go acrylic!

let's talk about acrylic yarn. i'm a bit of a yarn snob, i'll admit, and never, ever thought i would use acrylic yarn, for anything! even for baby sweaters i'd rather use washable wool. it seemed silly to do all that work in anything but a natural fiber.

then i learned to crochet. i LOVE to crochet, and it's quite fast, so you can do a lot of crocheting in a shorter time than if you were to knit the same thing. i wanted to make a blanket, so for my first blanket i used a nice cotton yarn, and it was not cheap. i wanted to make another blanket, but couldn't really justify the cost of all the yarn it would take for another blanket. it takes LOTS of yarn. then one day i was at marden's. now, if you live in maine, you've most likely heard of marden's. marden's is a chain of stores that sells pretty much anything you can think of, and really really cheap! there's a lot of crap there, but for some reason they have a big fabric section, and it's really nice fabric! mostly discontinued stuff, but i've found designer fabrics there that sell at other stores for two to three times as much. sometimes they get yarn. that day they had a lot of acrylic yarn-the vanna white brand that i would never have dreamed of using before. but it was, i think, $1.99 a skein, and it's actually fairly soft and they had really nice colors. so, for $29.00 i bought enough to make a blanket. and i LOVE this blanket! love it!  i sewed on a few vintage doilies from the flea market, and they were perfect! certainly if i were made out of money i'd go for a more luxurious yarn, but i have changed my attitude toward acrylic. i won't be knitting sweaters with it, but it's great for a big project like a blanket.

i've been busy tying my quilt, and i'm hoping to finish it this weekend.

happy friday!!!