Comfy Cotton

Cotton is a material that most people who live in warm climates like New Orleans are very farmiliar with. Cotton is much cooler than wool, for the most part cotton is machine washable and dryable, and it seems to get softer the more you wear it. There are disadvantages to this fiber though, it isn't stretchy, which makes it harder to knit with. It shrinks if it isn't preshrunk. Cotton garments can be very heavy, especially when wet.

I found an interesting website all about cotton production and how the fiber goes from plant to fabric. It is the website for the National Cotton Council of America. The Cotton Counts: "Cotton: From Field to Fabric" article tells all about the Cotton Boll and how cotton Seed is used to feed livestock and make oil for salad dressing. Cotton is also used in Astronaut's flight suits and in the American Dollar.

Cotton, when used for knitting, can be Mercerized or not. Mercerizing refers to a process where the fibers are "immersed under tension in a caustic soda solution and then later neutralized. This causes fiber to swell permanently. This gives the fabric a silken sheeen, improves its strength and increases its affinity for dye" (This definition is from cotton.org; field to fabric)

Here is the 100% cotton, it is Cottontots from Bernat, in the Little Boy Blue colorway:

Here is the Mercerized Cotton, it is called Sinfonia, made by Omega, in the black colorway:

Here are the two yarns together:

Have a Comfy Day!