J'accuse

Something that has had an increasingly raised profile on my radar since my friend Mimi received an unsolicited cruel comment a while back on a beautifully crafted item she'd made, is a vicious creature known as a Yarn Snob . This is someone who sneers, despises and mocks someone who uses acrylic yarns rather than more natural - and usually far more expensive - options like wool, silk, quiviut etc., and they are a fairly common
occurrence in knitting forums.



What raised it to the point that I wanted to comment about it was reading the first day's posts from Knit & Crochet Week, which was all about how one had started either knitting or crocheting; it was interesting to me to see that the large majority of people had started knitting/crocheting using acrylic yarn, and usually the 'economy' brands.





The tone of most of these posts was a combination of apologetic and shame/embarrassment, along the lines of 'I didn't know any better', 'it was cheap and I didn't want to buy expensive because I was a beginner'. Most implied that as their knowledge and experience had increased, so their taste in yarn had improved.

Checking my projects on Ravelry, out of 44 WIPs/FOs, only 6 are natural yarns, ie. not acrylic, and I am shameless about that. (I am shameless about most things, true enough).There are several reasons one might knit with acrylic - cost, allergies, intended recipient, aftercare, availability, color, novelty. I knit mainly in acrylic because most of my knitting is done for babies and children - therefore, to be practical, it must be both hardwearing and machine-washable. I can't think of much that would be as inappropriate as giving a new mother a handwash, dry flat, shape while damp etc etc item of baby clothing. In fact, I demand the same ease of care from most of my own clothes; and so do most people I know. My MIL owns two Shetland wedding shawls, which are carefully wrapped in some wardrobe somewhere and never see the light of day, as they are 'too special' .Which is why I knitted her a lovely lacy scarf out of acrylic - such nice acrylic that she was surprised when I said she could machine wash it. I wanted her to wear it, not hide it.



And that's the thing. Maybe back in the day, acrylic was scratchy and unpleasant (a bit like the real wool I remember from my childhood) ; but today there is such a wide variety available, to suit all tastes and textures, that I can't believe people would write off the whole kit and caboodle as beneath them.

I am making forays into the realm of natural yarns, I admit it, but that is because my interest is lace knitting; acrylic can be knit into lace, but it doesn't block and has little drape, so the finer aspects are likely to be lost for an item like a shawl or stole. However, if the stitch pattern is carefully selected, it certainly works for smaller items such as children's cardigans and sweaters: I have the photos to prove it (see photo above and my Ravelry profile).

So, friends, the point of this post is: stand tall and proud - be not ashamed of thy acrylic, for it answers many of thy needs, and is soft and purty too.