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Cotton=Summer. Summer=Cotton.

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Nancy, of NobleKnits.com puts out a really cute newsletter. In her latest, she outlines the Top Ten Reasons To Knit With Cotton. 

  1. Cotton is hypoallergenic.  It doesn’t irritate sensitive skin or cause allergies.
  2. Cotton is soft and never itchy.
  3. It doesn’t cause static electricity.
  4. If cared for properly, cotton is long lasting.
  5. Cotton blends well with other fibers.
  6. Cotton is highly absorbent and produces vibrantly colored yarns.
  7. It draws heat away from your body to keep your skin cool and comfortable.
  8. Cotton absorbs moisture easily and can take up to one fifth of its weight in water before it actually feels damp. Cotton absorbs body moisture and evaporates it to the surrounding air, thus allowing your body its natural tendency to breathe – keeping you cool in summer and dry and warm in winter. Not only are you more comfortable in cotton, you are healthier wearing it!
  9. Cotton does not contain any chemicals making it a natural fiber.
  10. Cotton has individuality & character. Each fiber grows a little differently–with sunshine & soil–and takes on characteristics that indicate its life & style… just like the people who wear it.

The Bolero Style sweater above is knit from Knit One, Crochet 2’s Ty Dy Yarn. I’ve knit with this before, and it’s really soft. Does split a bit, but that tends to be a cotton thing. You’ll never guess what color I used. Ok, yeah, it was green, and the item I knit was never finished. The yarn – really gorgeous flowing colors, the vest pattern? Not so much, but this Bolero is more my style. Do I smell a tinking session?

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A Shawlette with a Ton of Design Options

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette. 

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up). 

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley. 

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design. 

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like. 

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going. 

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]