Check-In Post - September 9th 2024

[badly_knitted]

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: What piece of advice would you give someone interested in trying your favourite craft?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Comments

[althea_valara]

I'm gonna ask what weight it is. If it's 100% cotton, that might not be a good choice because cotton is HEAVY and may stretch. You absolutely want to work that at a tighter gauge, and if it's larger than, say, a DK weight, I would choose a different yarn, like a cotton/acrylic mix.

I've made a top in 100% cotton but it was a mercerized DK weight that I split into two threads, so about fingering weight when split. It turned out really nice! I would wear it more often but alas, I've gained weight and it probably wouldn't fit me anymore :(

[illariy]

You bring up a valid point. I asked a knitter today and she said the same about 100% cotton (which both the teal and the curry are) stretching out. Would you say DK weight is appropriately described in your crochet hook size here in this chart?

The teal yarn is recommended for no. 3.5-4.5 crochet hooks in European size and the curry yarn is 5 in European size but described as a "light" yarn and recommended for tops and jackets/cardigans. I used to tend toward tighter crocheting and knitting when I last did it and usually landed on the smaller sizes of hooks mentioned on yarn bands. - Darn, I just see that the teal yarn is literally named "xyz home" so I guess maybe it is not good for clothes after all? There is another teal (let's say teal no. 2) that is 60% cotton, 40% acrylic and hook size 3-4. I like the teal no. 1 colour better and am worried about microplastics from the acrylic yarn. That is why I looked for 100 % cotton in the first place as that is machine washable. So you would recommend the partly acrylic yarn over 100% cotton for a cardigan?

Very sad about the 100% cotton top you made. It sounds amazing! I feel you on the weight gain and not fitting into fave clothes anymore. I almost doubled myself in size due to various factors and am working on slowly reversing the process. Find it hard to let go of smaller clothes.

[althea_valara]

Speaking only on physical weight: I checked two popular yarns on Ravelry:

https://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/knit-picks-palette
Knit Picks Palette (100% wool, often used for colorwork)
Weight: Fingering (14 wpi) ?
Yardage: 231 yards (211 meters)
Unit weight: 50 grams (1.76 ounces)

https://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/scheepjes-catona
Scheepjes Catona (100% cotton)
Weight: Fingering (14 wpi) ?
Yardage: 138 yards (126 meters)
Unit weight: 50 grams (1.76 ounces)

So you can see, the wool yarn has nearly 100 more yards per 50 grams than the cotton yarn. That means the cotton yard weighs more than the wool.

Just because a yarn is labeled "home" doesn't mean it's not good for garments. People have been making garments from 100% cotton yarn for ages. Just be aware that cotton that is not mercerized tends to fade in the wash.

Mercerizing is a treatment for cotton yarn that makes it more color-fast, stronger, and adds a sheen to it. I'd feel more confident about your yarn choice if it was mercerized. If it IS mercerized, it should definitely say so on the label, or you can look it up in either the Ravelry yarn database, or on YarnSub (I think that site is still around...)

The teal yarn is recommended for no. 3.5-4.5 crochet hooks in European size

Is that in millimeters? That should be okay then. I did a project search on Ravelry for crochet projects done with DK cotton yarn; most were done with a 4.0 mm (G) hook, with 3.5 mm (E) being the next popular.

This is a search on Ravelry for cotton crocheted cardigans:



So lots of people have done Worsted weight cardigans with cotton! I myself would be cautious but it might turn out fine.

If you're a Ravelry member and want to see the results of the above search, here's the link to it: https://ravel.me/4si16f

You can browse the projects people have made using that link and see how you like how they've come out.

Good luck with your project!

And thanks for your kind words about my cotton top. Here's my Ravelry project page for it: https://ravel.me/xnera/ot2