Eco-conscious yarn on a budget part 1: Is there a case for ‘cheap acrylic’?

Suzie Blackman
Monday, 17 June 2019
16 comments

This is the first in a series of posts exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between cost and sustainability of the materials we use.

Later in the series, we hear from two small business owners about their innovative but very different initiatives that offer affordable, eco-friendly yarn and share our favourite budget-friendly, sustainable sources of yarn. But we begin in this post by discussing the case for, and the impact of low-cost synthetic yarn, and why we should consider alternatives.

Synthetic yarn on a shelf (c) Adobe

It’s been a few months since we wrote about the negative environmental impact of Nylon and synthetic fibres and our decision to discontinue synthetics from our range. Nylon blends form a significant part of the yarn market, indie yarns included, so we weren’t sure how this information would be received, but we were thrilled that the response was overwhelmingly positive.

One commenter (I don’t recall which platform it was on, so apologies for being unable to give proper credit for raising this important topic) made the excellent point that many people buy synthetic yarns for price reasons, and it’s important that cheap acrylic is available to folks who might otherwise be priced-out of fibre crafts.

I’m going to stick with the term “cheap acrylic” throughout this post because it’s well understood, no snobbery intended. Acrylic is typically the cheapest of synthetic (plastic) fibres used in knitting yarn, but the topics raised apply to any synthetics chosen primarily on price. You can find out more about why these fibres are problematic for our environment in our earlier post We need to talk about Nylon. Unfortunately for acrylic, it is one of the most microfibre polluting prone materials, shedding to 1.5 times as many fibres per wash as pure polyester.

It’s both important and timely that the topic of financial accessibility of yarn is raised as part of wider discussions about diversity and inclusivity in our knitting and sewing communities. Additionally, in any conversation about sustainability, wider questions are normally raised around whether it is something that it’s a concern of only relatively well-off people. I am of the firm opinion that this is not. Firstly because the most sustainable choices are often the cheapest, and secondly because the poorest people in society often suffer the most from pollution and climate change. The wider relationship between sustainability and financial inequality is something we need to talk about, but in order to avoid digression, I have done that in the comments.

Before I go any further, I want to stress that there is no judgement here. If you’ve bought cheap acrylic for budgetary reasons, you made the best choice with the information available to you at the time. And if you are living on very limited means, the chances are that you make the best possible use of everything you have, and you have a low environmental impact because of your lifestyle. You are not to blame for the urgent problems we face as a planet, we are here because of over-consumption.

My initial reaction to point about cheap acrylic was “Yes, of course”. “If synthetic yarn makes knitting affordable, then it has a place.” But in the weeks and months that followed, I gave this considerable thought and I’ve changed my mind. I think that cheap synthetics are something we can and should live without.

There is absolutely a need for good value materials, and that’s not the same as rock-bottom cheap.

How cheap is ‘cheap acrylic’?

I had a quick look at the big online stores to see what I could find. Laughing Hens came up empty. At Wool Warehouse I found Hayfield Bonus DK and King Cole Big Value DK  acrylic, both for £0.99 for a 50g ball. At LoveKnitting the cheapest option was Robin DK acrylic at £1.46/100g (RRP £2.25). Neither of these seemed that cheap and curiously, I also found yarn marketed as ‘premium acrylic’ for considerably more than this. Knowing that cheaper yarns existed, my next stop was Wilkinson (a budget homeware and hardware store). There I found 100g balls of Loren DK acrylic for £1. I have in the past seen mega 500g balls of budget yarn for sale in Wilkinson’s but at the time of writing, Loren DK was the cheapest, gram for gram. In the UK we don’t really have the kind of ‘big box stores’ that US readers will be familiar with, but this is probably the equivalent to the yarn you’d find there. Let’s stick with a nice round price of £1/100g for the cheapest acrylic.

The cheapest natural fibre yarn I found was Drops Cotton Light for £1/50g, and the cheapest pure wool was Drops Alaska aran for £1.80/50g (equivalent £3.60/100g).

