Monday, June 30, 2008

At Least I Lean Left...

Does anyone else have this problem? Every single sweater (and most shirts) I have start wearing out and pilling in the exact same place. I’ve observed this phenomenon over time and without a doubt, the lower left back side of every sweater I own gets all “pilly” before too long.

I thought I’d check with my good friend Go*gle on this, and surprisingly there is little to be found on the internet. I did however find a study done in Europe that talked about “Abrasion resistance” in the context of how to properly help disabled and elderly people dress.

In part it said:

Abrasion resistance describes the ability of a material to withstand rubbing against another material, e.g. fabric, seams, skin, prosthesis, furniture, floor. As a result of abrasion the fabric surface changes visually and physically depending on the properties of the raw material: fibre ends raise from the surface of the fabric and cling to each other (pilling), fluff comes off, colours fade, the mechanical tenacity decreases and yarns snap causing holes to form in the fabric. Disabled and elderly people using a prosthesis or moving by crawling on all fours, or leaning their elbows on a table, face this abrasion problem when their clothing is exposed to strong rubbing especially in joints (knees, elbows)

Okay. I’m not disabled nor elderly (I don’t think) and yet even as I sit in my chair typing this I can feel a definite posture thing going on where I’m shifted left. I can feel my lower left back pressing against the chair. Of course at this very moment while I'm thinking about it, I’m sitting up with perfect posture, but, let’s be real here, in the normal course of my day I’m on my behind doing computer stuff. So. What have I learned?

One. I clearly buy very high quality clothes. (This is called "Facetiousness").

Two. I am going to become a hunch-back or hunch-hip if I don’t make some changes now.

Three. Maybe I should get me to a chiropractor?

So…am I the only one out there with this annoying problem? Oh…maybe next time I’ll post about the odd way I wear out shoes. Nah…I like my readers too much to put you through that! Have a great day! -Monica

2 comments:

elizabeth said...

OK, I don't think I get "pilly" on one side more than the other...but oddly enough, I was thinking about pilling recently. Really. How odd that you wrote about it. And how random that I actually have something to say about it. Is this a bit like talking about how one folds fitted sheets? I was sitting in a 3 hour lecture and noticed that my (relatively new) sweater was pilly on the inside of the arms. I started to pull off the pills one at a time and gather them up in my hand. Mainly I did this because I was fiddling and bored. I started to wonder if picking the pills would promote more pilling. Hmmm. Who knows. After picking a massive quantity of pills, I found others noticing my picking and I decided to stop. Now, what to do with the handful of sweater material? Do I cram this big glob of stuff in my purse? If I do, it will be there for weeks. Do I just hold it? Are people now wondering what I am going to do with this material? Are people watching me because the lecture has lost its audience. Will the speaker please do something interesting so that people will look away from me and I can do something with this pile? If I simply throw it under my chair will the individual who vacuums eventually just suck it up? Or could it potentially end up on the back of my pants and I'll just walk around later with a glob of sweater pills attached to the back of me. Interestingly, I tucked it into a button hole and it seemed to rest there just fine. However, when I went to dispose of it after class, it seems to have vanished. Perhaps it's now in a birds nest somewhere.
Now if we could just discuss how one folds fitted sheets.

Susanica said...

Too funny Beth. I am so going to write about fitted sheets today! Your story cracked me up. I supposed you are too young to remember Rosana Rosana Dana on Saturday Night Live? It was Gilda Radner and she did this hysterical bit about picking goop out of her eyes and rolling it around and around with her fingers until suddenly it was gone. It was so funny.

I hate pilling and wonder also what in the heck to do with my "collection" . I also wonder whether it promotes more fabric destruction. Hope all is going well and that you guys post again soon. We LOVE your blog posts! -Pep