Friday, December 7, 2012

a holiday gift for a knitter!

Some time ago a lovely yarn shop owner from a lovely shop (Joan Janes from Little Red Mitten in St Thomas ON) gave me the gift of a GLEENER--a sweater de-piller. (De-piller is probably not actually a work except to a knitter who knows precisely what is implied.) It took me a long time to need and use it . . . until today . . .

 . . . when I was up at 6am to prepare for my hosting of a craft and chat group. I wanted the sweaters that I wanted to show to look perfect--but they had pills that needed removing. And not just pills: a general fluffiness thing was happening that made a really new sweater look old, sad, and worn.

So, nothing to lose, let's try the GLEENER. My electric sweater shaver was okay, and I could use it as a fall back position if this little gadget didn't work. But the electric sweater shaver was only good for pills. Maybe this thing would work against that general fluffiness.

OMG!!!!! Amazing! My sweaters look new! Revitalized! Fabulous! I thought Every knitter needs one of these! And every knitter needs to give one of these to every knitter she knows!

But how to get one? And what did they cost?

So I googled GLEENER . . . and there it was . . . only $19.95!!! How can this be?!?! Something so wonderful for 20 bucks?!?

I also thought I remembered Joan saying that the product was Canadian. Would it be available in the US? Sure enough, there was an American flag on the buy now page.

Let me just continue to share my enthusiasm around the sheer genius of this thing! It has three blades (for 3 different fabrics). I found myself using the middle blade on my fluffy pilly merino sweater. And then it has a velvet lint brush that must be used to give the garment an as-new finish!

I cannot buy one for every knitter I know,  but I can get the word out. (I actually thought It would be wrong for me not to tell every knitter I know!) I do not know the owner/developer (nor have any affiliation whatsover with this company), but this is a wonderful thing and she has a wonderful story. I hope you will go to her website and check it out: www.gleener.com.

BTW, after reading her story, I scrolled to the bottom of the page to read about the name of the product. And OMG yet again! It was named after a painting that was my favourite when I was in university: Millet's The Gleaners. The beauty of these women bending to their task made me weep the first time I saw it.

I really am beyond excited to tell you about this product! Please give it a consideration if, like me, you buy and knit with lovely merino wool and then watch it become fluffy and pilly. (There's that word again. My spell check keeps underlining it. Just goes to show that spell check wasn't developed by a knitter!)

PS It isn't just me who thinks this is fabulous: go to about.com and read their 5 star review of the ultimate fuzz remover: http://housewares.about.com/od/sewinglaundry/fr/Gleener-Ultimate-Fuzz-Remover-Review.htm



4 comments:

  1. Love the Gleener! They were a bit hit at TNNA this year. It is available at some LYSes and www.handknitting.com. (Full disclosure, both Gleener and handknitting.com are clients.)

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  2. Not surprised. I wondered about TNNA but was not there this Jan.
    I'm so happy for her--bringing her product to market--and so happy for us! We all need this thing!

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  3. Thanks for the info on the Gleener - went to the site and ordered one. With two dogs and two cats (and being an obsessive knitter) it will certainly come in handy.

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  4. Thank you for this post. I've tried everything from shaving my sweaters with depillers and disposable razors, to using tiny scissors to cut off the pills. I just ordered a Gleener and hope that it will make my handknits look fab again. It was kind of you, too, to give this young business such a glowing recommendation. I like to support entrepreneurs!

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