Acrylic Yarn

General Knitting
21

A lot of the cool specialty yarns that are so fun to make kitschy scarves with are 100% acrylic (or some other oft-maligned synthetic yarn), like Crystal Palace Splash. So I do plenty of knitting with synthetic fibers.

[size=6]BUT…[/size]what held me back when I first started knitting from really enjoying myself was picturing the look I had to plaster on my face when my grandmother would present me with a horribly scratchy, misshapen sweater she had knitted. It made me sad that all the work I was putting into my creations would ultimately result in generally non-plussed reactions. Once I discovered my LYS and all the beautiful natural fibers that would knit into garments and accessories that people would WANT to wear, that’s when I became an addict.

22

For all those who are holding their breath about the soft yarn at Michaels’, I will go tomorrow and check it out and get back to you. Sorry to be such a yarn tease! :roflhard:

Ingrid - for my baby longies, I use Malabrigo yarn. INCREDIBLY soft and scrumptious, though it does pill a bit. But my little girl seems very happy in it. For baby socks, I use Art Yarn supermerino, which is a nice washable yarn that knits up nicely. For a hat I’m making, I’m using Debbie Bliss baby Cashmerino, which does have 33% microfiber in it. It knits up beautifully, though, and has a lovely drape and touch.

I’ll probably use more of the Baby cashmerino for a sweater. Oh yeah, and I ordered 4 skeins of Sheepsdown from EZ/Meg Swansen’s site to make a baby blanket. It knits up at 2.5 stitches per inch :shock: :shock: and s a little rougher than I thought it would be. However, decent washing in Eucalan, plus some blocking, should produce fine results. I’m considering using the yarn for a sweater for myself, however, and finding another wool for Miriam’s blanket.

Now I’m kind of curious to try alpaca yarn. Does anyone else have any experience with it? How does it wear? Lots of pilling?

Alison

23

Alpaca is wonderful! Soft and warm, just lovely to work with. I haven’t done anything but a scarf and a bag (shaped like an alpaca), so I don’t know about wear, yet. I do have some lovely, gorgeously hand dyed alpaca that I will be knitting up after I’m done caressing and admiring it. So, so soft. . . .

24

I :heart: alpaca. I haven’t had a lot of pilling problems - sure, it gets a little sheddy, but no worse than good-quality merino.

I find it wears almost like cashmere. It is wonderfully soft, but it doesn’t hold a great shape, so I wouldn’t try anything highly tailored with it.

25

Economics and limited access to a LYS (just to fondle the yarns :shock: ) keeps me using acrylics. Some are scratchy and icky (yes, like Red Heart–but it does soften a bit after washing) and I try to avoid those. But most work well for my project. Maybe when I win the lottery I’ll be able to purchase more acrylic-less yarns. :cheering:

26

I voted “wouldn’t be caught dead” but I SO wanted to vote for the MIL one only because it is so funny :roflhard: :roflhard: But I would never knit anything for my MIL anyway, so she wouldn’t even get acrylic from me. Of course my real answer is that I knit with some acrylic wool blends for kids’ wear and will use acrylic for oddball little things like the nose of a hedgehog. :slight_smile:

27

As a new knitter, I’ve only used acrylic so far because it’s cheap and I don’t want to use something more expensive until I know what I’m doing. That said, the one time I did some practice knitting with some wool at my mother’s, my eyes stung the entire time. So although I have no problem wearing wool, there might be an allergy problem with knitting with it… I have yet to find out. Some have suggested that that particular wool might have been treated with something and that if I washed it it wouldn’t cause the problem…

I’m using Red Heart for this scarf for my husband that’s developed out of my practicing 2x2 ribbing and it doesn’t seem scratchy to me (and I’m VERY sensitive to scratchy yarns…). Maybe it’s because I don’t have experience with other yarns yet! :rollseyes:

28

I use mostly acrylic. I’ve been making tons of baby blankets and afghans. The main thing for me is that I can find it anywhere. Expense is too, since I am feeding the addiction of knitting I can’t spend a fortune on it.
I don’t buy red heart, but caron is usually good. I usually touch everything when picking it out, to me different colors have different feels, even if brand is same. Machine washable is huge factor in everything I buy. I just don’t have time or patience to hand wash.

I would like to try a booga bag in future, though.
Kim

29

Great question!

I chose “I use it often and I like it just fine”…I mostly use it for baby items, like blankets and hats, although lately I’ve been using 100% wool for my kids hats (Lion Wool and Bernat Lana(merino, nice and soft!) which I can get at Hobby Lobby pretty easily).

I usually try to use at least a blend, like Lion brand Wool-Ease, (nice and affordable) because I can wash it-for my kids things that is really necessary! LOL. I like Plymouth Encore’s color selection better, but LB’s is a little more affordable for me.

That being said, I know there’s a secret yarn-snob hiding inside, and if I could afford it (and washing practicality aside) I would definitely choose natural fibers over acrylic…I love the thought of using something natural, that’s been used for centuries, and has such a lovely feel in my hands while I work… I even think about the sheep or animal it came from :smiley: (can you tell I got Bamboo on the “what kind of needle are you” quiz? he he)

30

I had to make a comment when I saw people commenting on Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino. You can get SO hooked on this stuff. When I started my preemie outfits to donate to the hospital, I wanted something really soft, and, of course, being at my LYS, I picked this stuff. Now I can’t get away from using it! Although last time I worked it out math wise, I think it would cost the same. (Now I am curious, so all of you will know too!!..hang on)

2 outfits out of Debbie Bliss (an outfit consists of hat, booties, and sweater)
3 balls (400 yds) 30 dollars (cdn prices)

2 outfits out of Bernat Baby Softee
1 ball (400 yds) 5 dollars

Ok, so I was wrong. But I can’t justify the baby softee cause it just isn’t soft enough!! At risk of hijacking the thread, what do you all think? Is it better to go more expensive for this sort of thing? And what about the sensitivity of the babies’ skin?

thanks
Katy

31

I’m not afraid to sound like a snob. Call me what you will, but Acrylic yarns are garbage (with the exception of a few blends). Michael’s is also garbage, you can’t buy anything nice in that jip-joint even if your pockets were stuffed full of cash. Also, why give your money to those corporate slime balls? If you spend your money in local shops they will still be there when you need them. Don’t allow the corporate giants to run the local shops out of business!

