Investigative Blogging Time: The Knitted Tampon

[LADY BLOOD SIREN]
I've been very quite about this for some time, but trust me the research is ongoing. To update yourself on the saga, you should read this post, and this post.

CONSTRUCTION/STRUCTURE
In essence, the knitted tampon is constructed on the same basis as the crocheted tampon. That is, a knitted/crocheted shell and an inner core made of towelling. Given that I am an infinitely better knitter than crocheter, I found it a lot quicker to knit up a couple of these - they’re knitted from the open end up on round needles. Easy as pie for an obsessive sock knitter.

I tried using an old towel cut up into small strips as a core for these knitted tampons, as oppose to the weird stretch towelling that I used in the crochet set. As a result of the thickness of the fabric I wasn’t able to put as much stuffing in the shell, but I figure that the weight of the fabric would on balance work out absorbency wise.

Oh hey there little guys! The pattern for these is at Fern and Faerie.

EASE OF APPLICATION
As with the crocheted tampon, they’re not super tiny. In fact, the knitted tampon came up a bit bigger (I think mostly because my crocheting is so horrible that the crocheted version ended up all cramped and twisted). I felt that the knitted tampon was quite a lot softer and was a bit nicer to use as a result.

I found these to be super absorbent and not as long lasting as the crocheted tampon - that is, they soaked up more blood more quickly. I think this is because the weave is comparatively quite loose, and the shell a bit thinner than the crochet. Either that or my period has suddenly become quite a lot heavier.

CLEANING UP
As with the crochet: a quick rinse with a mild soap is recommended. I found using regular bathroom soap fine - nothing too perfumed, obviously. The towelling inner pulls out and washes quite easily. I then sterilised the whole thing by boiling it in some water on the stove. At the end of my period I put the whole shebang in a laundry bag and put it through the washing machine.

CONCLUSION
I found these much faster to make, but I think that’s just because of my superior knitting skills (superior to my crochet skills, that is). Really, the biggest issues remain with changing them while in public loos - it’s kind of horrible carrying around a wet (rinsed) tampon in your bag. I felt terribly self-conscious during the time I did, like maybe the people around me were using their x-ray vision to judge my hippiness/grossness. In other news, I’m over feeling paro about hanging the things out on the line, but the boiling-in-the-kitchen-issues are still pertinent. I think it’s fair to say that at the moment I’m well over the humble knitted/crocheted tampon, because I too darned lazy to keep on top of everything. It’s not easy having a green lady-time!

Upcoming adventures in Lady-blood: THE CUP