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Yarn Profile: Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere

First Impressions
Supersoft yet somewhat ho-hum in appearance, Cotton Cashmere is the newest addition to the Debbie Bliss line of yarns. It produces even, well-defined stitches that beg for texture, whether it's cables, bobbles, or even a humble seed stitch.

Although Bliss provides a few child-sized designs for this yarn, the majority of her Cotton Cashmere designs are for adults.

Knitting Up
Cotton Cashmere has oodles of plies (13 two-ply strands, to be exact) that love to unwind and snag if you're not too careful. Because cotton tends to be a flat, inelastic fiber, I found it difficult to tug snags back into my stitches.

Another word of advice: File your nails before you try knitting with Cotton Cashmere. The slightest uneven fingernail will drag on the yarn, potentially pulling one of the many plies loose from the knitted fabric.

Otherwise, the yarn produced a smooth and steady knitted fabric with beautiful stitch definition. I compare it to drawing with a fine-nibbed pen.

Blocking / Washing
My swatches behaved just fine in cold, lukewarm, and warm water. There was no bleeding, fading, or change in gauge.

They dried perfectly flat and smooth with no bias and no blocking necessary. Despite a modest amount of agitation, they lost none of their crisp stitch definition, either.

Wearing
I consider Cotton Cashmere a high-maintenance yarn where wearability is concerned. Your garment won't develop holes or bare spots, but it will lose its crisp stitch definition after only a few outings.

A medium amount of friction caused surface blur and occasional pilling on my swatches. The loose pills were easy enough to remove, but the surface blur was there to stay.

I'm not saying that Cotton Cashmere is a waste of your money necessarily. But you should know that the pristine just-finished appearance on your garment won't last.

The softness will, however. The more I attempted to destroy my swatches, the softer they became.

Conclusion
Cotton Cashmere fits right in with Debbie Bliss' trademark style of simple, soft fabrics with clean lines. Where Cashmerino gives you "wooly" luxury for winter wear, and Wool Cotton provides a hint of warmth without breaking the bank, Cotton Cashmere adds luxury to an otherwise simple summer fiber.

The yarn's reasonable price is possibly aided by the fact that there's only 15% cashmere in the mix. A basic medium-sized woman's sweater will barely scratch the $100 mark. You have 16 shades to choose from, including various hues of blues and greens as well as red, black, and a bright orange I found especially attractive for fall.

I should also note that some of the issues I had with Cotton Cashmere are standard fare with most cottons.

As a fairly inelastic plant fiber, cotton lacks the kind of bounce and fiber memory we see in wool. And the less bounce and fiber memory you have, the faster the surface texture may degrade.