Thursday, March 30, 2006

Knitterly Knastiness

Oh. My. Word. I had no idea - I mean, truly, NO idea - how horrid Red Heart truly was. I mean, I just had no occasion to find out, since I'm pretty much a natural fiber kind of girl. I just thought, eh, acrylic, some people like it, and some people have good reasons for using it, so fine, but it's just not for me. And that was that.

Until I saw some sweet little pics of Jan's Easter eggs on KH. And they were just so doggone cute. I really like the look of variegated yarn for eggs, but I didn't want to keep using the good stuff (Manos, Malabrigo, and some stuff I was looking at buying just for this project), because that seemed like a waste of money for something that wouldn't even be worn. So I thought I should try me some Red Heart after all. I went to Hershnerr's online and ordered some, in pink, in Monet (variegated, just like Jan's), and in Pinata (also variegated). It came yesterday. And, well, GAH!

I am just almost without words for how much I hate this stuff. If sandpaper were a yarn, it would be Red Heart. If Brillo pads were yarn, they would be Red Heart. People use this stuff for BABIES? Why not just swaddle them in some of that awful, rough, industrial toilet paper they used to give us in my college dorm? That would be softer than Red Heart - and at least natural.

I really don't mean to be a snob. I know being elitist isn't nice, or becoming, or whatever it is I'm supposed to be. I know there must be some appeal to this stuff for someone out there because it certainly seems to sell. But when I tried to work with it, it was like my hands suddenly couldn't even remember how to knit. It was nuts! I cast on, tried to knit, fell apart, and frogged, about 3 times before I gave up. Now I have three huge skeins of this nastiness to unload somehow.

In the meantime, I've made good progress with unraveling and reknitting the longies and hope to be done sometime tonight. My hands are thanking me every time that sweet sheep's wool goes gliding through my fingers....

2 comments:

unstable knitter said...

Welcome to my world. Cheap acrylic nastiness- that's me. (I hear Red Heart Baby is softer, though. I definitely wouldn't let a baby within twenty miles of something knit with Super Saver *shudder*.)

If you really need to unload it... I'll totally take it for KnitWits... :D

GailV said...

I learned to knit on Red Heart. It didn't bother me at the time, but a while back I need some gaudy colors for some crochet. Wow, either it's gotten worse or my hands have gotten more sensitive. I am definitely not a yarn snob -- I use whatever works -- but I was surprised by how scratchy it was.