I have been considering making a sweater fromLion Brand Cotton Ease, which is 50% cotton/50% acrylic. However, I just ran across something called Red Heart TLC Cotton Plus and it is 49% cotton/51% acrylic. Does anyone know if they are pretty much the same? I know about Red Heart, but I had never heard of this yarn variety of theirs. It is so much cheaper than Cotton Ease and thought it would be good for a first sweater to use something less costly.
They are very similar.
Cotton-Ease is a tiny bit thinner, and has more yardage.
I think they would both work very well for making a pullover or cardigan.
If you have access to a Hobby Lobby, I highly recommend their Hushabye baby yarn. It is 50% cotton/ 50% acrylic and comes in a pretty good range of non-baby colors (some very pretty greens, brown, cream and at least 3 blues. Even the pink isn’t ‘baby pink’) It is really soft and springy and was very pleasant to knit with. I just finished knitting a sweater with it (almost finished - it’s blocking now) and I would use the yarn again definitely.
I haven’t seen the Red Heart you mention and haven’t used the cotton ease, but I just wanted to tell you about the HL yarn because it’s new, has the same fiber content as the others, and I loved using it!
Edited to add: The Hushabye has 208 yds per ball and is 4.99; it may be on sale this week for $3.66, or that might have been last week.
All through the 50’s and 60’s, Red Heart was the main yarn brand that was readily available. And I used it extensively (I still remember the first variegated yarn - bright reds, blues and yellows) and loved it.
But these days, it seems to me that the Red Heart brand [I]in general[/I] has, uh, declined somewhat in quality. The last sweater I made with Red Heart was oddly susceptible to breakage - I’ve never, ever had that before.
Lion Brand seems to be much better. I would choose Lion over Red Heart every time.
Please remember that I am speaking generally, from my own experience. Others may very well have different povs.
Hope this helps,
Dot
Hey all - this is actually my first post! I’ve been lurking for a while. I love Cotton Plus so much that I had to chime in!
The TLC Cotton Plus is a really nice yarn. I used it for a gifted baby blanket over a year ago and it still looks brand new (I’m not exaggerating). You can see it on my Rav page, although the pics are kind of dark ( http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MtheVGandP/four-winds-check ). I plan on using this yarn for lots of baby things! It has a chained/cabled contruction and a bit of sheen.
The Lion Cotton Ease is nice. To me it seems heavier than Cotton Plus (Sandy said the opposite, though, so now I don’t know!). I think it has a plied construction,seems a little loftier or fluffier than the Cotton Plus and had a matte finish. Nice yarn, but I’d take the Cotton Plus any day since it holds up so well and is usually about half the price of Cotton Ease at my craft stores.
I think your choice is going to come down to price and color selection, really. I don’t think you can go wrong with either of the yarns.
-Melissa
That’s at least what I’ve experienced. 
Plymouth Jeannee is also a nice yarn in an cotton/acrylic blend. I just bought some for a summer sweater. It’s a yarn store brand, but not expensive.
http://www.plymouthyarn.com/index.php?nav=cYarn.yarnDetail&yarnid=000252&searchcollection=000005
I would choose Lion Brand, hands down. I used to use Red Heart to learn to knit, but the quality is so poor. Lion brand yarn is of a better quality. Between these two brands, I think you get what you pay for.
Thanks everyone so much for your help.