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Posted by myswendy on February 7, 2008, 6:28 pm
I tried making a scarf from bamboo yarn. The yarn was soft, silky, and
heavenly. The only problem was, the yarn had a terrible way of
unwinding itself back into its basic fibers and kept breaking on me.
What a mess. I finished the project, but never again!
Wendy
A Knitting Fool in CT
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Posted by Leah on February 11, 2008, 10:09 am
On Thu, 7 Feb 2008 13:18:48 -0500, "vanmier" <vanmier AT peoplepc DOT
show/hide quoted text
com> wrote:
show/hide quoted text
>Acrylic is, unfortunately, the most affordable and most available in my
>area. I would love to try some of the more organic fibers. Bamboo, as I
>have mentioned, and I would also like to try some alpaca. I may get
>adventurous one day and just buy something not acrylic. : )
Christy
Cotton is an organic fiber, readily available, and usually
inexpensive. The only thing it's really bad for is knit ribbing.
There are variations you can use to make a good cotton rib, but for
the most part, I don't like it for sweaters. I do have some really
thin cotton that is naturally colored and changes colors as it gets
washed (either brown to green or lighter brown to darker brown). The
cone is tucked away in my stash right now, so I can't tell you the
name, but it was quite reasonable when I bought it.
For branching out into wool, you can get a wool blend like Lion
Brand's Woolease. I have a hat in Woolease (20% wool content in their
black yarn) for when the weather is colder and I want a touch of wool,
but not 100%.
As for cost, you can shop around and find good deals on the more
exotic yarns, or just save up by not purchasing acrylic and then spend
that money on the exotic yarn. I have fingering weight yarns that
cost $5 a skein that I'm making socks out of (need 3 skeins since they
are only 50 grams and I'm crocheting these socks, would only need 2 if
I was knitting them), and fingering weight yarn that costs $20 a skein
that I'll probably also make knit socks out of, so there is a variety
of prices out there. You just need to shop around your local LYS or
online. I'd avoid the really exotic sequinned yarns at first, since
they can be really difficult to work with. You could also combine
yarns, like a strand of lace weight mohair blend, with your acrylic to
add a bit of the exotic to your project w/out breaking the bank, or
use something like angora as an accent on cuffs and the like.
Leah
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Posted by vanmier on February 11, 2008, 2:04 pm
Leah,
I don't think I've really thought about cotton on a large scale. I
usually only use cotton in the form of crochet cotton, for wall hangings and
dollies and such. The local craft shop, I believe, does have the sugar 'n'
cream cotton yarn. I'll have to check the price on it. A cotton tank top
or light sweater would probably be nice. : )
Christy
show/hide quoted text
> Cotton is an organic fiber, readily available, and usually
> inexpensive. The only thing it's really bad for is knit ribbing.
> There are variations you can use to make a good cotton rib, but for
> the most part, I don't like it for sweaters. I do have some really
> thin cotton that is naturally colored and changes colors as it gets
> washed (either brown to green or lighter brown to darker brown). The
> cone is tucked away in my stash right now, so I can't tell you the
> name, but it was quite reasonable when I bought it.
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Posted by Leah on February 12, 2008, 10:57 am
On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:04:09 -0500, "vanmier" <vanmier AT peoplepc DOT
show/hide quoted text
com> wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> I don't think I've really thought about cotton on a large scale. I
>usually only use cotton in the form of crochet cotton, for wall hangings and
>dollies and such. The local craft shop, I believe, does have the sugar 'n'
>cream cotton yarn. I'll have to check the price on it. A cotton tank top
>or light sweater would probably be nice. : )
Christy
I have the Threads Magazine article book on hand knitting. They
recommend knitting cotton ribs with crossed sts to help them keep
their shape.
They also suggest in the body of a stockinette sweater that you knit
into the back of each st and purl regular to help the fabric keep it's
shape. You can also do a plaited stockinette by doing a row 1 K
regular, row 2 P all sts b "with yarn looped under the needle" and
then repeating those 2 rows.
They also recommend casting on with the size needle recommended for
the project, but then immediately switching to a needle 3-5 sizes
smaller; if the pattern calls for size 8 needles, they recommend you
knit the rib using a 3, 4, or 5 needle so the rib is nice and tight to
begin with.
Another trick mentioned is to knit a regular rib using a strand of
elastic along with a strand of yarn to help keep it from flopping
about, the same way I've seen it recommended to use a strand of
elastic when doing sock ribbing in cotton to help it keep it's shape.
My concern is that the elastic will probably eventually break or
stretch out of shape, so if I did a sweater in cotton, I'd probably
use a crossed rib, which won't come undone unless the sweater gets
cut.
Leah
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Posted by vanmier on February 12, 2008, 1:31 pm
Leah,
I'm not a knitter. I can't quite get the hang of it. *lol*
Christy
show/hide quoted text
> Christy
> I have the Threads Magazine article book on hand knitting. They
> recommend knitting cotton ribs with crossed sts to help them keep
> their shape.
> They also suggest in the body of a stockinette sweater that you knit
> into the back of each st and purl regular to help the fabric keep it's
> shape. You can also do a plaited stockinette by doing a row 1 K
> regular, row 2 P all sts b "with yarn looped under the needle" and
> then repeating those 2 rows.
> They also recommend casting on with the size needle recommended for
> the project, but then immediately switching to a needle 3-5 sizes
> smaller; if the pattern calls for size 8 needles, they recommend you
> knit the rib using a 3, 4, or 5 needle so the rib is nice and tight to
> begin with.
> Another trick mentioned is to knit a regular rib using a strand of
> elastic along with a strand of yarn to help keep it from flopping
> about, the same way I've seen it recommended to use a strand of
> elastic when doing sock ribbing in cotton to help it keep it's shape.
> My concern is that the elastic will probably eventually break or
> stretch out of shape, so if I did a sweater in cotton, I'd probably
> use a crossed rib, which won't come undone unless the sweater gets
> cut.
> Leah
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