- Joined
- Jul 29, 2016
The ones where you can’t see their eyes are called gonks and I see decorative holiday themed ones in tat shops all the time. I don’t know why they’re A Thing.
Community Knitwits in the Fiber Arts Hobby - Drama in the fiber arts
- Thread starter CivilianOfTheFandomWars
- Start date
Wooley Ball
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 1, 2025
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2021
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2021
Late but I never thought the hate on acrylics died down tbh. When I first started knitting, I was fully indoctrinated against acrylics by pretty much everyone. Maybe it changed for a bit, but I guess I'm a fiber snob*?
In knitting news, tomorrow is Worldwide Knit In Public Day. Against my better judgement, I found a local meetup sponsored by a new LYS. The only other options in town for my snobby ass have been Hobby Lobby, so having an opening LYS is a big thing for me. Unfortunately, this store has been big on calling itself iNcLUsiVE in its' advertising social media, so I fully expect to be very very disappointed.
On the upside, maybe I'll have some occasional local flavor to contribute to the Tranny Sideshow's thread.
*(I don't really hate acrylics. I've used Knit Picks' Mighty Yarn for gift blankets and love the texture/squish. I just prefer cotton for an easy wash + acrylic seems to personally make me sweat like a whore in a Baptist church).
I think there are two things going on with acrylics: first there's a generational thing. At the turn of the century when knitting became a young hipster activity there was a huge amount of "not your grandma's knitting" stuff and a big part of that was rejecting acrylic (esp of course red heart). we're now fully another generation past that time and knitters who are in their 20s and 30s now mostly don't have grandmas who made them red heart afghans. they grew up in a world where knitting was kind of cool or at the very least neutral, not old lady coded. so there's a lot more room to use whatever fiber.
second fiber mills are dying like male hairdressers in 1983.
second fiber mills are dying like male hairdressers in 1983.
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
Legitimately the best gifts I have made have been from the cheapest discount yard Micheal's had to offer.
Nobody actually cares about how hard you worked on that stole, but everybody will use a dishrag or stack of washcloths with hearts patterned into them.
Work smarter, not harder.
Nobody actually cares about how hard you worked on that stole, but everybody will use a dishrag or stack of washcloths with hearts patterned into them.
Work smarter, not harder.
ok but how are you making a dishcloth out of acrylic
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2023
Natural fibers are where it’s at, even cheap ones. A friend made me a cotton woven dishtowel and it’s now the only one I want to use. I didn’t even know there could be a noticeable quality difference in a dishtowel but it’s just beautiful and soft and absorbent. Linen is durable and light. Wool is insulating, wicks away water and doesn’t hold onto odor. It’s not just about looks or feeling ‘expensive’, it’s about function.
Imo acrylic is good for baby blankets and toys that are going to get thrown up on and tossed in the washer and pretty much nothing more. Maybe a big fluffy blanket if you don’t want to go crazy on cost. I just don’t see the point in investing the care and effort to make something with inferior materials.
Imo acrylic is good for baby blankets and toys that are going to get thrown up on and tossed in the washer and pretty much nothing more. Maybe a big fluffy blanket if you don’t want to go crazy on cost. I just don’t see the point in investing the care and effort to make something with inferior materials.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2021
Yarn noobs and posers were just way too gung-ho about acrylic hate, without having the understanding of fiber selection to understand why people didn't like it for some applications. Probably some of them bought acrylic starting out, had someone tell them "hey that's not best for the project you're doing," and then overcompensated to seem more knowledgeable. You can see similar things in any hobby forum.
There's a best use for every material and a best material for every use. It just takes a while to get a feel for it.
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
Yarn hoarder dies:
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2017
I have admit I got a little excited over all that yarn. Good thing it's in Canada.
I used to be entirely of this mind
then I observed my natural fiber creations falling apart within a decade of use while red heart afghans from the hands of dearly departed grandmas and greataunts are going strong fifty years in
now an intelligent thoughtful person may at this point stop and say, hey, there's no way people in the pre-acrylic age worked so hard on things that would not endure, and you are in fact correct. however we have access to very different materials. people in the before times were working with higher quality fiber. their yarn thread and fabric were produced in ways intended to last. we have carded short staple bullshit.
