From Bergère de France, wool scented with Niaouli oil:
Aromalaine is a pure wool yarn embedded with microcapsules containing essential oil of Niaouli. Attached to the surface of the fibers, some microcapsules are crushed whenever you knit or wear the yarn: their precious active ingredients are released into the surrounding air. The microcapsules remain active through at least 20 wash cycles.
When you knit with Aromalaine, your hands benefit from the soothing effects of essential oil of Niaouli. The light perfume wafts from the wool and wraps you in a cocoon of pure well-being. Knitted into a garment, the wool continues to release its microcapsules, which gently diffuse as you move about. Try the experience, breathe the air feeling is believing!
Available in a variety of colors, £4.59 per skein at Fiddlesticks in the UK. (via fiddlesticks, with thanks to Melissa for the link!)
I’m an avid knitter, so I should like this. But I wonder if wearing a scented sweater would clash with the scent I’ve chosen for the day, KWIM? Of course I’ll have to try it… perfume and knitting – it would be too hard to pass up!
If it was light enough, perhaps it would smell good with what you were wearing? But thinking personally I would like it for a scarf rather than a sweater.
I wonder if each skein has a different scent? You need to buy skeins in the same dye lot for a project, so the color doesn’t vary – would you need to buy the same scent lot, too?
I’m sure the fragrance is nice, but I do a lot of knitting for gifts, and I’m not sure I want all the legions smelling the same, lol – my dh, our kids, our nephews, my sister-in-law, my brother, etc.
But I do agree it would be nice for a scarf, Robin. Maybe if I can get my hands on it, I’ll use it for just that.
Good question, although it wouldn’t matter as much for the scent, would it? I mean, it would all presumably mingle in a way that different color lots wouldn’t.
I do wish I had the patience to knit.
I wish I had the TIME!
Yeah, that too.
I’ve been a knitter for some 25 years now, and I hear that all the time: “Oh, I don’t have the patience to knit!” And I always tell them the same thing: patience is knitting’s gift to you. Plus, it gives you an excuse to sit in front of the TV for endless hours; at the end of it, you have a scarf or a sweater to show for your exertions, instead of just being a lump.
However, I think this yarn sounds extremely silly, since you can just spritz yourself, or the wrong side of your knit garment, before you wear it. You certainly get a lot more choice than plain old naiouli, whichi is awful stuff. I once bought a bottle of the essential oil thinking it was neroli. It isn’t.
Yeah, but I really did try, and the person who was trying to teach me agreed wholeheartedly that it was not going to happen.
I absolutely believe you. I’ve been told by a couple of quite good artists that I could learn to draw, that anyone could (anyone but me, I guess, because I’ve tried and it will NEVER HAPPEN).
My point was only that not having patience is not an answer, nor an excuse, because once something interests you, you can develop patience to keep practicing until you become good at it. But it has to speak to you. If you or anyone else were to try a dozen or twenty creative things that seemed to fit–cooking, whittling, chain-mail armour construction, soapmaking, quilting, whatever–I am absolutely certain that one of them would take root. That’s why we have to expose the children in our lives to as many creative possibilities as we can.
But enough of that. I still think scented wool is a bit silly.
I love your comments, Pyramus. I’ve heard that a lot, too. The Canadian writer Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, a knitting artist and designer, has pointed out that she can’s see why people think it takes patience to knit, when half the time she’s cussing out her knitting if not throwing it across the room in frustration.
I can teach you to knit. I am a professional knitter and knitting instructor and I have taught the blind to knit. Twice. I’m not kidding. My youngest students are four. One was a little girl, almost five, and the other is a little boy barely four who picked up the Continental cast on in minutes. Tiniest hands I’ve ever seen doing that!
There are lots of yarns impregnated with jojoba oil, aloe vera, and other things meant to soften your skin or provide anti-bacterial properties. I haven’t seen this one, but I will pass it along. Maybe it will sell as well as our glow in the dark yarn, just for the novelty of it.
and how many times can you was your scarf/sweater before it’s all gone??
It says 20 wash cycles.
Might work well for making a dog sweater.
Yes!
Well, this wins for “Most Surreal Moment of the Day.” I’m a yarnaholic of the highest order, totally obsessed with knitting, and when I came to this post in my news-reader, I thought, “Wait, I’m sure I was reading posts about perfume!” Definitely, definitely going to have to get my hands on this yarn, because how can I pass up the opportunity to mix together two obsessions that don’t usually mix?
Oh good, do let us know how the scent is, and how well it lasts!
I should mix some of these into a blanket that I’m working on.
Why not?
Wow, something that combines my 2 favorite hobbies! What does Niaouli oil smells like? And I wonder if the yarn is soft?
I’ve never smelled it, sorry!
Niaouli is a relative of tea tree and smells pretty much the same, although I’d say a little stronger. Like tea tree it is strongly anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal. I can’t imagine wearing it in wool items! And it would definitely clash with perfume.
Yeah, I just looked it up online and I am not a fan of the scent of tea-tree oil. It smells too strongly of antiseptic to me.
Here’s what I found online:
niaouli essential oil is pale yellow-green in color and has a fresh, camphoraceous aroma, reminiscent of tea tree essential oil. Niaouli oil is primarily produced in Australia.
Wool has a nice smell of its own. Of course, a lot of sweaters smell like mothballs.
Yes, some wool does. Other wool, not so much
I’m allergic to wool (my sister forgets and knits wool scarves for me) so this is out for me, but it sounds rather nice if the smell is good.
Oh, send me the wool scarves, LOL…
Wasn’t there a yarn with frangipani fragrance blended in at some point? I’m a newb in the world of knitting, but that would be a good motivator! Especially for a scarf. It would help make winters here a bit more bearable with just a hint of the tropics at my throat.
I don’t know…I’m not a knitter so maybe I’ve missed a whole world of scented yarn!
Such a shame
, I am allergic to wool. But I would not knit a “scent” pullover.
Shame!
I don’t think I’d knit a sweater or scarf out of scented wool, either. I do wonder if this might be a good thing for mittens or socks, though. I’ve got a pair of Scandinavian-knit mittens, and they’re just the thing for below-zero days. But by the end of winter, those mittens can be kind of funky-smelling. . .
That might work!
But Bergere, it’s got your name on it!
Tee hee! I actually knit a fair amount, but I’ve never seen Bergere de France sold locally. I’m familiar with the French companies Pingouin and Bouton d’Or, which seem to have more market share in the U.S. at the moment.