Cotton yarn is one of my favourite yarns to work with. It dyes well and knits up into easy-to-wear fabric that most people find comfortable against their skin. Maintenance is easy, and it gets softer with use.
Knitting with cotton however has a major pitfall – though it shows the stitch pattern very well, errors are also clearly visible. Some people also find it stiff to work with, I mean, certainly it can’t beat the softness of Angora or Merino, but adding a soft fibre with it can solve that problem.
The extremely detailed infographic on how cotton is transformed from something grown on a farm to something worn by us is from Cotton Australia. If you have school going kids interested in STEM, do check it out.
One material, but so many different varieties.
These four photos show the different types of 100% cotton yarns I have used and love. They are different in type, weight and colour.
The first one is a 4 ply weight (also known as sock or fingering) smooth cotton yarn from @ABCWools India. It is fairly thin, and works well with a 4mm or less needle size. However if you want to use it to knit lace, just go for a larger sized needle.
The second one is a sport weight (also known as DK or light worsted) smooth cotton yarn from @Elgatonegro Spain. This is a beautifully soft yarn, and works well with a 4 or 5mm needle size.
The third one is a worsted weight (also known as Aran) organic cotton yarn from @Malabrigo Uruguay. Though discontinued it was thick, and worked well with a 5mm needle size. This was one of the first yarns I used in Abu Dhabi, and I was gutted to know they don’t make it anymore.
The fourth one is also a worsted weight cotton yarn, but it is a self-striping, variegated ribbon one, from @langyarn. So if the Malabrigo one is a spaghetti, the Lang Yarn one would be a tagliatelle. It worked well with a 5mm needle, and the colour changes can be used to great advantage.
For someone who lived in hot hot hot Ahmedabad for almost 30 years, cotton was the first choice with three good reasons – breathable, light in weight and ability to control moisture.
So when I knit, I use the thinner ones like 4-ply and sport for clothes, while worsted weight and above are best for blankets, home furnishings and heavier adult clothes.
The four works of mine illustrate what I am talking about; also, they correspond to the yarns I showed before.
The first one is a test knit crop tank I did for @aliciaplums. Choosing cotton for a tank to be used in an Indian summer, is absolutely a no-brainer. To me, it’s a given… unless I can source hemp, linen or bamboo. The cotton is stiff enough to maintain the shape, as there are no side seams in this pattern.
The second one is a bag using the brioche technique. Since the cotton was soft, brioche made it even more squishy. A cotton fabric lining helps to maintain the shape of the bag, and a little bit of embroidery using the same yarn adds texture.
The third one is a crocheted blanket I made for my daughter, and the pattern is by @solstrikke. Since the yarn weight is worsted, the blanket is heavy. It worked well to weigh down my baby while she slept, and I have plans to stitch the ends of it to convert it into a shrug as a graduation present. Future thinking in full steam here!
The fourth one is a crocheted shirt I made for my daughter, now gifted to a dear friend, and the pattern is by #RimaAranha. The yarn weight is worsted, but since its tiny, it really doesn’t feel so heavy. I have also tried to make a shrug and a cap with different colours of the same yarn. The variegations can be a hit and miss, so better to plan and knit/crochet if a classic piece is to be made. If bohemian is the theme, then it really wouldn’t matter at all.
That’s it from me for this week! Ciao till next Saturday 🙂