Comfy: The Sensitive Skin Solution

I absolutely love wool and all its wonderful properties, but I also have sensitive skin, so most wool is out for me for any sort of garment that touches the skin—especially the neck. It seems that my skin only agrees with cotton, but the cottons I’ve used in the past had no give, making my hands ache. Cotton yarn also tended to dry out my hands, and I always thought they smelled kind of funny and ‘paper-y’. Needless to say, I was a little skeptical when Tina told me about Comfy, but when I got the chance to feel it in person, I couldn’t wait to knit with it.

I decided that the best way to try it out would be on the numerous baby garments I’m knitting for friends and family this year, since a baby sweater is a small commitment. My friend, Forest, is having a boy in August and his wife is a biology grad student, so I immediately thought of the Pea Pod Baby Set by Kate Gilbert . I decided to go with the classic green, knitting it in Honeydew. The pattern calls for DK weight yarn, but I knew I could get gauge with worsted Comfy, since I’m a loose knitter and often find myself using smaller needles and thicker yarn to get a nice fabric.

The gauge swatch you see here was done on size 6 needles, and before washing was 5sts & 6.5 rows per inch. This swatch has been machine washed and dried (gentle cycle) with a load of laundry, and it came out looking exactly the same—no fuzzing or pilling. After washing, it shrunk a little bit lengthwise to 5 sts & 6.75 rows per inch. The fabric in my swatch did not hit the gauge I wanted, and it felt a little loose, so I decided to cast on the baby sweater with size 5 needles. (Yes, I’m a very bad knitter about swatching – shh!) Going down the needle size was perfect, as my sweater in progress is 5.5 sts/inch exactly. As I said before, I’m a loose knitter, so your mileage may vary.

I was sick on Friday, so I cast on then and worked on it for hours non-stop. My hands did not ache at all and the yarn wasn’t dry or paper-smelling. I love this yarn! It’s so soft and easy on my hands with a nice amount of bounce (achieved with the microfiber). It’s not as springy as wool, but it performs beautifully in a variety of stitch patterns, as well as cables and lace. I’ve included a photo of my work in progress to show the different stitch patterns. (For another example of Comfy knit in lace, check out Alison’s gorgeous Shaped Lace Tee! ) Also, I must add that I ripped out the bottom ribbing once due to a dumb error (that’s what happens when I try to start a project while sick), and I laddered down the seed stitch button band to fix another dumb error. The yarn doesn’t show any signs of distress from being ripped and re-knit, so it’s durable as well as soft. I think Comfy is about to become my new favorite all-purpose yarn.