Boiling Cotton

I've been playing with Lion Brand's new Cotton Ease yarn. I love the bright colors for Spring and Summer, and knit up a clutch style purse alternating three different colors (terra cotta, maize and lime) for a striped pattern. Here is what the right side looks like.



But the "wrong" side looks wonderful too!



The cotton-acrylic blend is easy and soft to work with, and has a lot of stretch. More stretch than I want in a purse. A friend suggested I try boiling it so see if it would shrink or tighten up. So I knit up a small swatch with a little of the leftover yarn.



I put boiled it for 10 minutes, then ran it through the dryer with a load of laundry. It did shrink up a little bit, but nothing like what happens when felting wool.



To make the purse usable, I could make a lining for it. Then the weight of the contents wouldn't stretch the purse's knit fabric. I'm kinda bored with this project though. I'm not sure I've got enough interest in it to knit it several more times as would be needed to write up the pattern or teach this project as a class. I may frog it and use the yarn for something else. This yarn would definitely make a very comfortable t-shirt or tank top!