I wear a UK size 14 (which happens to be the average here) and I normally use just under 450g of DK for a sweater, which would cost me £5 in Loren DK acrylic. Using the cheapest DK pure wool yarn my sweater would cost me just under £20. Larger sizes will obviously need more, and smaller a little less. A sweater for 1/4 the price! Sounds amazing!

The thing is, a readymade sweater from Primark costs £6 [Don’t let me get started on what I think about that]. The point I want to make is that in high-income countries like the UK, the materials we have available to us (even the very cheapest) cost roughly the same as an equivalent mass-market garment. Whether you knit for relaxation, as an outlet for your creativity, for custom-fitted clothing or even as an expression of anti-capitalism, if you get something out of it, it’s valid. But, it’s unlikely you’re knitting out of financial necessity; to clothe yourself and your family as cheaply as possible, as previous generations did. In the globalised economy that just doesn’t make sense and we need to be honest with ourselves about that. We are willing to invest dozens of hours of our valuable time in the things we make, we should consider the quality of the materials we use, not just the price.

Is acrylic good value?

What should I expect from my £5 acrylic sweater, how does it compare to a £20 wool hand-knit sweater? What makes one fibre better value than another is dependant on the specific project – value is about fitness for purpose, not just cost. There are many qualities that are desirable in yarn regardless of the project and these fall into three categories: how it feels and behaves to use, how it feels to wear, and its lifespan and care requirements.

Does acrylic wear well?

For a material to be good value, it should be made to last. We often think of acrylic as a material that’s easy to care for, that we can just chuck into the washing machine on a hot cycle and it will come out looking good. But is it? While natural fibres tend to age gracefully, even improving and gaining character with wear, acrylic and other synthetics rarely do. Wear takes many different forms: fading, shrinking, pilling, shedding, stretching/losing shape, shrinking, pulls/tears and being munched on by small creatures. While the pesky months have not yet developed a taste for acrylic, and it’s unlikely to shrink if it ends up in a hot wash, it is susceptible to all the others. This is especially true of cheap acrylic, which is likely to be loosely (cheaply) spun and less resistant to abrasion.

I used a macro lens to take a look at an acrylic hand-knit cardigan. I inherited this project as a WIP when an elderly relative passed away and I decided to finish it for my daughter. It has been worn and washed no more than ten times.

close up of wear on fair isle knitting in acrylic yarn

The dark blue yarn has fared particularly badly, and has very little stitch definition.

Close up of wear on acrylic sweater

On this part of the sleeve, an area of high abrasion wear, there is obvious pilling.

Close of of hand-knit cardigan

I used wool for the collar (white), which still looks crisp compared with the red acrylic, though it has picked up quite a few red fibres!

To understand how acrylic holds up to more extreme wear, crocheter Mikey of The Crochet Crowd conducted an outdoor experiment. The repeated wetting/drying, sun exposure and changes in temperature his piece was exposed to are no unlike an accelerated version of regular garment use, minus the abrasion. The results showed considerable fading and deterioration including taking on a waxy, brittle texture.

Even more convincing is an episode of The Drunk Knitter podcast (which is hilarious by the way, subscribe if you don’t already!), where Safiyyah tries on every sweater she’s ever knitted in order of making.

Like many of us, Safiyyah used cheap acrylic as a new knitter and talks about her journey of learning the merits of better quality yarn. It’s striking to see the time and effort she put into making beautiful sweaters that are no longer worn because the materials haven’t stood the test of time, and makes the case we as makers should value our work more.

Is acrylic nice to wear?

One thing that acrylic has got going for it is that it is hypoallergenic. For anyone allergic to animal fibres who wants a good approximation of the texture of wool, acrylic is probably your best bet as plant fibres have quite a different feel. Allergies aside (and of course this is a matter of personal taste) I don’t think acrylic compares to the feel of natural fibres at all.

Natural fibres are just so versatile – whether you want loft, drape, water resistance, absorbance, insulation, coolness, softness or resilience, you can find it. But acrylic yarn always feels kind of the same.

Whereas wool is warm yet breathable, acrylic is not especially warm to wear but feels sweaty. Wool has anti-odour and anti-bacterial properties but acrylic absorbs odour, requiring more frequent laundering than wool. Acrylic also generates static and can be quite flammable, which are not desirable characteristics for clothing.

