In Love With Bamboo!

I’m wearing the best pair of bamboo socks as I write this, which I bought this week at Target. Last night I slept on bamboo-cotton pillowcases (with a 300 thread count; they are soft as a cloud!) And I’m knitting the prettiest scarf of bamboo yarn coupled with a fun pompom acrylic (both super inexpensive at Joanne’s).

I am all about bamboo these days. We have lots of it growing in the yard where it makes an effective—and very beautiful—screen between our pond and our neighbor’s yard, and provides lots of coverage for wildlife.

The bamboo plant is beautiful, ancient, sustainable and functional. It grows quickly and is very strong, and therefore, is a good renewable choice for wood. It has antimicrobial properties, which means it can be grown easily without pesticides, and presumably produces a fiber that has antibacterial properties. In one study, wearing bamboo socks eliminated the symptoms of athlete’s foot in subjects in just a few days! Unlike wool, bamboo is also hypoallergenic.

I like that bamboo has a solid place in history and culture. The Chinese have used it for at least 7,000 years. Over the past 10 centuries or so, it has been used for paper, shoes, mats, rafts, bowls, furniture, scaffolding, medicine, and, of course, food.

My love affair with bamboo really started, though, when I started to knit. I won’t use wool (it’s itchy, and more importantly, its production is cruel to animals) so I am always on the lookout for good vegan alternatives. Cotton and all the acrylics are fine, but it is so much more fun to knit with unusual plant fibers. I’ve found a few nice soy yarns, but the bamboo choices are more widespread and much softer and very attractive. They are especially nice for baby blankets.

Here are a couple of my favorite examples of bamboo!

My bamboo pompom scarf (on bamboo needles, of course):



Our baby cat--his name is Bamboo!