Hiya! Lots of energy, well, not really, LOL! In all seriousness, I started it all because I wanted a knitted-type bed-throw for the Summer, and then I got obsessed by the desire to make a lightweight replacement for her Pashmina, because sheâs moved to Brisbane, which is hot like it is here in Houston, but she and her husband like to take walks, so just in case they got a cool breeze off the water, it might be ice for her to have a lightweight thing to throw on.
((Iâll get around to some âhintsânâtipsâ re: using cottonâŚ))
I decided on cotton because, as I think I noted ((I lose trackâŚ)), I can get a bunch of it at discount, but especially, I wanted it to be Care-Free for her, something that can be washed and basically just hung over a line or rail, as the case may be, without needing to be re-blocked.
Iâve tested several small swatches before I went too far overboard with buying-up pounds of the stuff, LOL!, and I was very pleased by the outcome of the combination of the cotton, and my small stitches ((2.75mm and 3mm 14" straight Nova Platina needles, FWIWâŚ)) So thatâs the good part, if it helps you out any.
There are some tricky aspects, though. The cotton Iâm using is actually âmercerized cotton crochet threadâ, size is ânumber 10â which, I think, might be similar to fingering weight size". The thing is that it has no âgiveâ or âspringâ to it at all. So it does not âadaptâ at all to varied tension. If you knit tightly, with a lot of tension, the stitch loops will only be as small as the needle diameter, but if you knot more loosely, the loops will be slack and can end up being downright sloppy if allowed to slip by without enough tension.
The main problem with âtoo tightâ knitting is not having enough space to insert the needle to make new stitches, and those bits of lunacy like âpurl 3 together through the back loopâ become nearly impossible ((unless the 1.15mm crochet hook can fit in - but that, too is problematic because the resulting stitch just looks wrong)).
So all in all, the cotton is âunforgivingâ so to speak.
OH!, I almost forgot - although you probably already guessed this point:
cotton does not âblockâ as do âspringierâ yarns, especially wool, so the knitting, whether âplainâ or cabled or lace or whatever, is what it is - blocking wonât do much to alter the shape or size. Which is IMO also a plus, looking at it from the view that, similarly, it wonât turn into a tangled mess if it gets wet ((again, though, assuming it hasnât been knit too loosely, but even at that, the fibers themselves wounât shrivel up)).
Given all of that, it stands to reason that there are some lace stitches that it just doesnât seem ((to me at least)) to âplay wellâ with some of the lace stitches that look soooo purdy in the photos - after theyâve been worked up in alpaca or merino or cashmere, and steam-blocked and so on.
So itâs absolutely necessary to SWATCH 
Not only if you need to know your gauge, but also, to be sure that the end-product is going to please your eye.
But there are also, IMO, some definite âplusesâ, too.
- As above, itâs washable and, if knitted reasonably tightly, it doesnât need to be re-blocked - just pulled a bit sideways and lengthwise to tighten-up the stitches, like you might do with an easy-care cotton sweater or to jeans. For me, that easey-care is the primary consideration, especially given the size of the two things I most want to make ((king blanket and the âpashminaâ, which will end up being about 4âX6â, the way the math is working out)).
- The stitches are crisp, especially when you get past the the outermost layer, where the first few ((maybe 3 or 4?)) yard length of the thread on the ball tends to be just a wee bit âplumperâ or âpuffedâ relative to the inner layers, but most people probably wouldnât notice the difference. I use it as âpractice materialâ, which gets knit and ripped over and over - and again, when you get to that inner part, the thread is such that the stitches look crisp and detailed, which I personally like a lot
- If you like to dye things, cotton is easy to dye, but Iâm buying-up white in part because I like it. But if you do like to dye things, Dharma Trading has some great info about basin-dying yarn in general.
3A) I havenât tested this, but it seems to me that, if cotton is easily dyed, it also would take well to stain-repellents and/or water repellents, if thatâs a considerationâŚ
- Cotton is hypoallergenic. That of course doesnât matter to everybody, but Iâm a Cotton Person myself so this matters to me
- Cotton is good for warm weather wear, but it also is a pleasant for Winter-Wear, warm when layered.
- I personally also like the touch/feel of the cotton while working with it.
So, those are my thoughts so far on Knitting With Cotton âCrochet Threadâ I hope they help you decide whether to try some new projects using cotton yarn and/or thread.
This is my âintroductionâ.
So Iâve been scouring the Internet, looking at uncounted numbers of potentially-interesting stitches, and trying-out the most promising. Which, in turn, has been its own education, because some patterns arenât really compatible with cotton, which doesnât âgiveâ.