Test Kitchen: Brown Sheep Company's Cotton Fleece

Today's test yarn is thematically appropriate - a cotton blend, 80% cotton/20% wool to be exact.

The producer: Brown Sheep Company.  Based in Mitchell, NE, this company churns out yarns that are stable, workhorse varieties.  

The yarn: Cotton Fleece, available in two weights: DK and fine (fingering).  

The pros: Excellent stitch definition as is expected of cotton yarns, the touch of wool helps to maintain its shape and slightly soften the cotton.  It is a matte yarn so it lacks the traditional luster of cotton.   The price point is very good, retails between $7.00 - $8.50/skein with great yardage (215 - 220), and is available in a myriad of colors.

The cons: Despite the lighter weights for both versions, a finished object can be heavy especially if the stitch per inch density is high.  The dyes...some behave better than others.  But if you're going to invest a lot of time into a knitted object, take the 30 minutes or so to give the yarn a vinegar bath before blocking.  The darker colors have been known to have significant dye runoff. 

An Ode to Summer: Cotton

While knitting with the perennial favorite, wool, is always up there on the to-do list, it isn't necessarily all that great for projects you have piled up during the sweltering months.  Fortunately much lighter, breathable, and silkier fibers have come into being to rescue our work in progress (WIP) bins.

The proliferation of cotton and all its subsequent blends have been only growing in popularity due to fair trade/organic/sustainable movements.  Indeed there are many, many pluses to working with such a fiber. 

Among the many admirable characteristics of cotton is the fact that it does not come from animals but it is still a naturally-occurring product.  Its existence has first been traced to a subtropical region of Asia but is widely grown all over the world today.  The English word is a derivative of Arabic's "qutn".  The beauty of cotton lies in its modest appearance.  It combines strength, softness, and shine (though not always) to lend itself to a variety of uses.  However a downside to the use of cotton is the chemical treatment it undergoes to prepare itself for commercial use.  Cotton yarn is commonly "mercerized", the yarn equivalent of "enriched flour".  The process involves exposing the fiber to caustic acids/chemicals to enhance luster and boost its water-handling properties (increased strength). The resulting product is a much "stiffer" fiber. The process itself has been around for over 100 years.  Up until then people just took whatever cotton decided to give them.  

The initial experience of knitting with cotton is akin to using rope.  Yarn producers are constantly trying to improve the content, but sometimes in order to achieve immediate softness you might have to go for a blend.

There are dozens of well known and high-end yarn producers that put out significant 100% cotton yarn inventories, and there are an equal amount of little-known, tiny mom & pop shops that do too. The key to choosing your yarn lies in the target FO.  It's not recommended to use stiff, lower-end cotton to produce garments.  The object will not have very good drape, sheen, and might weigh as much as armor.  Some yarns are considered unglamorous work horse varieties, like Bernat and Sugar & Cream.  But they are dependable and predictable.

Conversely if you're in the mood to splurge for yarn that will be turned into garments there are countless options like Classic Elite, Tahki, and Blue Sky Alpacas just to name a few.  Keep in mind that without any synthetic additions cotton is likely to grow with wear.  Meaning you'll have gauge appropriately, that is not an option.  Cotton yarns come in a variety of beautiful, rich hues as well as stunning variegated varieties.  They take to dyes well so you can readily experiment on your own.

And a final note, for those that are interested in the nitty-gritty of this commodity, cotton is traded under two exchanges: New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) under the ticker symbol TT and New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) under the ticker symbol CT.  Like most commodities, cotton is traded under "future" contracts.  So if you have a heavy interest/investment into cotton, you might want to check out how it's faring in other parts of the world.  And even if you're not a trader-nerd, you can still see how the cost of cotton yarn is being impacted by where it's being harvested in the world.

For the love of yarn...

Knitting is one of those way of life/activities/hobbies/time-sucker that is both cherished, revered, and frustrating.  For those that have fallen to the addiction of knitting there is nothing better that visiting a local yarn store (LYS) and drooling over the inventory.  Shiny needles and cubes upon cubes of saturated goodness just waiting to becoming a finished object is high on the list of loves after fish and really good food (the two being mutually exclusive).

As a relatively new participant to the art of knitting I discovered a need to sort out the pros and cons of all things yarn.  And the vast types of yarns readily available on the market can make one's head spin. So, I welcome you all to the giant project that is the yarn dictionary.