She’s a maniac, maniac...

maniac legwarmers
yarn: Red Heart worsted weight Fabulend 60% acrylic, 40% wool, two skeins, 3.5 oz/99.2 g each
needles: 4.5 mm/US 7 circulars
pattern: 1x1 ribbing
comments: I knit these about four winters ago when I was wearing mostly dresses and skirts to work and needed to protect my legs from the wind and cold. At the time, I was the only one wearing legwarmers, so I like to think that I brought them back into style, but probably not. I wear them folded down indoors and pull them all the way up outdoors.

This is old yarn, I mean, like, older than me. The label actually said “60% virgin orlon acrylic.” It always cracks me up when I read yarn labels from the 1960s that say that the yarn contains “virgin acrylic.” What’s that supposed to mean? Was there a black market of recycled acrylic yarn from which they wanted to disassociate themselves? Did they think that by adding the word ‘virgin’ it would somehow make people more likely to purchase such yarn? Were they trying to convince crafters that this was more than just plastic fiber made from petroleum?

I like the fact that the name of this yarn is Fabulend, because I do feel quite fabu when I’m walking around school in my legwarmers and some of the girls exclaim, “Ooo, Miss! Where’d you get those?”* Hee-hee. It’s not often the students think I’m stylish and hip.


*(the rest of the conversation)

“I made them.”

“Whaaat?? Could you make me some?”

“No, but I’d be glad to teach you how to knit after school.”

“That’s awight. It ain’t that serious.”