Go Fingerless
I love cotton. I just noticed that everything I've posted here so far is some sort of cotton blend. (Hat in Cascade "Arcadia," lacy square in Vittadini "Marissa," baby sweater in Paton's "Fantasy Naturale," big sweater in Brown Sheep "Cotton Fleece.)
These gloves are made with Cascade "Fixation," which is mostly cotton with a little elastic thrown just to make getting tension fun.
There are several groups of people here in Portland who especially love these gloves. Among them are outdoor baristas, supermarket checkers who work close to constantly opening automatic doors, skateboarders, and parking lot attendants.
Cotton gets a bum rap from knitters. Everybody says wool is so "forgiving," and that cotton isn't stretchy enough or warm enough, etc. etc. Here are my top ten (well, maybe five) reasons why I like cotton.
1. Cotton is smooth, doesn't split, and doesn't pill.
2. I throw cotton in the washing machine -- even if it says hand wash (blasphemy!) -- and lay it flat to dry. I've never had a problem.
3. Cotton blocks and reshapes beautifully with nothing but a little soak in water and some pinning. No iron torture needed.
4. My fingers and hands are in terrible shape. My skin is dry and cracked, and I bite my nails so I always have little snaggy nails and hangnails. Every time I knit with wool it pulls on those little uneven places in my hands, which is majorly frustrating.
5. I live in Portland. It rarely dips below 40 degrees here. We don't need wool sweaters OR fingertips on our gloves, dammit!
Knitters may be one of the few people who lament, in some small way, the coming of spring. Warmer weather means a drop in the knitting ranks. Wool in August just seems so... well... HOT. But cotton... hmm....
These gloves are made with Cascade "Fixation," which is mostly cotton with a little elastic thrown just to make getting tension fun.
There are several groups of people here in Portland who especially love these gloves. Among them are outdoor baristas, supermarket checkers who work close to constantly opening automatic doors, skateboarders, and parking lot attendants.
Cotton gets a bum rap from knitters. Everybody says wool is so "forgiving," and that cotton isn't stretchy enough or warm enough, etc. etc. Here are my top ten (well, maybe five) reasons why I like cotton.
1. Cotton is smooth, doesn't split, and doesn't pill.
2. I throw cotton in the washing machine -- even if it says hand wash (blasphemy!) -- and lay it flat to dry. I've never had a problem.
3. Cotton blocks and reshapes beautifully with nothing but a little soak in water and some pinning. No iron torture needed.
4. My fingers and hands are in terrible shape. My skin is dry and cracked, and I bite my nails so I always have little snaggy nails and hangnails. Every time I knit with wool it pulls on those little uneven places in my hands, which is majorly frustrating.
5. I live in Portland. It rarely dips below 40 degrees here. We don't need wool sweaters OR fingertips on our gloves, dammit!
Knitters may be one of the few people who lament, in some small way, the coming of spring. Warmer weather means a drop in the knitting ranks. Wool in August just seems so... well... HOT. But cotton... hmm....
posted by Carolyn at 8:43 PM
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