Killing Cotton
 

Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help me with this. I picked up a cone of 100%
cotton at a thrift store, it's a lovely seafoam color and wanted to
use it for dishcloths or something similar. It's biasing. Badly.
Parallelograms just don't make nice, neat looking dishcloths. LOL.

I've tried steaming, blocking, direct heat ironing and it's still
biasing.

Thanks!

MargeInReno
mkdesigner.com

Killing Cotton
 

Have you tried edging it? A friend of mine is making diagonal cotton
dishcloths in garter st, and they are slightly diamond-shaped. After
she adds a border, they pull into a square shape.

HTH

Jane


http://www.needlesofsteel.blogspot.com/ - what I am working on
http://needlesofsteel.org.uk/ - The MKer's Treasure Chest
MKing in Rugby, UK

"You make it idiot-proof, they just build a better idiot!"

Killing Cotton
 

wrote:
Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help me with this. I picked up a cone of 100%
cotton at a thrift store, it's a lovely seafoam color and wanted to
use it for dishcloths or something similar. It's biasing. Badly.
Parallelograms just don't make nice, neat looking dishcloths. LOL.

I've tried steaming, blocking, direct heat ironing and it's still
biasing.

Thanks!

MargeInReno
mkdesigner.com


Hi Marge. It's the twist. It's backwards, and there's nothing you can
do about that. Some people try using it from the other end, but I don't
know that it helps, and who wants to rewind an entire cone, anyway?

I use mine to make dishclothes, using a tuck stitch, starting on the
point, increasing each side until I get the size I want (it's the
diagonal) and then decreasing back to a point. They're beautiful and I
get lots of requests for them. Unfortunately, they take a while to do.
--
Joanne
stitches @ singerlady.reno.nv.us.earth.milky-way.com
http://members.tripod.com/~bernardschopen/

Killing Cotton
 

On Nov 7, 2:30 pm, Pogonip wrote:
Hi Marge. It's the twist. It's backwards, and there's nothing you can
do about that. Some people try using it from the other end, but I don't
know that it helps, and who wants to rewind an entire cone, anyway?
Joanne

Hi Joanne,
Shoot. I was afraid it was that but still held out hope it could be
'fixed' somehow. :-) Jane's suggestion of the border has helped and
now I'm going to add yours and do it from the point. Perhaps the two
combined will make this yarn behave (LOL!). Will let you know what
happens.

Thanks to both of you.

Marge in Reno
http://www.mkdesigner.com

Killing Cotton
 

On Nov 7, 7:16 am, steelbreeze wrote:
Have you tried edging it? A friend of mine is making diagonal cotton
dishcloths in garter st, and they are slightly diamond-shaped. After
she adds a border, they pull into a square shape.
Jane

Thought for sure I'd replied to you, Jane, but it's not showing
up. :-)

Thanks for your suggestion, I tried that and it does seem to help.
It's not half as bad so I'm going to combine that with Joanne's
suggestion and we'll see if it makes the yarn behave. :-)

Marge in Reno
www.mkdesigner.com

Killing Cotton
 

On Nov 7, 7:16 am, steelbreeze wrote:
Have you tried edging it? A friend of mine is making diagonal cotton
dishcloths in garter st, and they are slightly diamond-shaped. After
she adds a border, they pull into a square shape.
Jane

Hi Jane,

I've now tried that and it DID help a bit. They still look a little
strange, but ah well, I'll just use them for myself. Thanks for the
suggestion.

Marge in Reno
www.mkdesigner.com

At the risk of sounding like a complete idiot......
what does the bias deal look like?
I have seen this term used in many knitting areas, and I just do not understand.
( I have been knitting 1 yr almost, learned off internet videos, stay at home full time caring for my Mother.....)

Feeling silly
Lady

Killing Cotton
 

Hi Lady,

Don't feel silly. Every question is a good question. It's as if
your square or rectangle of knitting leans to the side. Sort of like
a parallelogram. From this:

________
| |

to this:
______
/ /

Like Joanne said, it's the twist. With acrylics, you can block them
out and by applying direct heat, you 'kill' the fibers and they are
locked into whatever shape you pinned out. With cottons, they just
don't 'kill' well.

I've been very lucky by putting edgings on them going in the opposite
direction of the bias and they look okay.

Marge in Reno
mkdesigner.com

On Dec 28, 5:08 pm, LadyOutlaw
wrote:
At the risk of sounding like a complete idiot......
what does the bias deal look like?
Feeling silly
Lady