Knitting a Mattress

Recently I moved into a new rental house. Rather than buy a new mattress, I decided to make one.

Apparently, I like experimenting with different sleeping setups. For a year I slept in a hammock, but drilling enormous load-bearing hooks into the walls is somewhat frowned upon in this new place. When I moved, I went to a second hand shop and spent ten dollars on a cot. I adopted the nightly routine of stripping the pillows from my little couch and sleeping on them, and looked forward to a delivery of wool.

I now sleep on a knitted mattress. It’s smaller, but molds to my body and I find it extremely comfortable. I can adjust the size and thickness of my mattress simply by folding it differently. This flexibility allows the mattress to easily fit into a car for moving, to be reshaped for different bed frames, and to even be fitted in my hammock should I return to hammock sleeping (and I do plan to at some point). I won’t over-sell it though; if you’re the sort of person who loves mattresses which can cradle raw eggs even as a brick is dropped on them, then this project might better serve you as a mattress-topper or chunky blanket.

It is truly ridiculous that a mattress can bring such a sense of accomplishment and ethical action, but it does. Making my own essentials feels like a small stroke against industries which often make cheap products from toxic materials through exploitive labor. It is nice to know that there are no plastics, metals, or mystery materials in my mattress. I feel pride in a product well-made, and I feel confident that no one was underpaid in the creation of my item.

Making the Mattress

It is really easy to make this mattress. It consists of a basic cast-on, the stockinette stitch, and then casting off. No sweat, no stress. Since I expected the piece to always be nested inside a duvet cover, I didn’t even bother with spinning the wool tightly, but left it loose so long as the wool could sustain a good tug without breaking the thread. The video in this post demonstrates each of these steps.