A Yarn-Related Ponderance

[gnomi]

(to some extent, I blame cbpotts.)

Does the 20% merino negate the 80% cotton if I'm looking to make lightweight berets for summer?

And does the not-machine-washable negate the whole thing?

Comments

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

At what point do you consider Shatnez?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

That's wool and linen, not wool and cotton; I don't have to worry.

I do worry about linen blends, however, in my yarn.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

I always forget that it doesn't generalize to any animal/plant fiber blend.

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

The 20% merino might actually make the yarn lighter - spun the same way, 100% wool will weigh less per yard than 100% cotton. I think people tend to think of cotton as lighter because it's typically used as a finer yarn. Depending on the pattern, the wool content might improve the fabric (e.g. if it's lace or cabled) without affecting the comfort of the hat.

And as a counterpoint to the second question: How often do you wash your hats?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Oh, good point about the weight.

And I don't wash them that often. So hand washing might not be such a problem. Thanks for making me think about that.

I like how this (http://www.patternworks.com/productdetail/830.htm) looks, but it's 100% cotton, and I'm afraid of stretching.

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think a worsted-weight cotton wouldn't be the best thing for a hat you wanted to hold a shape.

You might look for a cotton/synthetic blend, if that's something you can use - there's some sock yarns with just enough elastic to give the cotton a little sproing, for example.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've got a couple of berets I've made out of worsted 100% cotton, mostly for experimentation's sake, but they're already losing their shape. The only thing I can think to do for them is to knit the band on a smaller gauge than the main part of the beret.

Ooh, sock yarns. I hadn't thought of those. And I could knit the berets on larger needles than usual for socks to get the looser gauge I want for letting the air in. Good thought; thanks!

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

I've got a couple of berets I've made out of worsted 100% cotton, mostly for experimentation's sake, but they're already losing their shape. The only thing I can think to do for them is to knit the band on a smaller gauge than the main part of the beret.

*keeping in mind that I crochet rather than knit* For the berets that I've made for my mom over the years (some are ~10 years old at this point) I use double crochet for most of the beret and then do the last line in single crochet, and then I weave the loose end all the way around the edge and knot it. This way the stitches in the last row will stretch less than the main part, and even then the woven-in yarn holds them a bit. I'm not sure how much this helps the rest of the beret, since my mother tends to wear hers rather floppily, but they're all basically the same/size shape as when I made them.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Would hot-washing the stretched out berets return them to a normal, or stretchable-to-normal size, or ruin them?

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

I think that would depend on the yarn. Some yarns shrink/curl more than others, and I generally use machine/hand washable yarns so I don't know how other yarns would react.

I haven't tried reshaping berets, but I've used plain room temperature water for reshaping kipot (made with 100% cotton yarn) with no problems. Then again, my berets are generally a lot looser crochet than my kipot, and always larger yarn, which could also affect the reshaping process.