’t really crewel embroidery any more, rather it is something based on crewel embroidery. 🙂
I can use wool-blends, like silk & wool. They don’t seem to bother me like pure wool does.
I get respiratory allergy problems from pure wool. Plus I get skin irritations from wool clothing, although not as severe as others have mentioned.
That’s a good solution, Lynn. I hadn’t thought of that.