Yarnhardts: Yarn Review - Drew Emborsky Pima Cotton

Brand: Drew Emborsky Decades (luxury hand dyed in the U.S.A)
www.drewemborsky.com

Purchase this Yarn Here!

Blend: 50% Peruvian Pima Cotton - 50% Tencel
Made in USA - Weight: 1950's Sarcastic DK (double knitting)
Colour: Tiki Torch
Care Instructions: Hand wash cold, lay flat to dry OR dry clean
Skein Size: 220y or 4oz.
Cost: $18.00 (USD)

Review: I've always been skeptical of cotton yarns, partially because I was raised in a household where cotton is exclusively used for dishcloths and nothing more! This yarn is very interesting though, it feels like a cotton, but with a much softer hand. It still has the slight rigidity of the cotton used in your mom's handmade dishcloths, however there's a very soft edge to this yarn which makes it drape absolutely beautifully therefore I selected a simple baby sweater as my test subject for this yarn. I know a lot of mothers would LOVE a cotton baby sweater considering the care is so effortless with cotton, and this yarn gives you the best of both worlds; ease and simplicity of cotton with the luxurious softness and feel that baby can be cozy in.

Label and remainder of one skein used after knitting pieces in this post.

Again the value for this ball I feel was excellent. I was skeptical I could get a sweater out of it, but indeed I did and had enough left over for the matching booties as well. I think with this small ball left I still might get a granny square or a coaster out of it so I'm going to hold onto it for sure!

Baby sweater with ducky button detail along entire right side.

I knitted this sweater with a circular needle, and the only complaint I would have would be the armhole areas. As anyone knows when working with cotton, it does not have the elasticity to properly bounce back in area's needing proper knitting flexibility and this yarn is no exception. The armhole's gapped quite a bit when I tried to complete the arms with dpn's (however sometimes my tension isn't the tightest so perhaps a tighter knitter won't have this problem). Luckily I was aware of this problem early in construction and left a long tail when casting on so I could fill in the armpit holes with a few stitches. The stickiness of this yarn works in favour for this method and it stuck quite well. I'm not worried about baby wiggling out of this one or causing damage to the armholes.

Sweater and matching booties with ducky button details.

As with most cottons , I found this yarn shows your stitch details very clearly (this includes mistakes). So if you're not the strongest knitter, this yarn, especially in this colour, will show ALL of your missed stitches and errors including inconsistent tension, purl/knit errors, and make one/decrease errors. This yarn is definitely meant for advanced knitters and I wouldn't recommend to anyone starting out, especially on a garment like this!

Open baby sweater with ducky buttons unbuttoned for easy dressing.

All in all, this is one of my favourite cotton's I've worked with so far and is definitely an upgraded yarn from those old dishcloth versions! I would recommend this one for baby bibs, or pants or knitted flat sweaters with simple embellishments. I wouldn't recommend this one for anything requiring excessive seaming, fine details, or hats.