Andrea's Knitting for Sanity: It's all about hemp

While I'm cruising on Facebook this memory pops up of showing a picture of my husband wearing the hemp sweater I knitted for him 7 years ago. The sweater still fits and is one of his favorite sweaters.The pattern is Luvtröja Måns by Katarina Brieditis. Link to my Ravelry project page.

I'm excited because Virginia has passed a bill for Virginia farmers to grow hemp. I hope farmers will start soon and there will be Virginia grown Hemp yarn available for knitting.

Why am I so excited about Hemp? It's not that you can smoke it. Hemp is the most misunderstood fiber The industrial hemp variety grows stalky with few leaves and flowers and contains less than 0.3% THC. Weed that you smoke contains between 3-20% THC. So you have to smoke a heaping lot and still won't get high. Information from knitting pattern book No Sheep for You by Amy R. Singer

But why do I like hemp so much?

the fiber is very durable
it gets softer with every wash
when you leave it in the washing machine, it doesn't get moldy - yes it is machine washable and you can tumble dry it!
it always bounces back into shape.
it's 100% natural
great for people with wool allergies
and most of all it's an all season fiber

Yesterday I went stash diving and found some leftover Hemp for Knitting Allhemp3 in foggy and charcoal and decided to cast on another Waiting for Rain shawl. This pattern is the sweetest distraction and a vacation from your current WIP's (Work in progress). I call it Waiting for Hemp because I'm hoping to have some local grown Hemp yarn to knit with soon!

Link to my Waiting For Hemp