Yarn abuse exists.
I realize I’m on pretty thin ice here, but…you know you’ve seen it. Someone has knit something that leaves you totally speechless and the only thing you can think is “What did that poor yarn do to deserve THAT?” I’d post pictures of examples, but that would be mean-spirited (and I work at a yarn shop), so you’ll have to use your imagination.
Most yarns have souls. Wool comes from living creatures. Even cotton comes from a plant, and silk is made by worms. At the risk of getting all new-age-y on you, sometimes when I see a particularly beautiful skein of yarn, I want to adopt it rather than buy it. On the other hand, yarn that’s made from man-made fiber (acrylic) has no soul and can take whatever abuse you throw at it.
So I guess..the moral of this story is: if you know you’re about to make something horrendous, don’t use yarn with a soul.
Sorry, I have spring fever. My brain hasn’t caught up with the drastic change in temperature and it’s all…foggy. I was trying to grade sizes for something this afternoon, which is basically like doing a giant set of math problems, and it just was not computing and then I had to go take a nap.