It’s possible that your project isn’t one that gets worn at all, so this isn’t an issue.

Is acrylic nice to work with?

Acrylic is often described as “squeaky” (which is an odd thing to say if you haven’t experienced it because it doesn’t actually make a noise); it has the sensation of clinging to the needles, particularly if they’re made of plastic or painted metal.

Similar to garment feel, acrylic’s lack of versatility is where it falls short. It has a springy texture that’s good for things like cables, but it has very little drape. It hardly changes at all with blocking so don’t expect lace stitches to open up or uneven tension to improve.

I can’t say that I really enjoy the experience of knitting with acrylic the way I do with other fibres. I’m not a fast knitter, and if I am going to devote many hours on a project and be motivated to do so, I need to feel excited about it.

In conclusion, although there are circumstances in which cheap acrylic is a suitable choice for a project, in general, the way it wears, feels and behaves don’t typically make it a good value material.

Why do we buy cheap acrylic at all?

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably asking this question too, but there are lots of reasons why cheap acrylic winds up in our project bags. Here are three use cases, and what you can do if they apply to you.

Novice knitters

Firstly, new knitters are often drawn to cheap yarn. Maybe you’re not yet confident in their skills and don’t want to waste expensive yarn on a project that might not go to plan? This is completely natural. If you don’t want to commit expensive materials to a project or technique you’re not confident about, why not re-use yarn from something that didn’t go so well? But, as I’ve mentioned before, when we use poor quality materials we’re devaluing our own time and skills, so go ahead and use that fancy yarn that inspires you! I discovered quite soon after I began knitting that I didn’t feel excited about finished items made in synthetic yarn. I also realised that I was most inspired to knit when by the beautiful colour effects of fancier yarn, which helped motivate me in those days when the stitches emerged very slowly.

Or maybe you’re following a pattern that calls for synthetic yarn, and don’t know where to start in choosing a natural fibre substitute? The excellent YarnSub can help! This fantastic website can find alternative yarns matching the same gauge an texture.

Blanket crocheters

Crochet uses yarn more yarn than knitting inch for inch, and something like a blanket can eat yarn at an alarming rate. If you’re in this situation and you’d like to avoid synthetics without your costs spiralling out of control, then hold tight because help is on the way soon in the next posts in the series! There are other things you could consider too, for example slowing down your making by working with finer yarn at a smaller gauge or tackling a new technique that requires a little more concentration?

Process knitters

The last group is people who are long-time makers and consume cheap acrylic largely out of habit. Does this sound like you? You probably knit a lot and consider yourself a process knitter. Maybe when you started knitting, the environmental impact of plastic fibres had been considered and we didn’t have the marvellous array of natural fibre yarns that we do today. Maybe you knit mainly for other people (even people they don’t know, such as charities acquaintances’ children) and you don’t have visibility of the lifespan of those garments once you hand them over.

If this is you, the tips for both other scenarios can help you keep your monthly yarn bill down without buying new synthetics. But additionally, if you knit a lot then you can devote time to what is the most environmentally friendly way to augment your stash – destash yarn. Although it takes a bit more time and effort than buying off the shelf, there is so much yarn just waiting to be loved in charity shops, Ravelry stashes, eBay and even swaps at knitting groups.

But the change that will have the biggest impact is one of mindset. Before you embark on a new project, ask yourself a few questions (and really, all of us should do this for every project if we want to be sustainable makers):

Does the recipient want a synthetic garment?

Is the thing you are making suitable for their needs? Is it their style/taste?

Taking my baby cardigan as an example, it hardly gets worn because it feels wrong to put my daughter in anything synthetic – small children are basically radiators! Many parents choose not to dress young children in synthetics at all. I like the retro look and bright red of my baby cardigan, and it’s more practical than a sweater. Had it been a cabled sweater or pastel-coloured frilly thing I would not have bothered finishing it.