(another important difference is our laundering habits - frequent laundering is destructive and tumble drying is especially destructive, I hang dry everything I want to last even if I got it at old navy or something. but still older textiles survive modern washing better and longer and modern textiles still can barely handle life no matter how easy you make it on them)
also @Aunt Carol yes kind of but also no, there was a lot of really fugly stuff before the great hipsteriffication and the shaming went both ways, the old guard had insane amounts of reverse snobbery about natural fibers.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2024
How about a blend, best of both worlds? Sock yarn is 75% wool and 25% nylon (polymide), is insulating, strong, and doesn’t look like hot shit. Socks knit with this withstand years of abuse on your feet, and you can just throw it in the washing machine on a wool cycle with a bunch of other socks. They keep you cool in the summer and warm in winter. People used to knit socks entirely with wool, but the nylon means you don’t end up with a bunch of friction holes to repair.
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2021
Socks typically use superwash wool. The army invented superwash wool because wool is best for socks in hot, sweaty conditions for hours and hours, but not being able to wash the socks with everything else causes lots of waste of materials.
Superwash chemically treats the fibers to remove or smooth the scales that lift up with exposure to heat and then friction makes them stick like velco to each other, which is the science of how felting happens. Superwash has the downside of stretching more when being worn, which makes it a bad choice for sweaters because the sweater will either grow or shrink back during the day, causing fit issues. The wool retains it's ability to bounce back on the next wash, but if you want to block something and be sure it will retain its size between washing you don't use superwash. You also can't as easily steek superwash yarns, because steeking relies on the velcro properties of wool to keep the thing from unraveling after cutting it.
Basically all fibers have their proper uses, cotton is fantastic for dishcloths, but it doesn't bounce back so it's a terrible choice for garments. Acrylic lasts for decades, but it's often quite scratchy. Mohair is fuzzy, but is impossible to frog. Alpaca felts easier than wool, but is less scratchy and warmer, the felting makes it awful for garments, but the softness makes it a better choice for chemo hats. I could go on, but I won't, my point is not knowing any of the above makes it harder to substitute yarns in patterns, which is why so many people struggle with that. It's like making a recipe for cheesecake and using cheezits for the crust because you're out of Graham crackers. It'll work, but you'll probably be unhappy with the results.
FYI, the kitchener stitch is also the invention of a military organization. Seams in socks in ww1 contributed to the foot conditions that the soldiers dealt with. So general kitchener from Canada asked some of the women who were knitting said socks to come up with a solution, and some genius, unnamed, woman created grafting. The general, of course, took credit for it, thus the name. apparently he was a real asshole, thus the cancelation of said name among the dangerhair crowd.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2021
I am all-superwash all-the-time now because there are too many people in my home to prevent laundry accidents.
Some superwashes are worse than other though. The Swish one from knitpicks is really, really smooth. Too smooth to work with.
Some superwashes are worse than other though. The Swish one from knitpicks is really, really smooth. Too smooth to work with.
whoa I did not know this! we love our military they're important
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2021
Here's a neat article about it, including the economic impact for American farmers.
n.b. I'm not sure the US military developed superwash wool--the Australian science agency takes credit-- but they're a huge customer of it now.
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2019
I like seeing posts like this because it’s a reminder to not hoard yarn (and I am a yarn hoarder) but it also makes me feel like my stash isn’t that bad…
some of that stuff is really expensive, the wollmeise is twenty euros a skein and the lace stuff is 44 or so. And there’s tons of it.
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
Atleast your otterlings will probably know what to do with yours ^^
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2023
Aww you reminded me of the acrylic Christmas stockings my grandmother knit for all us kids, not exactly used heavily but still, good as new. My dad’s was knit in the 60s but his is in great shape too. There’s something to be said for that.