𝐊𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

Knitting with cotton is a pain. A lot of actual pain.

There’s good news, and bad news…
First the bad news. There’s very little anyone can suggest as a relief for the pain to our hands caused by cotton yarn - it’s an occupational hazard of knitting with it ! The causes are inherent in the fibre which has zero stretch. And after all that hard work, it loses its shape so easily ! 🤨(it’s not cotton’s fault …it just doesn’t have much of a memory for shape! )

Now for the good news ! 🥳
There are a few ways you can add some of that elusive elasticity back into your knitting with cotton. It won’t help the aching hands, sadly, but should make the process more rewarding with an end result that makes it more worth while !

🧶 Part 1 - How to give cotton more s-t-r-e-t-c-h
(Part 2 to follow …)

There is a vintage tried and tested way of making sure that ribbing knitted in cotton keeps its shape and elasticity, as worked with this first example knitted in a fine 4 ply cotton.

It’s really simple to do, and really effective !

You work into the back of the stitches so that they “twist”, lessening their tendency to loosen. That’s it !

If you work into the back of all the Knit stitches (swipe to see what this looks like on the needles with the purple yarn) you’ll achieve a “springy” texture which will already make a difference.

If you want to get the maximum possible result with this technique, you can work into the back of all the stitches, K and P (purl), as in the first image (the dark cream welt of the striped knitting and the next one in white)

I always use this technique for the welt of cotton knits, it really works ! You can see the difference this makes visually, and elasticity-wise it’s a winner 🌟

#knitterstips #tipsforknitters #knittingtips #vintageknitting #cottonyarns