Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Sitting with an icepack on my head...

No, I'm not hungover, just hot. But it seems silly to turn on the AC when I'm the only one in the house. So the icepack is rotating from my head to one shoulder, than the other shoulder. ---- Wait, that was last night- I never finished writing the post. Tonight it has cooled down nicely.

*******************
Marie mentioned that Red Heart is now putting out a kitchen cotton, so that's two natural fiber yarns added to their line. Nice. Wonder if it has anything to do with the rising price of petroleum? Or maybe they just realized that lots of knitters buy sock and dishcloth yarns. and BTW, the cotton come in 59 colors. How come the dishcloth knitters get all the color fun???????
In trying to verify whether acrylic is in fact petroleum based (I'm pretty sure it is), I ran across the following WTF quotation from the ever reliable Wikipedia: "Acrylic has recently been used in clothing as a cheaper alternative to cashmere due to the similar feeling of the materials." I've run across some decent feeling acrylic yarns, but I've never been tempted to confuse it with cashmere...
............................
I never thought I much liked orange, but I sure like these


8 comments:

smariek said...

Oh, that's too funny about acrylic & cashmere.

I know what you mean about turning on the AC when it's not a full house. Even on heat wave days, I try to delay it as much as possible, however I'll crank down the temp shortly before DH is due home so he doesn't walk into a hot house. I'm the same way with heat too, lol. Of course it's always easier to put on more layers (on cold days). There's only so many layers you can remove on hot days.

Wonder when I'll start seeing the Red Heart yarns at Jo-Ann. I'll try to take a lookie next time I'm there, I have to go there soon to look at buttons/hooks/clasps/something for my February Lady Sweater.

Bonnie said...

Lovely flower photo! Make yourself a nice, cool salad and dress it up with some of those orange petals. :-)

Can't recall ever mistaking acrylic for cashmere!

Kitty Mommy said...

Cheaper alternative to cashmere? *snort*

Elizabeth said...

How about "a MUCH cheaper alternative to cashmere"? yeah, if you don't mind that it feels nothing like cashmere.

Maybe they meant some of the newer microfibers which are produced with a much smaller spinneret and aren't as ooky as the old style acrylic of the 70s.

Kitty Mommy said...

P.S. You got me curious about where acrylic comes from. After the little digging I had time for, I think "No Sheep For You" has a section on how different fibers are made.

CatBookMom said...

Pretty nasturtiums!

We've been in successive heat waves here, 'as seen on TV', of course. But we've now settled into high summer, at steady day-after-day temps in the upper 80s and low 90s. Even with ceiling and floor fans, once it hits 82 in the house I've got to turn on the A/C or I'll be dripping sweat onto the knitting. The electric bill goes Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

Leslie said...

I refuse to be a fiber purist - if acrylic is a better choice (mitts for use in the office, a baby blanket, a sweater worn every day near the wood stove in the winter) then that's what I use. Superwash wool is good too, but only if a giftee knows how to care for it.

We're getting another round of 3-H weather (hot, hazy, humid) so the fans will all be going and the wet cloths worn draped around the neck. One advantage to living in the woods is that direct sun comes in the windows only a few hours a day when the trees are in leaf.

Anonymous said...

Not a comment on your post, exactly, but I saw your name on the ACLU petition concerning FISA to run in the NY Times today. My name is there, too :-)