When we make something big, complex or challenging for someone we love as a gift we see it as a more substantial demonstration of our feelings, but the recipient may have a different perspective, appreciating most a carefully thought-out gift that suits their needs. To be sure of this you could involve the recipient in the choice of pattern and materials, and if it’s a garment, customise the fitting for them.

Would a smaller project be appreciated just as much?

Instead of the acrylic baby cardigan, what about an organic cotton hat? An amigurumi toy instead of an acrylic blanket? By making something smaller, it’s possible to swap cheap acrylic for natural fibres without increasing cost.

What will happen to this when it is no longer wanted?

How long is its lifespan? Will the recipient care for it to keep it looking good, lovingly shaving off those bobbles, or discard it at the first one? What will happen to it when it’s no longer wanted?

Am I actually knitting this just because I want to?

There is nothing wrong with doing something you enjoy, isn’t that what it’s all about? If no one (including you) is in the market for a new aran sweater, would that cable pattern you’ve fallen in love with work on a cushion?

How would you feel if it were never used? Would you still be enthusiastic about making it? For a surprise gift, this is a very real possibility, and an unsolicited donation may be worth less to the charity than what you paid for the materials. Would you be happy to unravel the project when finished if no one was enthusiastic about owning it? If the answer is no, then there is probably a better project out there for you to spend your time and skills on.

In other words, we can learn to be more like product knitters.

In conclusion

There are circumstances where acrylic is the right material for the job. Other times, under difficult financial constraints, it might seem like the only option. While cheap acrylic can be tempting it is rarely good value. For a yarn to represent value, it must also have the right qualities for the project to make it worthy of our time, skills and effort. This applies both to the finished product and the process of making.

There are other sources of affordable yarn and we’ll look at some of those next time. In Part 2 we speak to two innovative businesses offering environmentally friendly yarn in a financially accessible way.

The author

Suzie Blackman

The dyer, designer, photographer, creative technologist and maker-of-things behind It's a Stitch Up. She lives in East London in a home filled with colour, fluff and house plants.

16 comments

  1. Is sustainability a middle-class concern? My view is that it it absolutely is not. Here are some facts about the relationship between sustainability and financial inequality:

    1. The people that have the least are those most affected by pollution and climate change. This not just on a global level, but equally true within high-income nations like here in the UK (where inequality is actually worsening) and in the US where crises like hurricane Katrina and the Flint water crisis) hit low-income communities the hardest (disproportional affecting African-Americans). People living below the poverty line have no choice but to be concerned about the planet because they are already being affected by pollution and climate change.
    2. The people with the most cause most of the pollution. “…our estimates of the scale of this inequality suggest that the poorest half of the global population – around 3.5 billion people – are responsible for only around 10% of total global emissions attributed to individual consumption “. – Oxfam, 2015.
      The problems we are facing are down to over-consumption at the hands of the wealthiest people on the planet.
  2. Viv says:

    Interesting article. I look forward to the next in the series.
    Very thought provoking for me. I can’t wear wool garments, except socks… weird. Actually I think the prickerly effect actually helps keep my feet warm
    I’m low income so although I try to buy good quality yarn, I do have ‘plastic yarn’ in my stash. I intent to use it as disposing of it would be just as wasteful. I don’t make garments with acrylics for all the reasons you mention, but it does make long lasting blankets. My husband has one on his bed that is nearly 30yrs old, made by me of course. It’s all a very difficult head and heart searching subject, but moving forward I am always mindful of what I make, and yes I’ve purchased a defuzzer and used it to revitalise hot water bottle covers (somewhat imade as a girl), cushion covers and blankets.
    I was interested in something you mentioned about ‘shedding’ values between polyester and acrylic, is there a difference?
    Thank Suzie for another excellent blog post
    Viv xXx

    • Thank you for your thoughtful comments Viv! I think there are definitely cases where acrylic is the right thing, and there’s no reason to feel bad about using it. It was a really difficult post to write because social inclusion (including financial accessibility) of making is so important to me, but low cost goods have led to so much over-consumption. All of us need to be considered about what we buy.
      The stats about acrylic vs polyester are from this study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27686821, which unfortunately is behind an academic paywall, but it is quoted here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylic_fiber#Concerns . Acrylic is quite brittle, and the really cheap yarns are often quite loosely spun, so I can see how it could be particularly bad.

