Spring and summer seasons are perfect to knit with cellulose yarns such as cotton, hemp, linen, etc. This is not just because you will not feel boiling hot while you knit a sweater, but also because you do not have to wait until winter to wear it.
According to Clara Parkes in her book “The Knitters Book of Yarn”:
(…) cotton is considered ideal for warm-weather climates because it can absorb more than twenty times its weight in water and release it quickly through evaporation. These evaporative-cooling powers make cotton less useful for climates where you need heat held close to your body. But for climates where you need to stay cool, cotton is perfectly suited.
I must say that in the past I did not like knitting with cotton because the yarn used to hurt my hands. Nowadays, however, you can find soft cotton yarn that it is a pleasure to knit with. The feeling of the yarn depends on how the fiber was prepared. I prefer thicker yarn whose fiber was combed; I find it softer than mercerised cotton.
This week I have found this skein of cotton in my stash (pictured below) from Lily Cotton in Sugar’n Cream. The colour is 02223 Ombre Mod; the yarn is 100% USA Cotton in worsted weight. It calls for US 7/4.5mm needles and US H/8mm crochet hook.
I had decided to use this skein to make a dishcloth in Tunisian crochet, but I ended up making a washcloth glove for my guest bathroom instead.
I started the project using a 6mm hook, but I changed to 8mm later, because in Tunisian crochet it is better to use one or two sizes bigger than the recommended. The fabric you obtain will have a better drape, otherwise it will be dense and heavy.
Below you can see pictures of my progress and the FO. You read right, an FO, because crocheting is faster than knitting, and this was a small project.
As you can see, the look of this method of crochet is like knitting 🙂 For this project I used the knit and simple stitch and I love the outcome.
Another project that I was working on was the sample for the “Swatch Like You Mean It” class by Mel from the Single Handed Knits video podcast. I mentioned this project last week; I finished the sample and instead of a cushion it became a table runner. I used in this project cotton yarn as well, but blended with other fibers such as Milk fiber. This last one can be made from dewatered and skimmed milk and high-tech.
I was happy with my FO until I soaked the sample. The blue colour bled over the creamy one 🙁 I should have known better. Next time I will swatch my swatch! Anyway, here is the pic of my table runner:
Next on my needles will be the new cowl Tubularity by Martina Behm, but I will use cotton instead of wool because I would like to use it before the next winter 🙂 These are the colours I chose to combine:
I bought the yarn at Manor. They have their own yarn brand called Maddison; it is affordable and of good quality.
I will create a project page in Ravelry with all the information about how I will adapt this pattern to the size of the yarn. The pattern calls for a size US 2.5/3mm and this yarn for US 8/5mm. I have to do some adjustments; next week I will tell you about my progress.
By the way, the sachets I show in the picture are soaps, handmade in Austria by Bademeisterei. The line is EcoWorld.
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p>That is all for this week. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this post! Leave me any comment or suggestion if you like, and feel free to share this post with your friends and community. Also remember you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Ravelry, Tumblr, Flickr and Pinterest!