Cotton is a plant-based yarn fiber that is strong, light and inexpensive, and cotton yarns are produced with these fibers. Because of its water-absorbing, breathability, cotton is often used in light summer clothing, cloths and some knitting projects.

If you are allergic to animal-based yarns or have a vegan lifestyle, you can use Cotton yarns. By the way, don’t forget to read our vegan knitting blog post!

Compared to animal-based yarns, cotton yarns are extremely smooth. Projects created with cotton yarns can be easily dyed and washed in the washing machine.

Cotton is soft, breathable and very suitable for sensitive skin. Therefore, cotton yarn is used in knitted baby clothes and blankets. Since cotton is a yarn that keeps its shape, it is also common in hat knitting patterns.

Cotton yarns are roughly divided into three;

American Cotton has Medium-length fibers and is a standard cotton variety available in a wide variety of colors.

Egyptian Cotton has a soft, smooth texture and long fibers and is more expensive than other cottons.

Pima Cotton is an average cotton between American and Egyptian cotton.

How to wash cotton knits?

As we mentioned before, cotton yarn is very easy to care for. If you are wondering how to wash projects made from cotton yarn, you can wash most cottons in the machine. You can also hand wash and dry if you wish.

How to iron cotton knits?

You can iron your clothes that you knit from cotton yarns. You should be careful while ironing in order not to spoil the patterns too much. The ideal way we will follow while ironing is to turn on the steam mode of the iron and iron without applying much pressure.

What about Blocking Cotton?

Blocking cotton means stretching a shaping of a knitted or crocheted project to the intended shape and dimensions. There are three  methods of blocking: wet blocking, steam blocking, spray blocking.