<p>One of my co-workers announced that she’s pregnant today (yay! lab baby!).</p>
<p>I’m a knitter, and I’d like to knit something for the baby. But my co-worker is Jewish, and keeps kosher, and I know there are probably lots of kosher rules that I don’t know about, so I just wanted to check: are there any rules about the kinds of fibers that are kosher or not? </p>
<p>Observant Jews avoid something called “shatnez”. Wikipedia has an article about it. I can’t think of any reason why a DNA symbol wouldn’t be okay. Maybe someone else has another opinion on that?</p>
<p>By the way, just because someone’s Jewish and keeps kosher doesn’t mean they hold to shatnez laws. Why don’t you ask her?</p>
<p>You are very considerate to contemplate this issue.</p>
<p>It seems, from the Wikipedia article, that this yarn would be shatnez – it’s primarily wool, and I can’t find the information about the source protein of the microfiber, which is often polyamide or polyester, and is sometimes made from plants. So I guess it depends whether it’s just linen that’s forbidden, or whether it’s any mixture of wool with plant fiber.</p>
<p>I can always use cotton, of course, which is easily machine-washable for a stressed new mom. But the 12% cashmere yarn is very soft!</p>
<p>mollie, I do Judaic fabric art (including ritual clothing pieces) and as long as it’s not wool and linen mixed together, you should be fine. I’ve done wool and cotton and wool and silk – both are OK. Checked with my rabbi.</p>
<p>Love the DNA cable!!! S1 wants a Klein bottle hat and a Mobius scarf (guess his major!).</p>
<p>Just a warning, mollie, that lab pregnancy can be contagious. We identified a suspicious stool shared by several of us who became pregnant at the same time.</p>
<p>midmo, I’m seriously hoping you mean the kind of stool that you sit on, right? It’s just that you mention labs and well… there are certain associations.</p>
<p>LOL… Here we go, Mollie! Being the CC newlyweds, the CC mommies are going to start casually mentioning about the possibility of CC grandchildren now… </p>
<p>Sure, now, it’s “watch out for contagious pregnancy!” but then before we know it, it’ll be “if you don’t use your baby factory it might shut down” and “we just want to see our CC grandchildren before we log off forever!”</p>
<p>mollie, it is so nice of you to make a gift and so considerate to ask. Let me chime in - I know very little about kosher yarns, but I know many, many people who are allergic to wool. If I were to knit something for a person who’s not born yet, I’d pick all-cotton, cotton/synthetic blend or synthetic yarns to err on the safe side. Yup, lab pregnancies are very contagious - beware!</p>
<p>^That’s true – I love wool myself, so I hadn’t thought about the possibility of allergy.</p>
<p>I already have this impossibly detailed plan to get pregnant while I’m writing up my dissertation in ~2 years, then have the baby while sticking around in the lab for a while to finish up papers. I don’t actually think babies are schedulable in that way, but it would be really nice not to go off to a postdoc with a brand-new baby.</p>
<p>But my husband’s co-worker has a 6-month-old, and last night at their holiday party, H spent a suspicious amount of time playing peek-a-boo and bouncing the baby on his knee. So somebody in my marriage has the baby bug already. :)</p>
<p>(Also, my co-worker’s partner’s lab has three babies arriving within a few weeks of each other, including a baby each to a collaborating pair of grad students. The PI is not very happy…)</p>
<p>Re wool for baby blanket - something washable like cotton or even 100% acrylic might be preferable for a baby. There is an acrylic from one of the big yarn companies that is for baby projects, and I don’t think there would be an issue regarding mixing of fibers. You know that for any of these type of kosher questions you can get a lot of differing opinions. </p>
<p>BTW, I thought it was when you picked up someone else’s new baby that the contagion occurred. This is what I had always been told. I am too old for this now, but I guess I will warn others about sitting on certain stools etc.</p>
<p>What a lovely and thoughtful gift, Mollie! I love the DNA cable. I hope you will post photos when the sweater is finished.</p>
<p>I have no idea about Jewish laws, but I second the caution on using wool. A good friend of mine gave me a beautiful wool blanket that she’d knitted at the shower for S1. Unfortunately, he was never able to use it because he arrived complete with multiple allergies and quickly developed eczema. Wool anywhere near him was out of the question. Another consideration is easy washability. You have to count on anything babies wear being spit up on, or worse, frequently!</p>
<p>^The yarn is machine-washable. I know that’s definitely a consideration! </p>
<p>I will probably go haunt the baby yarn section of my local yarn store. There are some nice cotton and cotton-blend baby yarns, and, actually, the most frequent yarn used to make this particular sweater is a cotton/synthetic blend.</p>
<p>The vast majority of babies are not allergic to wool. Unless the baby’s mom or dad had allergies, I’d go with a washable wool or wool blend-- cotton is heavy and hard to knit, and wool is so much warmer.</p>
<p>I was going to mention allergy/sensitivity as well- especially if it was for a tiny baby- their skin is like paper.
But still you could make a receiving blanket & they could use a cotton one between it if there is a problem plus blankets make nice keepsakes.</p>
<p>I didn’t have a suspect stool, but when I was first married and was transferred to another dept, the woman I sat next to warned me that everyone who worked next to her became pregnant.
I did too, except that was the pregnancy that I eventually lost after 4 months.</p>
<p>It’s actually a little sweater – I’m a slow (and impatient) knitter, so I’m not a big fan of making blankets. I think my crocheting co-worker is probably going to take over blanket-making duties.</p>
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