Cotton, Cotton Everywhere

I just realized that everything I’m making right now is in a cotton/blend yarn. That’s cool. You know, it’s summer. Hot. Sticky. And I like cotton! I know there are people who hate 100% cotton, especially the ‘kitchen cotton’ like Sugar’n Cream or Peaches & Creme (I primarily hear this from knitters. I don’t think that crocheting with it is as ‘hard on the hands,’ whatever that means), but you know what? It’s an all-natural fiber, it’s perfect for hot, sticky weather (where would I find some of that? Let me think…), I think it’s pretty, and I like it. I buy the kitchen cotton because it’s affordable and I like it.

Anyway, on to the projects! I’ve just finished knitting the third ball of Sugar’n Cream into the blue cotton top, bringing my materials cost so far up to $3. Aaah, what’s that? It’s a headless torso!

Oh, wait, that’s me. A camera timer can only help so much: you need to have somewhere to set the camera. As you can see, it fits pretty well (I bet it would fit better without, you know, another shirt under it). It’s interesting: the pooling at the bottom (that’s from before the decreases) almost gives the illusion that there’s a ribbed hem. Not what I was going for, but cool nonetheless. I’m going to continue the ribbing another inch or two – probably two – before I move on to the bust shaping. This is going pretty well so far! Not that I’m doing anything too difficult, but it’s encouraging.

Less encouraging is a crocheting project I’ve been wanting to make for a long time. You see, I have this pattern for a gingham table set (placemats, potholders, coasters, etc) I want to use. I’m a fan of gingham. It’s cheerful, pretty, and summery. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, and I decided to make it it cotton for all of the aforementioned reasons plus absorbency and washability. The only problem lay in procuring the appropriate yarn. I refuse to buy as much as I think I need for this project (about a pound in each of three colors) by the 2.5 oz ball. White was easy; I bought a cone. Blue was harder. I needed two coordinating shades of blue, in something larger than the little bitty balls. I couldn’t find any solid blue cones anywhere. I decided to go ahead and buy the balls, only to find that blue was never around, or only a few balls, or…it just never worked out. This February I bought four of the new Super Size balls at Joann’s in Cornflower (sadly, they didn’t have another, coordinating blue). I figured I was halfway there, but alas! I haven’t been able to find something suitable to go with it. Then last week I was at Michael’s and found giant 14 oz skeins of Sugar’n Cream – and there was a blue! I hesitated for a moment – I couldn’t remember the name of the blue I already had, and it looked pretty similar, but also kind of different – I’m sure you’ve done this before. I bought it, figuring that if it was the same color I could take it back.
I got it home, and it was a different color! Yay! (French Blue, if you’re interested.) However…I wasn’t quite sure that they worked together. In some lighting they almost looked like the same color, and in others it just looked…off. I decided to forge ahead and made a potholder (it’s like a swatch, but less annoying!) to see if I liked it.

And I don’t. Ick. So that project is on hold again until I find something that coordinates better with either the Cornflower or the French blue. I’ll try to remember to take my potholder with me next time, for color comparison. I’m not going to frog it – a functional item is a functional item, right? No matter how…oddly coordinated.

One more thing. Remember the Cashcotton I bought this weekend? Well, when I bought it I tried really hard to plan out exactly what I would make with it, and how much I would need for that. I decided to make a shrug of some sort. (Pseudo-clothing items are more fun than accessories!) I remembered my last shrug and thought, okay: I made a heavily cabled shrug from one skein of worsted wool-ease. 197 yards. The cashcotton is DK, so I’ll need more, but 2 skeins (284 yards) should be plenty for something more conservative. Of course, if you followed the link to the shrug, you may have discovered, as I did (several days later) that I used two skeins of wool-ease on the cabled shrug. I mean, it should still work, I’m just irked that my assumptions were off and it won’t go as far as I thought it might. It’s okay, I’m just sort of paddling around trying to decide what to do with it. Anyone have any patterns/ideas/inspirations to toss my way? Thanks.