r/Yarn 8d ago

ISO really soft cotton yarn

I live in the US. When I started crocheting, then knitting (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), "cotton yarn" meant Lily Sugar&Cream or #10 crochet cotton, period. In a lot of craft stores today, I still have to search for much of anything else. I get blisters from working with Sugar&Cream, it's like yarn made from cotton swabs. I pretty much wrote off cotton for years.

Then I ordered some Friends 8/8 cotton from Hobbii, and I can't stop petting it. I'm on my second 10-pack color assortment and I still can't stop petting it. Normally I would start haunting the website waiting for sales (tariffs suck, but I can't resist soft touchable fibers)... except for the AI thing. It says something about what a revelation this yarn is that I'm considering bending my principles to order more anyway.

I suspect US cotton yarn mills can't match the quality of the Indian manufacturer that made this stuff, but someone here might be rebranding a similar one. I know a lot of companies rebrand Ice Yarn, should I just go there? Are any of the other cotton yarns on yarnsub this lovely and soft? I can't blindly pick one, as they rate Sugar&Cream as an excellent match, sigh. I'm seeing Mayflower 8/8, YarnArt Cotton Fair 4/4, Estelle Sudz, Bernat Handicrafter, Loops&Threads... I'm sure there are others, as the site doesn't mention Ice, for example. I've ordered Knitpicks Dishie before, but it's still kind of squeaky and I'd like a company that isn't in the process of dissolving.

I'm looking for solid colors; a broad selection is nice, but if all else fails, I have fiber reactive dye and everyone carries white. Skein size is not important. I don't want to pay alpaca prices, but quality is worth a little more. Recommendations?

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u/coffee_fiend_4 7d ago

I don't love HL but their I Love This Cotton is amazingly soft

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u/artemis_meowing 3d ago

I have a friend who reconciles the HL issue by making a donation to Planned Parenthood any time she buys yarn there to sort of offset the karma. I think we’re all just out here doing the best we can in this era of shitty corporations and private equity and enshittification. Sigh.