Seeing Red (Heart)

So I went to a Ravelversary (Ravelry anniversary) party at a local café. There were fewer attendees than expected because it had rained all day and some people were scared away by the weather (must be relatives of the Wicked Witch of the West). Among the planned activities were: a yarn swap, charity scarf and preemie hat drop off, games and show and tell.

The last person to arrive (whom we’ll call Dolphin) brought with her two garbage bags full of yarn to donate for charity. While she went to order something to eat, the meet-up’s organizer, we’ll call her Mouse, stuck her nose in one of the bags and said, “Let’s hope it’s not all Red Heart.” Then withdrew and ascertained disdainfully that, yes, it was Red Heart. When Dolphin returned we got to talking and it turned out that all of her yarn was 100 percent wool. The thing was that it was from the 80s, so most of it was in fluorescent colors. Don’t you feel stupid, Mouse? Come here, let me slap you with a dead fish.

Red Heart is not synonymous with acrylic. Red Heart is not the only (or first) company that sells acrylic yarn. For many decades Red Heart exclusively sold wool yarn and only began offering acrylic and acrylic blends in the 60s. Even today they still offer good quality wool yarn.

So irritating when people who have only recently gotten into knitting/crocheting (because it’s trendy, you know) run around acting like little experts. Worse yet, the ones who are obnoxiously vocal about their disdain of acrylic for no reason other than to show to the world that they are yarn connoisseurs so that we may be impressed by their discerning tastes. The effect they have on me is quite the opposite.

And no, I do not own stock in the company (is it even publicly traded?).

Lost and Found

When someone mentioned on Whip-up blog that she was desperately seeking some of the discontinued Noro Large Tubu yarn, I offered the seven skeins I had. There was no response for two months. Then Stepho from Canada e-mailed me saying that although she was not the poster of the original request, she was interested in purchasing the yarn if it was still available. After exchanging several e-mails we agreed on the details of the transaction. After receiving her postal money order, I packed the yarn into a box and took it on the bus to work with me. The plan was to take it to the post office during my lunch period. Imagine my horror when I transferred to a second bus and realize that I had left the box on the first bus. I dreaded having to send the money order back and, worse, to send the e-mail saying that I had carelessly lost the yarn. I fretted that someone would take the box and then discard it when he or she realized that it was "only" yarn. Yeah, only $250 worth.

When I arrived at work I called the bus company and told them about my package. The woman who answered the phone assured me that the driver would drop off the box at the lost and found at the end of his shift. After work I went to this out of the way place I'd never been to where the bus company has its Lost and Found. I climbed the stairs and breathlessly waited at the window to be attended. I told the one-armed man on duty why I was there. He rummaged around in the back while I waited hopefully. Finally he returned to the window holding my box! I almost didn't want to believe it. I signed the release form and held the box tightly. The box had been opened, but its contents were intact. What a relief!

Attack of the Killer Acrylic Yarn

I had two skeins of an unidentified blue yarn in my stash. It looked like wool, but felt like something else. In order to ascertain what fiber it was, I decided to administer the burn test.* One is supposed to do the burn test over a sink. Did I do that? No. So when I lit one end of a strand of the yarn and it flared up, I tried to shake out the flame. The lit end curled up and stuck to the side of my index finger. A few minutes a painful little blister appeared.

Lessons learned from the burn test are: 1) the mystery yarn is most likely synthetic, 2) said yarn gets amazingly hot when burned, 3) next time definitely take proper precautions when administering the burn test.

Since I didn’t like the feel of this yarn (it also looks like it will pill easily), it will find a new home via the thrift store. Should have photographed it before I donated it.

*Different fibers react differently to fire, therefore one can figure out the fiber content of a yarn by burning it. Some knitting books contain a chart detailing these differences.