Can you combine wool and acrylic yarns in latch hook?

Question

I have a friend who has one color in wool, the rest in acrylic, both are excellent quality. She wants to use both types in one rug. No problem hooking it, but will it look ok? Will it wear differently? Does she have to dry clean it? This is a fairly large piece for in front of the fireplace.

Answer 1

I think it will look fine and wear fine, and even if it doesn't wear evenly, she can always re-do the sections that wear out faster.

It will have to be cleaned for the most sensitive yarn, which will be the wool. But acrylic can be cleaned like wool and not be hurt. Wool can be washed in cold water with gentle soap, just not dried. I'd never dry clean wool because the heat will shrink it.

I wonder though, if she ought to do a burn test on the wool, since it'll be in front of the fireplace?

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Answer 2

The problem with using wool and acrylic yarns together is : If the wool get wet or hot from the fire place it will become stiff and will curl and ruin the look of the rug. And you can never through your rug into the washer because the wool will shrink and lose its texture.

Tell her to find another yarn that will better suit the conditions of the rug. And don't use any yarn that has nylon in it [ it too will cause a lot of problems ] . Actually she is better off sticking to all the same quality of yarn and the rug will still look real good.

I do latch hook all the time and sell a lot of my rugs. All my rugs are washable and can be dried in the dryer on med heat. Even after putting the rug backings on them and the edgings

Answer 3

I wouldn't use both fibers. They each have a different way to be cleaned. Wool could be dry cleaned but for acrylic it is water cleaned and wool would shrink. I would take a few strands and test them to see what would happen