Kitchen cotton yarns are a sub-set of cotton yarn as a whole. They tend to be cheap, often come in bright, fun colors, and unlike upscale brands like Rowan Calmer and Blue Sky Alpacas Organic cotton yarns, kitchen cotton yarns can be found at Walmart.
Kitchen cotton is also relatively heavy, harsh stuff. As you might judge by the name, it is designed to hold up under the abuse of household use. Namely in the form of dishcloths. Scrub it, wash it, run it through the laundry, over and over: kitchen cotton will hold up to anything you can throw at it.
But what if you don't want to knit dishcloths? (I don't know why you wouldn't, but I accept that some people do not.) What else can you use kitchen cotton for?
I'll tell you one thing not to do: knit it into a sweater. I had a friend who did this, even though everyone told her not to. Just as they predicted, her sweater ended up weighing a ton, and it sagged like crazy. Sad!
For the same reasons (namely weight) you will want to think twice before using it to make a cotton afghan or throw. It might seem tempting, but think about how harsh the yarn is. Kitchen cotton is probably not the best choice.
Kitchen cotton works quite well for baby bibs, dish towels, market/shopping tote bags, and potholders, though. I would be hesitant to use it for baby clothes, or for a blanket that is meant to go over baby, but kitchen cotton would work well for the kind of blanket you lay out on the floor and put the baby on. Dishcloth cotton can be bleached, which is a very handy property for a baby item to have.
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