Why You Should Wash This Cotton Yarn (Before You Knit!)

For years, I did not like knitting cotton. The yarns I tried were not as elastic as wool and stressed my hands. Then I learned to spin natural-colored cotton in the traditional way, using a sweet device developed by Mahatma Gandhi, and I fell in love with knitting my handspun cotton. Unlike the fairly dense millspun yarns I’d tried, my handspun cotton is velvet-soft, lofty, and resilient. Cotton fiber is naturally fluffy, and I wondered if I could coax those traits back into millspun yarns.

Sally Fox sent me these breathtaking cotton bolls from her cotton fields. Can you see the airy, open nature of the fibers in their natural state? Photo by Kate Larson

I purchased several cones of millspun 10/2 cotton yarn from Sally Fox to experiment with. Similar to a laceweight knitting yarn, “10/2” describes the yarn weight in weaver’s speak, and these cones are primarily purchased by weavers. But I dove in to try finishing, washing, and preparing the yarn for knitting as I would my handspun cotton to see what would happen. Spoiler—it was a great success![PAYWALL]

It all comes out in the wash

The organic natural-color cottons we have available today as processed fibers, yarns, and fabrics are the result of Sally Fox’s remarkable research. I could wax poetic about Sally’s work in making these beautiful fibers available to us, but you can hop over to the Long Thread Podcast to hear her tell the story.

Sally developed lines of modern cottons in beautiful browns and greens, and those colors change when the yarns are washed in hot water, soap, and something to raise the pH, such as baking soda or washing soda. This is an easy process, which I will explain below. After the skeins are clean, I put them in my clothes dryer. Gasp! For knitters who work with wool, simmering skeins before putting them in the dryer is terrifying, but think about your favorite cotton jeans or t-shirts. When hung to air dry, the fabric is very different than when dried with the heat and tumble of a machine. This technique encourages a fluffy halo and shrinkage, which introduces loft and elasticity to our knitting yarns.

The skeins on the bottom row are unwashed, and above, you can see the color changes in the finished yarns. Kate started swatching with two yarns at a time to explore marl effects with white, green, and brown cottons.

Kate’s Cotton Scour & Dryer Method

Step 1. Skein If your yarn arrives on cones or in balls, you’ll need to wind skeins. If you do not have a niddy noddy or yarn reel, you can wind onto an open swift or even around the back of two chairs. Tie the skein in at least three places. I tie a small sample skein in three places. I would tie a large skein of several hundred yards in at least five or six places. Tangling is the biggest danger with this process.

Step 2. Scour You’ll need a pot that is large enough for the yarn to swish around. Fill it with enough water that the skein will not rest on the bottom of the pot. I add just a few drops of dish soap and a tablespoon of baking soda. Add your yarn and bring the pot up to a simmer. Stir frequently for about 30 minutes.

Step 3. Rinse There’s no risk of felting cotton, so you can go straight from the simmer to a cold bath. I frequently dump the pot into a clean sink and turn on the cold tap to rinse the tea-colored solution from the yarn. Squeeze out excess water and roll in a towel.

Step 4. Dry Drop the skein into a zippered lingerie bag. If you have multiple skeins, I find that using separate bags helps them dry faster. Then, pop the bag into a dryer for a high-heat cycle. I find that in my dryer, it helps to have other laundry in the load at the same time. This might take more than one cycle to get the skeins totally dry.

A close look at the finished yarn.

That’s it! Your natural color cotton will be a deeper, darker color and have a soft, velvety finish. The three colors I purchased from Sally recently—white, brown, and green—were a delight to knit into a marled Chameleon Shawl. By dropping and adding colors, I slowly shifted from one natural, nuanced shade to another. It’s the perfect summer knit!
—Kate

Kate adapted the Chameleon Shawl by Melvenea Hodges for two strands of Sally Fox’s 10/2 cotton yarns.

Find the pattern for the Chameleon Shawl in the Farm & Fiber Knits library. Designer Melvenea Hodges calls this a “chameleon” because it allows you to easily adapt to any gauge, any size, any style. We hope you love it!

Kate Larson, editor of Spin Off, teaches handspinning around the country, has published knitting patterns in books and magazines, and spends as many hours as life allows in the barn with her beloved flock of Border Leicesters.