Acrylic Yarn is Yukky

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:23:45 +0000

It seemed like a good idea to try knitting with acrylic yarn. It’s cheap and available. And those seem like two of the most important factors in any new hobby decision. Because, if I could not get the needles to manipulate the yarn, no need for expensive yarn and needles.

As it turns out, the acrylic yarn feels gross, splits, and doesn’t show any kind of pattern. After I switched to cotton yarn; and made three small dishcloths in different patterns, I tried the acrylic yarn again. It is soft. And I like the color. I still think it feels yukky and is difficult to manipulate. I knitted about ten rows of a ribbed scarf pattern before I made the final decision to chuck the yarn. So, into the donate pile it goes.

I got the circular knitting needles that I ordered for my birthday, from Knitpicks. They are every bit as wonderful as Marne, and the ladies from the knitting group have said. Saturday, one of the other ladies in the knitting group had her set, also pretty new, so I got to preview them and oh and aw. Mine arrived Saturday evening – of course.

DD is completely interested in the knitting, in all things crafty really. But she’s just learning to write. So I don’t want to try to teach her to knit or crochet yet. As she will probably get frustrated and hate it. I am on the lookout for one of those knitting/weaving devices made specifically for children her age who are interested, but need a bit more growing up before they can move on to crochet hooks and knitting needles.

I remember making all kinds of ugly potholders on one of those things when I was a preschooler. God bless my mother for telling me they were so wonderful. Though, she may have been just thankful that I was occupied for hours.

I got the No Sheep for You: Knit Happy with Cotton, Silk, Linen, Hemp, Bamboo & Other Delights
book on Saturday too. It has all these fantastic patterns that are totally over my head, in addition to lots of non-wool fiber information. It has a whole section on hemp yarn, which I find terribly scratchy. But I don’t find cashmere scratchy. And I think alpaca feels nice. Though I haven’t tried to wear it yet.

What? by Jayegirl99

I am going with the long fiber and scale theory of itchiness – that it is the length of the fiber and occurrence of scales that makes something itchy or not, rather than that it came from a plant or animal. I’ll find out anyway. My plan is to buy several random cotton blend, linen, and alpaca blend yarns and see what itches or doesn’t, how it holds a pattern and then try to make something simple.

Aware of my novice knitting status, several people helpfully pointed out this weekend that cashmere comes from a goat. And that alpaca is a completely different sort of animal. Which is really funny, since I wore cashmere for years and thought it came from a special breed of sheep. And I insisted on DH driving a certain way home so he could identify the weird animals near our house – which turned out to be alpacas.

So that’s my plan, to purchase some random yarns this coming weekend. And then try them all out. And definitely, definitely chuck the acrylic yarn.

Learning to Knit

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:42:58 +0000

My attempts at knitting are laughable. I am horribly, painfully slow. I have managed to cast on, knit one row, and then try to purl, knit, purl, knit, etc across one row numerous times.

This, my friends, took hours.

I keep pulling it all out and starting again. The cast on seemed too tight to get a needle through. I kept trying to make it looser, but succeed in making it looser and uneven. I eventually settled for tight, though not as much, even loops. The knitted row was okay, just maddeningly slow.

Then I tried to actually knit and purl, which was a horrible disaster. I kept dropping stitches, adding stitches, and losing my place. I must have spent an hours on only a few stitches.

Then I met up with Aunt D and her knitting group. Everyone was really nice and helpful. I thought I was distracted by the entertaining conversation, because my knitting became even worse. When I got home, I realized everything the lady next to me did looked confusing and different because I had been following a Continental Knitting video at home. And she was doing the English style knitting.

And so, I begin again.

I will eventually figure it out or give up and donate the knitting needles to somebody who knows how to use them properly. Or maybe someone who is just more coordinated.

I bought a knitting book today. This seems mundane. But two weeks ago I tried to buy a knitting book, got sensory overload on the choices, and didn’t buy anything at all. So actually, this is an improvement.

Also, it’s a knitting an crocheting book, which makes me feel like slightly less a dumbass. I can do a bit of crocheting. Not enough to make a sweater. But I’ve made simple afghans before. And they came out fine. This encourages me to try the knitting, since crocheting does require the use of yarn.

Blah, blah, blah.

Christmas was lovely here. We had a nice family Christmas Eve and morning. And then we visited with family in the afternoon. I have more calls to family to make and more people to visit. But all is well.

Merry Late Christmas, and a Happy New Year.