How to Maintain the Shape of Items Knitted With Cotton Yarn

Cotton yarn is heavier than some other fibers.

There are a lot of reasons to knit with cotton yarn and wear knitted cotton sweaters: climate, allergies, durability, easy care. But cotton sweaters often look limp after wearing because the fibers stretch without bouncing back. You can protect and maintain the shape of your hand-knitted cottons if you follow some simple guidelines and plan ahead before starting your knitting project or purchasing knitted cotton clothing.

Instructions

1. All knitted cotton items can be washed and dried. If you're washing a baby blanket, dish cloth, or something that does not need to maintain its shape, like a sweater, machine washing and drying returns the item to its original shape. To clean a cotton garment that needs to maintain its shape, machine washing in cool water will put some of the shape back. However, the dryer can stretch out a garment, so dry garments on a flat surface.

2. Fold clean, dry garments for storage. Gravity is cotton's enemy, so do not hang up garments unless you don't mind if they stretch.

3. When knitting garments with cotton yarn, knit at a tighter gauge, or with more stitches per inch than you would for protein fibers like wool or alpaca. Because cotton has no elasticity or "memory," knitting cotton tightly leaves less yarn to stretch out. To substitute cotton yarn for a pattern designed for wool, consider using a yarn that blends cotton with acrylic or wool, which gives the yarn a little elasticity.

4. Wash and dry your gauge swatch, the knitted sample that you make before starting a project. This is good advice before beginning any knitting project, but it's especially important to know because washing can shrink the cotton yarn.

5. Use lace patterns sparingly. Lace must be blocked, or stretched to open out the pattern. But stretched cotton yarn goes limp, and will not hold the shape. So if you want to knit a lace shawl, choose a protein fiber like silk or wool instead. However, a little lace on the bottom of a sweater or as a collar accent can be effective in cotton yarn.

6. Avoid stitch patterns like cables and stranded knitting. These techniques require more yarn and therefore, add weight to a garment, so use them as accents or not at all.

References

• "The Knitter's Book of Yarn"; Clara Parkes; 2007
• Knitty: Tools for the DIY Knitter