Summer Knitting
What’s on our Needles? Cotton and Silk…Noro Akari and Ella Rae Eco-Organic Cotton’s premier.
Ahh yes. Summer. Knitting? Two words that don’t always go together in the life of a casual knitter. Mrs. Knits completely understands. Traditional wool yarns are much too hot in the summer heat. Mrs. Knits was much in contempt of the stiff and scratchy versions of cotton as well. However, long before she became a professional in 2005, Mrs. Knits found a good air conditioner and summer knitting became a thing. The trick (besides air conditioning) is to find small projects like hats, scarves and pillows that are lighter and less bulky. That way you can knit on the beach, poolside or on your patio.
Now back to cotton. Mrs. Knits aforementioned disdain for cotton was out of date. Modern cotton blends cull the fibers differently to eliminate that stiff and scratchy feel. How? By blending a cotton base with a supple fiber like silk on the high end or with synthetic blends that mimic silk such as acrylic/rayon or a fiber called Modal.
.Here are some of our Noro favorites for luxury cotton:
Akari: "Akari" is a soft, worsted weight multi fiber blend that features organic silk and cotton. Translated to "light" or "glimmer" in English, the silk adds a beautiful sheen to this yarn. It is a delightful choice for knitting and crocheting multi-season garments.
Enka: New for 2021. 50% Cotton, 20% Silk, 15% Wool, 15% Polyamide. Very similar to Akari with a slightly heavier gauge.
Geshi: "Geshi" is 200 grams/ 656 yards of soft, squishy goodness named for the "summer solstice". This delightful loosely-plied blend of Cotton/Silk/Wool/Viscose feels as good to wear as it does sliding through your fingers while you are knitting and crocheting, and is sure to become a favorite for your warm weather projects.Kakigori
Commonly Asked: Why is Noro Yarn so expensive?
Blending dyed fibers prior to spinning—instead of dunking your yarn into dye pots after the fact—gives a far deeper, more subtle complexity to your color shifts. It's something Noro does very well. Such careful blending requires significant time and attention, which translates into higher costs per skein. (KFI)
Is Noro out of budget or not your fiber of choice? That’s ok. We also offer Ella Rae Yarns.
Ella Rae is a flagship brand which we rolled out as the first offering on our new website www.mrsknits.com and we are in the process of editing an Ella Rae Virtual Trunk Show. With a variety of collections from Classic Wool (more about that when we release that) to Eco Organic Cotton in multiple gorgeous colors we have everything you need for easy and simple budget friendly knitting.
Eco-Organic Cotton is hot (pardon the pun) in wait for it…wait for it… over 32 solid colors and 13 dapples (multi-colors). While' we don’t have space for all of them in our warehouse, we are able to special order any current colors. At 273 yards per skein you could easily make a medium size sleeveless summer shell with 6-8 skeins. You can also give it some jazz by running the eco-cotton along with her Ella Rae Sequinicity.
Want to see samples? See Mrs. Knits’ creations and follow her on www.ravelry.com (social media for knitters) as Queenofknitting2 to see various Noro sweaters she has been knitting since 1995.
As always, thank you for following Mrs. Knits and Happy Knitting!
