Knitting summer tees with Radiant Cotton yarn

Some people have a hard time knitting with cotton yarn, because well, it’s often hard, hard to the touch that is. Knitting with Radiant Cotton may just change your mind about cotton yarn though, because it’s soft and once knit, there's some body and elasticity to the fabric. This week we're looking at this cotton yarn by Fibra Natura.

Stockinette Stitch swatch in Radiant Cotton shows excellent stitch definition and subtle sheen

Yesterday, I described Radiant Cotton’s architecture and qualities, and today we’ll look at some other characteristics.  When I knit this stockinette stitch swatch, I used US size 6 [4mm] needles and achieved a tension of 24 sts and 32 rows per 4" [10cm]. So that’s on the lighter side of a DK, more like a Sport weight, but maybe it’s just me. The ball band recommends US size 5 [3.75mm] needles to achieve a 22 st/28 row gauge. I’m not a tight knitter, generally, but I guess I’ll go up a size or two to achieve ball-band gauge if necessary.

My swatch has a lovely drape, despite the “tighter” gauge and the hand of the fabric is very pliable, has as much elasticity as your average cotton T-shirt yet it feels much more luxurious.

While these two colors of Radiant Cotton are serene and understated, there are 22 other colors, many of which are bright and saturated. It is easy to wind balls off of these hanks without any struggles with tangles.

More about the information on the ball band, or label in this case. Each hank of Radiant Cotton weighs 100g and contains 203yd (Okay,186 m). The hank must be wound into a cake on a winder or into a ball by hand before knitting, but I had zero struggles when winding it off the swift. There were no tangles in the hank and the ties around it were made with each of the two ends, and the label was the third “tie” keeping the hank strands in order.

Another tidbit of information, once knit up, you can machine wash and tumble dry your knit item…another great reason to use this yarn to knit children’s items, too.

The Lucky Star Tee, a free pattern that uses between 4 and 6 hanks of Radiant Cotton in the Viola color.

Universal Yarns offers two free patterns for Radiant Cotton and they're both lovely spring or summer tops.

The Lucky Star Tee features rows of mesh lace with a few solid rows separating the bands of eyelets. There are six sizes from XS to 2X and these are knit with from 4 to 6 hanks of Radiant Cotton, which shows how ample the yardage of this yarn is.

The other pattern is the Down the Lane Tee, which debuts a twisted vertical rib through the waistline up to the bodice which that morphs into a lace panel. It’s a square scoop neck and the sleeves are worked in one piece with the body pieces. It comes in 6 sizes as well from XS to 3X.

Radiant Cotton in Calypso, a bright salmon pink, is knit into this slimming summer tee with simple cap sleeves.

As you can see from these two patterns, Radiant Cotton yarn is excellent for lace knitting and tomorrow, I’ll share my explorations into designing a lace pattern for a wedding stole or a summer scarf.

Knitting with Radiant Cotton by Fibra Natura

Do you have one of those favorite shirts or t-shirts that just feels right next to your skin? Radiant Cotton is a yarn that gives me that sensation. It feels nice in the hank. It feels nice wound into a cake. It feels very nice going through my fingers to the needles. And it feels great in the knit fabric.

Starting today, this week we're going to feature Radiant Cotton and look at some lovely ideas for knitting up projects for warmer weather.

Radiant Cotton by Fibra Natura in soft colors Winter Blues and Custard. A soft and shiny Egyptian cotton yarn for light garments and baby clothes

Fibra Natura makes Radiant Cotton and it’s distributed by Universal Yarns in the US and by H.A. Kidd in Canada. This cotton yarn is made 100% of cotton grown in Egypt and processed in Turkey. Egyptian cotton has developed quite a reputation in the hand-knitting world, but some of you may recall that it’s been in high demand for bedding and linens as well because of its superior characteristics. Egyptian cotton has a very long staple and its own natural sheen. It absorbs color extremely well compared to some other cottons. Another key aspect about the integrity of this cotton is that it is hand-picked rather than machine harvested, which keeps the fibers sturdy.

This Egyptian cotton yarn is nice to the touch in the hank and in the swatch it has amazing drape, with a subtle sheen and great stitch definition.

When spun for hand-knitting, Egyptian cotton keeps its famous softness and sheen at the same time. Four individually spun plies of the cotton fibers are spun together to make Radiant Cotton.

Untwisted end of Radiant Cotton shows 4 individually spun plies that are twisted together to make this soft yarn.

I tugged out the fibers and was able to get some tufts and individual strands that were between 1" - 1½" [2.5 – 3cm] in length, but I was pulling from a cut end. If I were to untwist a single ply more gently rather than tug at it, I’m sure I would find individual fibers three times as long.

2 tufts of Egyptian cotton fibers pulled from one ply of Radiant Cotton

Radiant cotton isn’t a springy yarn and like so many cotton hand-knitting yarns, it doesn’t have much, if any, elasticity, but as it passes through your hands and fingers, it doesn’t feel like a cord or like kitchen string. It is already soft and subtle to the touch. The stockinette swatch (which I’ll show you tomorrow) has a lovely drape and proved to me that it would be very suitable to knit baby’s garments, too.

Radiant cotton comes in 24 colors, from the soft pastels that I get to use this week, to some intense brights that would be fun to include in any spring or summer wardrobe. You can see the colors at the bottom of this page. Tomorrow we’ll look at a few pattern ideas and explore a few more characteristics of Radiant Cotton.

This yarn has a beautiful twist and definition which is really clear when wound into a yarn cake.