2nd Time Cotton
In keeping with Halcyon Yarn’s effort to renew and expand our commitment to sustainability and the environment, we’ve been searching for a yarn that incorporates recycled fiber. Believe it our not, it’s not been easy. “Patience is a virtue” we kept reminding ourselves. We knew it was just a matter of time before we found someone in the yarn industry that had the desire to produce a quality yarn using recycled fiber. Finally!… Halcyon Yarn is pleased to announce the addition of K1C2 2nd Time Cotton Recycled Yarn from another great Maine Company, K1C2.
2nd Time Cotton is a blend of 75% recycled cotton derived from unused materials from the textile and garment industry and 25% acrylic. What a terrific way to repurpose. This 8-ply worsted weight cotton blend is perfect for spring and summer garments. The colors have a great tweedy effect that is created by the fiber mix and by blending small bits of colors into the main color before spinning. We’d also like to mention it is made in the USA reducing its carbon footprint and providing US jobs.
We knit and washed some samples. Here’s what we found. The yarn softens after washing creating a garment with that “old favorite” appeal. Although its recommended gauge is 4.25 stitches per inch on a size 8 needle, most of us here at the shop prefer a fabric knit at 4.5-5 stitches per inch on a size 6-7 needle. The label suggests machine washing with cold water and laying flat to dry. Despite K1C2’s recommendation we wanted to give the dryer a try partly because we prefer the softer hand that develops. We dried our samples in the dryer with the only effect being a 12% -15% shrinkage in length. Be sure to take into account the final care of your garment when calculating your gauge and knitting your sweater.
So how about a few pattern recommendations. First, we added 3 new patterns from K1C2 that have been designed specifically for 2nd Time Cotton, [Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock] , Seed Stitch Yoke Cardie and Double Tee. We’re knitting the Seed Stitch Yoke Cardie for the shop and plan on putting only two buttons at the top. We’ll show you ours when complete. We also searched our current pattern library for additional patterns you might like.
![[Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock]](/images_products/40916740.jpg)
For those of you who knit for babies or toddlers, try using 2nd Time Cotton in [Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock] , Cardigan With Hat or Neck Down Hooded Tunic by Knitting Pure and Simple. Roll Neck Raglan Sweater - Yankee Knitter and Fisherlad Guernsey - Yankee Knitter are two classic, versatile patterns that include sizing for babies through adults.
| [Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock] |
![[Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock]](/images_products/40401000.jpg)
 | Cardigan With Hat |
 | Neck Down Hooded Tunic by Knitting Pure and Simple |
 | Roll Neck Raglan Sweater - Yankee Knitter |
 | Fisherlad Guernsey - Yankee Knitter |
Want a stylish, everyday sweater knit with 2nd Time Cotton? Look no further than [Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock] and [Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock] . These are just a few suggestions. What ideas do you have? And share your finished projects with us when you’re done. Perhaps we can share them with other customers too!
| [Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock] |
![[Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock]](/images_products/42808040.jpg)
| [Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock] |
![[Sorry, item discontinued or temporarily out of stock]](/images_products/43400050.jpg)
Related items of interest: • Our yarns • Medium weight yarns • Cotton yarns • Knitting Patterns
Hi Elly,
I’m one of the people at Halcyon Yarn who is working on improving our selection of sustainable products. As Halcyon likes to say “We can’t get where we want to go if we let perfect get in the way of good…” So we are taking small steps where we can.
I agree that the acrylic component takes away from the yarn being completely sustainable, our hope is that K1C2 2nd Time Cotton will appeal to knitters who might otherwise go with a purely synthetic item because of the stretch/bounce it offers for easy knitting. We have lots of 100% natural fibers to choose from too, but we added this to what we offer because we love that the majority content is 75% recycled cotton and that it is manufactured in the USA. That means it has an overall lower carbon footprint than many imported yarns and supports a regional economy. We also like supporting manufacturers who are making a strong effort to offer more sustainable products.
We are increasing our effort to find more and more sustainable products and encouraging even better innovations in our supply chain. Improving our sustainability is a process and I hope we will have lots of feedback, suggestions and support as we all learn how to do better together!
Why would you want to put in Acrylic fibers. I don’t believe it would make it sustainable. I like the fact that this K1C2 2nd Time Around is from recycled fibers but I need Eco friendly fibers and Acrylic is not. Just wondering?
This new yarn looks to be the same blend as Lion had a couple of years back, don’t know about the new one but the Lion yarn dyed very well with Drimarene dyes and probably Procion as well. I’m a weaver and random dyed some, partly to see if it worked, ended up with a very nice random dyed accent yarn for a project I was working on