My mother found some vintage-y acrylic yarns at a yard sale and thought I might like them. (Answer: Yes, I would!) I'm sure I'll find a use for it, and in the meantime, I love looking at the old wrappers. The colors and fonts! (Mainly the fonts...)
They're all either "Orlon" or "Acrilon". Do modern acrylic yarns go by such retrolicious names? I think not. And it's marked as "mothproof"! I've never noticed that on the new acrylic yarns I've bought. Some of the Sayelle brand yarn is labeled "FOR SWEATERS, AFGHANS & FASHION ACCESSORIES". (Only under penalty of law dare ye use it for anything else. Sincerely, the Yarn Patrol.)
I'm not sure how old this yarn really is, but some of it's old enough to stand out and feel interestingly different.
(TG&Y? Haven't thought about that place in a while...)
I'd come across "Orlon" before, back on one of those pages of free vintage crochet patterns. Some of them were from manufacturers of the Orlon yarn. This new (to me) yarn got me interested in Orlon, so I spent a little time googling it. I had no idea it was trademarked by DuPont-- or that it'd been around since 1941. It's actually pretty interesting.
Then I found this, which might be amusing for anyone else who's not ashamed to admit to using acrylic yarn:
artichaut (whose livejournal has been deleted) wrote:
Well, I'm not really a sweater-maker (at this point), but it's comforting to know that some afghan or pot-scrubber I make might survive a flood and a few months in the mud and muck. ;o)
They're all either "Orlon" or "Acrilon". Do modern acrylic yarns go by such retrolicious names? I think not. And it's marked as "mothproof"! I've never noticed that on the new acrylic yarns I've bought. Some of the Sayelle brand yarn is labeled "FOR SWEATERS, AFGHANS & FASHION ACCESSORIES". (Only under penalty of law dare ye use it for anything else. Sincerely, the Yarn Patrol.)
I'm not sure how old this yarn really is, but some of it's old enough to stand out and feel interestingly different.
(TG&Y? Haven't thought about that place in a while...)
- - - - - -
I'd come across "Orlon" before, back on one of those pages of free vintage crochet patterns. Some of them were from manufacturers of the Orlon yarn. This new (to me) yarn got me interested in Orlon, so I spent a little time googling it. I had no idea it was trademarked by DuPont-- or that it'd been around since 1941. It's actually pretty interesting.
Then I found this, which might be amusing for anyone else who's not ashamed to admit to using acrylic yarn:
artichaut (whose livejournal has been deleted) wrote:
On acrylic yarn
The following is the verbatim text of a Red Heart ad from a 1974 Mademoiselle magazine.
"We know that hand knits knitted with Coats & Clark Red Heart 'Wintuk' Orlon yarn can take normal wear and tear better than those knit from competitive yarns. But when we got this unsolicited testimonial from Mrs. Fred Bard of Thornton, California, even we were astonished to learn what our yarn really could take.
"Read what she said:
"Dear Sirs:
"How true your ad in the September issue of Good Housekeeping is!!
"My husband and I lived at a Mobile Home Park on Andrus Island out of Isleton, California. On June 21, 1972 at 1:15 A.M. the levee broke about 200 yards from our house. We waded out in our pajamas in waist deep water. Our coach was completely covered with flood water and eventually collapsed and disintegrated. We lost everything, including our car.
"Five months later, when the flood water was all pumped out, my husband was looking around to see if he could salvage anything. He found a sweater-coat that I had just knitted from Red Heart "Wintuk" and that I was very proud of. It had been in the mud and muck for five months. He brought it out to show me he found it. He washed it off with the water hose. I put it through the washer and dryer and it looks as good as the first day I wore it.
"I am sure sold on Red Heart 'Wintuk'!!
"Sincerely, Mrs. Fred Bard."
The poor sweater had been in a virtual cesspool for five months, yet was unharmed. So we may conclude that, much like Twinkies and cockroaches, your handknitted acrylic heirlooms will likely survive the impending nuclear holocaust. Shouldn't your next sweater be made of Red Heart "Wintuk"??
Well, I'm not really a sweater-maker (at this point), but it's comforting to know that some afghan or pot-scrubber I make might survive a flood and a few months in the mud and muck. ;o)