[Nfb-krafters-korner] knitting with cotton

[Deidre Muccio]

Hello fello beginner knitters, and anyone else who might be interested.
	Yesterday I had my neighbor, Alice,  cast cotton yarn on a size 5
circular needle for me so I could see how it would feel to knit. The bamboo
needles were the only ones I could get my hands on. They were slippery so I
figured the cast on would be nearly impossible for me to do. 
	I am going to knit straight down not across. I mean the stitches in
the scarf will be knit straight down the entire set length of the number of
stitches cast on, and I will stop when I get close to running out of yarn or
whenever I feel it is wide enough for my liking. 
	The nice thing about this method is that the scarf is very stretchy
across, whereas knitting back and forth, or whatever the correct term is,
leaves the cloth flat and nowhere near as elasticky feeling. I'm talking
about things knit with all wool yarn too. It's a great discovery for me.
I've seen the result  in a scarf Alice has been wearing for a few winters
that was knit that way. It's mostly mohair with some other wool.  And I love
the way it expands when you play with it by deliberately stretching it. It
does not stretch or lose its shape  over time either.     
	I bought 5 grams of all mercerized cotton in a color called
psychedelic. I hear it's beautifully vibrant, not natural looking, but
wonderful all the same. I went to Michael's to get it since you pay almost
nothing with coupons for whatever you buy thee, and all together I spent
$1.19 for the two balls of cotton I bought. Originally they were $1.99 a
piece. My neighbor says it's great yarn with a great twist. I figured for
that price I sure did not need to go look for anything fancy, or, let's say,
from a more fancy place or with a fancy name.
	What I have found so far is that the cotton is easy to knit, though
the yarn feels a bit dry and lifeless, compared to handling wool. There must
be other cottons that don't have such a dry feeling to them because I think
that I have felt such yarn. Maybe you don't notice it if the stitches are
much tighter.  

	I think this will go fast since the cotton does not split easily
although last night I already by passed where I needed to change hands, and
just kept knitting all around over and over. I knew something was very
different. Somehow the tail was not hanging down but was stretched across
between the two needles and it confused me. I knew something was off but
continued anyway and wound up knitting the row beneath the tail which is
where I should have changed hands.
	It sure is lucky for me that I have someone close by that can help
in these instances, and lucky too I can tell when something is very wrong! 
	Only problem I had today was that I neglected to throw out the
faulty cable I got from Knit Picks (which they promptly replace) and the
needle came off since it could not be tightened with the key. I had
misplaced it and meant to trash it, but somehow I found it yesterday and for
some unclever reason had the yarn cast on that set. Now I have to find the
needles that are fine and shift it over to a different set. I hope that goes
well.

	Deidre