Scared of Cotton

My favourite things to knit are accessories. Gloves, hats, shawls, bags and scarves. They are portable and I can finish them before I get bored and want to cast on something new. Although with gloves, sometimes I lose momentum with the second glove, (same with socks).

But spring is approaching – actually, it’s only three days away according to the calendar. I’ve been running around in floral frocks with flowers in my hair in preparation

This has started me wondering where I should direct my summer knitting energy. Should I get a head start on next winter or should I knit for spring and summer?

If I decide to knit for summer, the options are a little more limited. No giant fair-isle beanies or cabled gloves. Also I can’t knit in my favourite yarn – plain old pure wool. I’ll need to make friends with cotton, bamboo and silk.

I’ve been swatching with some of the wool/silk  blend I used for my Ishbel shawl. I feel another shawl coming on very soon, and as the Ishbel was for a friend’s birthday, I wont end up with two shawls in the same yarn.

I do love knitting with silk, and I also have a few skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk waiting to become a shawl. Maybe silk for spring and cotton for summer?

The problem with cotton is that it just makes me swear too much for two reasons. Firstly the aching wrists that come from wrangling yarn that refuses to stretch or yield to my stitching.

Secondly, many cotton yarns are splitty. They are constructed from a lot of single fibres all gathered into a single twist. The ends unravel, the needle goes through the yarn instead of through the stitch and I yell out stupid things like “You bastardly bastard!” which the cat and the man find quite amusing.

The thing that makes me love cotton sheets – smooth, long fibres that don’t grab at each other – is the same thing that makes yarn annoying. The slick little stitches just slide against each other resulting in beautiful drape and escaping yarn tails. It’s so frustrating that one of my favourite cottons – Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton – seems to be such hard work.

So I was at the Morris and Sons Stitch ‘n’ Bitch last week and decided to check out the cotton. I’m designing a summer shawl – the typical triangle of lace – and I really wanted it to be in cotton.

I found Heirloom 4ply Cotton and I fell in love. It’s tightly twisted, available in a lot of beautiful colours and based on all the knitting I’ve done with it over the past few days, it doesn’t split or break my wrists.

I think I have found my yarn for the summer of 2011/2012. I hope I can resist buying it in every colour.