If you are on a limited budget, go to your LYS and rummage through their discontinued/sale yarns. That way you can find something nice, but not hurt the check book too badly.

Your time is valuable, why spend hours upon hours knitting a project using cheap yarn? A hand made garment should be nicer than what you can just go buy at a store!

Look at it this way…

Let’s say it takes 40 hours to knit a sweater.
Let’s say your job pays $10/hr.
That means there is $400 worth of labor that has gone into your sweater.
Now you have a $400+ sweater made out of Acrylic. Does that make sense!? :??
If you want cheap machine washable clothes, then why not just work the 40 hours and take your $400 to JC Penny? You will end up with a lot more than a single acrylic sweater.

Now, what if you consider your labor to be worth more than $10/hr. Say you feel you are worth $25/hr. Then you have a $1000+ Acrylic sweater. :shock:

Friends don’t let friends knit with cheap yarn!

32

On the alpaca question - I had a poncho made of alpaca. My mother gave it to me. She wore it throughout the 60s and 70s. I wore it for another 20 years. I finally gave it to someone else. It was still beautiful and not in the least thread bare. Even though I wore it like my primary coat. (and its chilly in Colorado) Well worth the money spent on alpaca!

33

[color=darkblue]I don’t like cheap acrylics, but I love working with the really good stuff.
I don’t like cheap wool either.
The LYS has some of the crummiest wool I have ever touched.[/color]

34

Well HORRORS of HORRORS, I am allergic to wool! So even if I am knitting for someone else, the best I can do is use a blend. Can you believe that? What kind of hideous joke is it to turn me into a knitting addict and I can’t even use most of the best fibers! UGH!

35

I didn’t vote since my answer really isn’t there. I think acrylics have their place. I prefer wool and other natural fibers for most of the things I made but I would never put my children in a garment made from a good wool or other natural animal fiber. If my kids are in it, it must be washable. I prefer to use a superwash wool or wool blend but will use some of the nicer acrylics.

36

There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of acrylic yarns available here, just a few brands. Most yarn in the shops is either wool or some other type of synthetic (nylon,polyester) or a blend.

The cheapest yarn is acrylic and I do use it for small projects and my daughter (71/2 yrs old) practices knitting with it. The children also like really colourful yarn and so when I let them pick out yarn for me to make jumpers for them they chose courtelle acrylic which was multi-coloured.

There are some really nice wools yarns available but I don’t want to attempt making an adults jumper in a really good yarn until I am more confident.

The most expensive yarns I have seen in the shops are actually synthetic novelty types. Some of these still need to be handwashed too.

37

Have you looked into Alpaaaaaaaca?

38

I haven’t. But I should. I am actually allergic to a lot of natural fibers. I can’t get anywhere near down either. UGH! I can however, use blends. I don’t have a problem with most natural fibers that are blended with acrylics. I think I will try out alpaca. It is funny, but I have to buy a skein, and either sleep with it :shock: or knit it up into something.

39

I’d sleep with my alpaca yarn if I wasn’t afraid of it unravelling! :roflhard:

40

I am a 60s throwback, earth-lovin, tree-huggin’, natural livin’, hippie mama … so I pretty much only knit with natural fibers. :XX: Yes, even for my kids. And I prefer to use yarns that are as close to their natural state (untreated, minimally processed, organic, etc.) as possible, though I don’t always maintain that standard. So wool, cotton, alpaca, cashmere, mohair, bamboo (absolutely :heart: it!), etc. make up the majority of my stash. (I do have some blends, especially sock yarns with a nylon content.)

I try to dress myself and my family in natural fibers, use natural fibers in my home, avoid chemicals in our home and body care items, eat traditional foods (i.e. whole foods, not chemicals or anything engineered or hydrolized or hydrogenated, organically grown/grass fed as much as possible) and generally live a simple, natural, low-impact kind of life. So, for me, natural fibers fit into my idea of healthy living (healthy for me and my family, and healthy for the planet).

Also, I think MrTea brings up a valid point. If I am going to invest my time in a project, I want that project to be worth taking that time away from other things in my life. Does that make sense? For me (just personally speaking here, so just FOR ME), synthetic yarns don’t fall into the “worth it” category. They don’t make me happy, I don’t like the idea of using them, don’t like the actuality of working with them, don’t like the idea of someone I care about wearing/using them. (Your skin is your largest organ, remember? And you can absorb all kind of stuff via your skin, so wouldn’t it be better to wear natural fibers, sleep under natural fibers, than it would be to wear something petroleum based, made out of plastic, yucky?!? I think about these things when I’m knitting. :))

As Alison mentioned, this is just MY take on things, and I don’t feel that it is my place to impose that on anyone else. Doesn’t mean I won’t suggest alternatives, but I’m pretty much live and let live when it comes to yarn (and a lot of other things, too ;)).