      • Viv says:

        I can say that I was surprised to see that the blanket I made nearly thirty years ago has no bobbling or fuzzing, yet things I’ve made in recent years are not so well worn. I agree with you whole heartedly, cheep garment products have led to an alarmingly “Disposable” age. To a point where I have read that people have bought an outfit worn it once and then thrown it away.
        It’s important that we all think more carefully about what we do to this planet we call home, and your piece above encourages us all to do that. I think I come from a ‘rare breed’ up bringing of “make do and mend”, that cheap isn’t necessarily value for money. I also support “seek and you will find” by taking time looking in charity shops or yarn de-stashing for on line purchases. I had an amazing alpaca yarn find in a local charity shop for £5, which I later discovered would have retailed originally at £50 ✨
        Carry on your good works Suzie xXx

        • Wow, good find on that Alpaca! I think it’s such a shame that a lot of people have a stigma about buying second hand and charity shopping and we should support them more. As it is, they shred or export a huge number of donations because they can’t sell things in the UK. Personally, I love them. If I am travelling I always have a nose in the local ones, and I got some fantastic vintage sock yarn for £1 a ball in Norway.
          It is great that your blanket has done so well. I think they must cut corners with spinning techniques these days.
          On the subject of throw-away fashion, I read recently that the average garment is worn just 4 times. I found this horrifying :( There is so much to talk about on this subject, I find it quite overwhelming and am only just starting to make sense of it all enough to write some coherent thoughts.

      • Viv says:

        PS thanks for the links

  3. I was asked on another platform if there was a difference in the environmental impact of budget acrylic yarns and ‘premium acrylic’, and thought it was worth addressing it here. My view is that ‘premium acrylic’ is a primarily marketing term. Acrylic is a cheap material to manufacture (Nylon is actually relatively expensive), and calling any acrylic “premium” is simply dishonest. It is likely to be spun in a way that makes it feel a bit softer. If it’s spun tighter it may shed fibres at a lower rate, but that’s not guaranteed. Some of the yarns marketed as ‘premium acrylic’ are similar in price to wool, but the main difference between premium and budget is likely to be the profit margins of the companies selling it.

  4. Martha says:

    Hey! I really loved this article – I came here because I am a huge advocate of sustainability and eco-friendliness, and recently came to the realisation about the negative consequences of acrylic based wool, which up until now I’ve been buying. I am 17 and also want to start making some garments of my own to try to combat the fast fashion industry which has taken over (although the closest I’ve come to a garment so far is a hot water bottle cover haha ). I have huge amounts of wool – I will use this all up before buying anything new, but a move to more sustainable wool means that crochet (which, like you mentioned, uses a LOT of wool) quickly becomes a very expensive hobby. Do you have any advice on how to balance budget and quality wool? The links were very useful! :)

    • Hi Martha,
      Thanks so much for your comment. I am really impressed that you’re thinking about these issues at 17, it took me a lot longer understand these realities. There’s a third blog post planned in the series about where to get yarn sustainable yarn without breaking the bank, but due to a high workload this autumn we have not published it yet. Until then, here are some tips:

      • Yarn recycling – time consuming but worth it, as you can get luxury materials for next to nothing. We interviewed a woman who has a yarn recycling business in part 2 (there’s also a youtube video showing how to do it)
      • Buying second hand stash – there are local initiatives like the one in the article above, but there are also 400,000 stashes listed for trade or sale on Ravelry. There does seem to be a huge amount of unwanted yarn out there :( Local knitting groups often organise charity swaps and sales.
      • Buying local is a great way to cut down on transport footprint. When I was working in commercial yarn retail I realised just how much of it was marketed as British and European, yet coming from Australia via China. I’m not sure if you’re based in the UK, but Louise of Knit British has put together a great list of affordable British yarn here and here.
      • Obviously, the kind of hand-dyed yarn I offer is towards the luxury end of the scale, but if the hand-dyed look is something that appeals to you, you can always dye your own. We wrote a low-cost book to help people get into dyeing. If you are using large volumes you will probably qualify for a wholesale account. Chester Wool Co is a wholesaler with a low minimum order (5KG).
      • Lastly, spinning gives you access to a vast array of interesting and low cost fibres. Obviously that comes with a steep learning curve and often expensive equipment, but spinning has taught me so much about yarn. Bluefaced Leicester is the British sheep breed that goes into many of our yarns, and you can see how much cheaper it is as fibre.

