Friday, October 17, 2008

Cleck cotton - what's it like?

A couple of weeks ago I promised a little review of the new Cleckheaton Naturals Cotton (8ply/DK). I bought a couple of balls at Sp*tlight after seeing it for the first time - it felt so lovely and soft, for a cotton, and the natural colours really appealed to me (beige and pale green, with beige heather and pale green heather). I bought the pale green (col 004) and the green heather (008).
I couldn't wait to try it out, and so I made a ballband dishcloth - I think because the colours matched my kitchen perfectly and because I really should have been knitting something else so only wanted a small project! I also used, for the first time, some rosewood straights which I bought when Tapestry Craft had a huge reduction on them. OMG I love rosewood needles!!

This cotton is really lovely to knit with. It is relatively loosely spun from a bunch of very thin strands (forgive me if I haven't quite got all the technical terms right!!) so can be a little splitty, but with the lovely rosewoods, I didn't have any problems at all. And it didn't strain my hands and wrists like some cottons do when you knit with them for a while (dishcloth cotton and Rowan Denim, anyone?!).
The only problem I did have was that one of the balls (the green heather) had TWO knots in it - both right near the start of the ball. Gah! Fortunately, I found them both when I was at the end of a row, but this did annoy me a bit. It might be a one-off with this yarn, as the other ball has been fine so far.
Overall, a really lovely soft cotton, which also comes in 4ply (fingering weight). Probably way too nice for a dishcloth, but would be very nice in a garment, particularly for those with very senstive skin, as the colours are natural, not dyed. Don't ask me how they do that though! Oh, and nicely priced (for Australia at least) at around $4 per 50g ball.

14 comments:

Leonie said...

That's the natural cotton I bought yesterday!! I'm glad to see and hear it knits up well because the plan for it is face washers. I bought the plain brown and green and the brown heather, they didn't have the green heather. Those natural colours were just tooooooo tempting to leave behind......

Bells said...

Oh a yarn review! Nice one. I think you should do more of these since you have (cough) a bit of yarn at home.

I do love a good cotton and plan to get some now based on your experience, knots notwithstanding.

Anonymous said...

Oh that's very good to know- not that we'll have it here at our BSODL(tm) but we have another shop!! Nice to be able to buy something locally and it looks great. There are greens too!!! Thanks for the review.

Sue said...

I bought some from my local yarn store and from Spotlight. I have to say that the 4 ply knits up really well and isnt too loose looking either. Nice to see how the 8ply knits up as I havent used that one yet.

DrK said...

oooh thanks for this, there is a huge craplight and a lincraft in a home centre near my place, and i was just thinking yesterday about needing some advice on some good cotton to make another lily with. im so there!

Shazmina Bendi said...

I have read that cotton comes in several colours, in WW2 they used the brownish colours for uniforms due to shortage of dyes.

Crikey, I actually remembered some history!! Dishcloth looks great RR!

Anonymous said...

That looks so good. I agree that it's much to nice to use as a dishcloth. The thing I don't get about the dishcloths is how can you possibly use them after doing so much work? I don't think I could ever. The thought of them getting dirty. Shudder....

Donna Lee said...

I have some cotton just waiting to be turned into washcloths. Somehow it seems that face cloths are easier to take than dish cloths. Kim is right, all that work and then it gets to scrub plates.

Bells said...

I reckon the issue of 'so much work' is not really a big deal. You know, they take an evening. That's not a lot of work. And you get to see it every day.

Anonymous said...

I may have to try this yarn. Some of my cloths have fallen apart & I think it was the yarn I used. The colors you used are very pretty, in a soft & subtle way.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that. It's good to hear what people think of the new yarns out there. I've gone off cotton a bit though since all the effort that went into my lacy panel jumper (Jo Sharpe) and it stretched so much it would fit an elephant now - even after washing!! It was a bit on the large side to start with anyway, but I could peg it out now and use it as a tent. :)

Carol said...

Ooooh I'm totally with you on the colour choice here, gorgeous colour. You know I've never knitted a dishcloth. I just don't know if I can put my knitting into washing up the dishes, it seems just so ... so ... barbaric ! te he

Ann said...

I also bought some but in 4 ply & in natural color. I love it too & it knits so well - more firm stitches than the Bendigo 4 ply cotton. Going back to get more.

LynS said...

I've bought some 4 ply in 2 shades of blue to make the Jane Austen dress and shrug for the dotee, so thanks for the reassuring review.