Reflective Yarn Closeup

I've been asked to provide a close up photo of the Retroglo® yarns to help a customer decide whether or not to buy it and so thought that likely more of you folks might be interested in seeing a closeup of this fun, somewhat 'magical' yarn

Retroglo without Flash (no retro-reflective light)

This first photo shows the three widths that we carry.  From left to right, the 1/69", the 1/32", and the 1/23".   It's funny how its a bit hard to mentally picture the sizes, even though its spelled out for us in the name.

I've placed them over a wooden ruler to help illustrate the actual sizes.  If you look closely you can see that these just look like a grey strip of fabric-- and that's true. These are cut from a 3M™ product called  Scotchlite™. It is a reflective material that is laminated to a polyester film for strength and then cut into thin strips by Metlon corporation which manufactures this yarn (made in the USA!)

You may be familiar with this, but Retroglo® has 50,000 minute glass beads to the square inch.  This is what give it the 'magical' quality of retro-reflectivity.  The glass beads work to shine the light directly back to the source and is why it provides that all important safety quality to your hand crafted outer-wear.

My second photo is with the flash on. This illustrates the retro-reflectivity we just spoke of.

Retroglo with Flash (retro-reflective light)

If you are interested in trying out these yarns, we suggest that you carry them along with another yarn as even though they are flexible, they are not as flexible or strong as most yarns you might use.

I've used them in hats and scarves with good success.  

I have more projects in the works and will be coming out with an ePub later this year with multiple craft projects using this great yarn.  The working title is "Be Seen! Craft Projects with Reflective yarn"

If you would like to hear more about the ePub and be notified when it comes out, please subscribe to our email list to be kept up to date!

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Survey

I'm working on developing a course and have a few questions for you.

Please take a moment and let me know (via comments) what your answers are to the following questions:

1. What is something I can do that you wish you could do?
2. What would you love to see me teach a class on?
3. What is the one thing you wish you could do or would love to learn more about?

You don't have to answer all 3-- maybe you only know the answer to number 3. That's fine!

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Back to the knitting machines!

I've been checking out mods to knitting machines online lately and going to take an Arduino class this week to see if I can perhaps one-day mod my own... found some interesting projects (where have I been??)

A student duo made a rocking chair powered knitting machine

Some have replaced the older electronics for color work. here as does this one

And this one replaces the punch card (one of the things I'd like to do)

So gratifying to see people coming up with ways to bring these older machines into the new age!

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