Posts Tagged ‘acrylic yarn’
Solving Knitter’s Block: When Nothing Will Let You Knit It.
January 15, 2011 | 
Author I stopped by Gail Knits, the LYS near my home looking for inspiration. I just finished by Christmas gift blitz of six scarves and two shawls in three weeks (all on superbulky yarn and or large needles, so don’t be that amazed) and want to knit something for myself. I’ve been eyeing a leaf lace pattern for a scarf, but try and try again I keep messing up, not liking the yarn, not liking the pattern, wanting to change the pattern and not getting it right, and ripping everything out about ten times by now. Something was wrong. I had what I’ll call “knitter’s block”. Nothing would cooperate: not my hands, not the yarn, not the pattern. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in The Knitting Experience | 
Tags: acrylic, acrylic yarn, alpaca, alpaca scarf, artificial yarn, being real, cascade yarn, chicken nuggets, christmas gifts, dying wool, eco alpaca, eco duo, fake yarn, Gail Knits, hand spun yarn, knitter's block, Knitting, knitting lace, lace, lace leaf pattern, las vegas, mdf, natural dyes, plastic flowers, real friends, real purpose, reversible cable scarf, reversible scarf, scarf, single ply yarn, vinyl flooring, wool blend, wool yarn, yarn | 
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Is This Wool? How to Test Before You Knit
Yes, I own some Wool-ease, which is mostly acrylic. I don’t really like it. I bought it when I was new to knitting. It will be okay for some projects, but I really prefer natural fiber, and my real preference is naturally dyed or naturally colored fiber.
So I have some yarn that I balled with my ball winder and now I’ve forgotten if it is all wool or not. I found on the web you can test a scrap by putting some of the yarn in a cup with some undiluted bleach overnight and if it is all wool there will be pretty much nothing solid left.
BUT – brain on – a much faster test is to take a two feet of it if its worsted, or an equivalent amount in other weights, and try to felt it by rubbing it into a ball in a bath of hot, soapy water. If it’s a feltable fiber like wool you will know within minutes, and without chemicals, fire hazards or nasty smells. The less wool in it the less it will felt. Do a test of something you know is wool for comparison if you are not sure it’s felting as well as it should.
There is a burn test if you don’t mind your home smelling line burnt hair or plastic. Visit this link to read about it. What, no takers?
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Posted in Techniques, Updated Since Posted | Tags: acrylic yarn, Fiber art, Knitting, Natural fiber, wool, Wool-ease, yarn | Comments Closed
