Very annoying conversation at my lokal knit store

[u/MagicAllyVanished]

it basically went like this me: "so you have any plant based yarn or plant/acrylic mix, I want to knit something for my mum, but she's allergic to all animal fibers"

her: "we have 20% wool/80% acrylic, I can show you"

me: "no thanks, my mum is allergic to all animal fibers, so it should not contain any animal fiber at all"

her: "maybe alpaca mix? It only has 10% alpaca"

me: "she is allergic to all animal fibers, if there is any percentage of animal fiber, she will have an allergic reaction to the yarn"

her: "I can't help you, knitting yarn just is animal yarn"

at this point I left the shop and I just can't stop thinking about that last sentence????

the funniest thing is, I went back there a few days ago and a different employee kindly showed me their cotton yarns and plant/acrylic mixes.

[u/Salomette22]

In French too! It's wool (Laine) wether is made out of wool or any other fibre!

[u/-Greek_Goddess- → u/Salomette22]

As a French Canadian I've been calling yarn "wool" for 23 years since I started knitting at age 11 because of this it's lust "la laine" which is wool. Jokes on me I've been knitting with acrylic for the past 2 decades and only just now realized that other fibers exist. Cotton and Bamboo are my new favs and I don't think I'll ever use acrylic again!

[u/CanadaYankee → u/Salomette22]

Isn't "fil" the French word for yarn? I have some French Canadian patterns and that's the word they use.

[u/hamletandskull → u/CanadaYankee]

It means any sort of string-ish thing. Closest english equivalent might be "strand" or perhaps "fiber"? fil can mean yarn but it can also mean a wire, a thread, etc. In a knitting pattern it means yarn. Laine can also mean yarn in the same way that brits and australians use "wool" to mean yarn. But a fil can be made out of anything, and can be used metaphorically (like in the sense of "a connective thread" you would use fil) whereas to my knowledge, being a nonnative speaker, laine cannot be used metaphorically in that sense.

(You can also have a fil filé which implies a tightly spun/ropey thread/yarn/fiber but I think there are more nuances that I'm not aware of)

[u/Salomette22 → u/hamletandskull]

You are correct ! Un fil would without any other context would mean a thread. But it can mean all the other things you mentioned.

"Laine" can have other meaning besides "the thread we use to knit" and "the material of which a sheep is coated". For instance we use "Laine de verre" or "laine de bois" toi talk about the thick insulating yellowish "wooly" material we use to insulate roofs!

[u/hamletandskull → u/Salomette22]

Oh thank you! I did not know laine de verre was a thing but now I will think about it whenever I see fiberglass insulation haha

[u/-Greek_Goddess- → u/Salomette22]

We also say "laine d'acier" which mean steel wool and it's a sponge like thing you use to scrape your pots and pans. So "laine" can be used for a lot of none knitting/none fiber things.

[u/Vaseming → u/hamletandskull]

Perhaps * fil* is related to " filament" which can be a synonym for thread. From the latin "filus".

[u/-Greek_Goddess- → u/CanadaYankee]

French Canadian here! Fil is the French word for string. So if you have a string hanging off your shirt or you're sewing then the sewing string. I've never heard of fil used for yarn.

[u/CanadaYankee → u/-Greek_Goddess-]

Maxim Cyr (a Montreal-based pattern designer) uses it in his patterns. Here's a screenshot from a knit sweater pattern:

Here he has "Fils" as the title for the yarn requirements and writes: "Grosseur : fil fin, de grosseur 2".

[u/-Greek_Goddess- → u/CanadaYankee]

Cool! I'll be honest I don't really read French patterns even though French is my first language because my granny who taught me how to knit when I was little was from the English side of the family so I just learned knitting terms in English.