      I hope that helps. Keep up the good work!

  5. Domi says:

    This is very interesting article! Thank you very much! :-) I just have a few questions. For example, in Poland, in 90’s, there was a situation, that it was super hard to find natural yarns, so almost everybody were knitting from plastic fibers… and even at the beginning of XXI century in small towns, there were only yarns like 30% of wool and 70% of acrylic. I’ve got tons of acrylic yarns at home, and of course now I am buying mostly wool, cotton, alpaca, mohair, hemp, etc. and I really have no idea what to do with all those acrylic yarns! Do you have some ideas? I decided to knit/crochet some stuff for which there is no reason to wash very often… phone/tablet cases, bags, blankets…or to create some gobelin/tapestry? What do you think about it? It’s better to knit/weave something with those yarns or to throw it away? In my opinion it’s better to use it as long as possible instead of throwing away. Do you have any other ideas how to use them? And for 2-3 years I am not buying acrylic yarns anymore, so hopefully I am not making the same mistake over and over again.
    Best wishes for you,
    D

    • Thanks for your comment. I think it’s definitely better to use it up if you can! I managed to donate some to an organisation that were teaching beginners, and some more to an artist. It’s definitely useful for the types of things you mention. Also for trying out different stitches from books, making decorations, toys etc.

  6. Deborahbeas says:

    I would like to read an article about animal welfare and animal fibre products. I recently went on the PETA website regarding wool and was horrified. It’s made me think I should stick to natural fibres such as bamboo or cotton, but then there’s the environmental impact of that. I crochet for relaxation, yet feel I can’t do right for doing wrong.

    • Hi Deborah, thanks for your comment. Firstly, I think it’s important to remember that there are no perfect choices, and you shouldn’t be hard on yourself when you’re not responsible for the materials available to you. The good thing is that you’re gathering the information to make the best choice for you. Unless you are in a position to make rear your own no-slaughter herd or have the time to process your grow and process your own flax, there will always be some compromises. We’ve written a little about some of the animal welfare issues around knitting wool, and how that shaped our decision to choose suppliers here. PETA exposed some really shocking abuses of sheep on farms, and I hope they passed their findings onto the authorities so that the offenders could be brought to justice. Unfortunately, abusive people find their way into most areas, but I think it’s wrong to infer that this is normal practice. It’s also important to remember that part of PETA’s agenda is to stop all livestock farming. I grew up around sheep farming, I have watched sheering many times and I never saw anything that troubled me (sheep don’t especially like the sheep-dip but it’s over very quickly!). My personal view (and if you reach a different decision, that’s just as valid) is that the benefits of a material that’s biodegradable, requires minimal processing and has great thermal and wear properties outweigh the compromise of it being animal-derived if is is farmed in a way that respects the animals.

  7. manlymanknitting says:

    I stumbled onto this article as I’ve never knitted in my life but I had the idea to try making a sweater for the fun of it, but yes i’ve been struggling right now to actually find any vegan yarn that won’t make the sweater cost more than a designer sweater! It sucks a bit :( I also was ignorant about how bad acrylic wool is, since often the ready made sweaters I’ve bought for myself have been acrylic (or cotton). Great points and research in the article.

  8. Bapur Purba says:

    I appreciate all your research snd perspectives. My purposes for crocheting are to exercise my brain and make someone smile. Almost exclusively I make small items like ornaments, little toys, keychain dangles, bottle covers, tiny purses etc. So I never need more than one skein of anything. I buy my yarn at thrift stores , often no labels. However, I think if I don’t buy it someone else will So I might as well use it. There are thousands of patterns that exercise my brain as I plan colors, change the counts to suit my purposes, figure out the different stitches.

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