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?).