Sometimes the questions that get asked leave me to pause and ponder. That’s exactly what happened when someone on Quora requested my answer to the question, what does cotton feel like? When I first saw it, I thought it was a bit absurd to ask. Then again, I routinely quote Cotton Inc on “the touch the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives.” So I let it bounce around in my head for a while and while I’m still not sure I gave the answer the person posing the question was looking for, I gave my answer! Am making some minor changes and posting it here in part because if you have an answer, I’d love to hear it! May even make it a guest post!

The first thing that come to mind for me is cotton feels like home. It is my go-to for comfort and I can make that work on so many levels.

The feeling of cotton can change based on the way we process it.

• For the flannel sheets that I snuggle into on a cold winter’s night, cotton feels soft and fuzzy, like it is waiting for you to come to bed when you get there and like it wants to hold onto you when the alarm buzzes.
• Cotton pjs feel like encouragement for taking a lazy Saturday after you’ve been running hard for a couple of weeks. They offer the perfect buffer between you and the sofa that’s been calling your name.
• The best pair of jeans or denim jacket feels like a friend who’s willing to help you get the job done. It is strong enough to take a beating without ripping the fabric (at least most days!) but soft enough that your body welcomes it whether you pull them on tight or baggy.
• My favorite Pima cotton v-neck t-shirt feels light and airy. It is the perfect thing for a hot day or a day when I will be running around a lot and want to still look a tiny bit more polished.

Cotton on the farm, has a different feeling all together. There are a lot of sensations.

• The plants are tender, seemingly fragile in the early part of the season. The leaves cool to the touch, even on a hot day as they turn the water the roots mine and sun shining down to photosynthesis and respiration waiting for the sun to go away.
• As you get to the middle of the season and plants have been growing strong, you realize those leaves are smooth on top, but can vary from smooth underneath to pretty hairy, something that surprises you. You see and touch delicate flowers, that dry-down faster than flowers we buy or grow to decorate our homes. So they start smooth and tender and within a couple of days, they are dry to the touch and crinkle in your hands.
• Later in the season, you can feel hard bolls on the plant, feeling fiber so tightly packed in there that the plant is ready to burst. And once it does burst, it is among the softest fibers imaginable. As you grab the open boll in your hand, it is both soft as the fiber is incredibly fine and comes from the seeds which are firm.

Not sure that is what a Quoran was looking for but it works for me!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Starting to wonder how I’d answer this question — What does cotton feel like? ” quote=”Interesting question and not sure about the answer… may have to give it some thought!”]

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I love finding new bloggers and really love it when one of them finds me and connects! That’s what happened a few weeks ago when an Arkansas woman subscribed to my blog. I looked at her blog and thought “Wow. She seems like so many people I know!” Since then comments and emails have gone back and forth and I’m lucky enough to have my new blogging friend Lacey join my “Cotton – Fabric of Our Lives” series with today’s post.

Lacey says she was “born and raised in eastern Arkansas, agriculture is all I know. In 2006, I married an aerial applicator and we now have two beautiful children. I have recently started a blog called The Ag Wife Diaries. In this blog, I express what it is like to be a pilot’s wife and also tell some of my thoughts on life. My purpose for my blog is to connect with other women.” You can also find her blog through the Facebook page for The Ag Wife Diaries.

Talking back and forth, Lacey pointed out that she and her husband are much more connected to rice than my favorite fiber. But when I explained that my series of guest posts ranges dramatically in knowledge of cotton from shoppers to cotton farmers, she said she had a real passion for cotton and started writing….

The post The Small Joys of Cotton appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

I read this article on Discovery News a while back and meant to get the blog post up ASAP but it seems it ended up filed away for too long. The article speaks to one of a host of research efforts that would enable people to purchase cotton clothes with different properties than are innate in the fiber itself. A previous example would be all the folks like me who hate to iron and can now buy wrinkle-free cotton.

As someone with a really light complexion, the idea that a cotton shirt could help protect me from damaging rays is something I can get behind. I think I’d be glad to have several in my suitcase on vacations to places like the Philippines, Turkey, Malaysia, etc.

Washing loads of clothes and getting a sunburn have never been particularly enjoyable experiences. However, scientists have developed a coating for cotton fibers that could not only lighten your laundry load, but protect your skin from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays.

Using the water-repellent and UV-blocking functions of zinc oxide nanorods, researchers from Northeast Normal University in China created a coating for textiles that not only mimicks the water-repelling nature of the lotus leaf, but was found to have a UV protection factor (UPF) of 101.51, double the highest possible rating.

Previous experiments have created self-cleaning, UV-repellent fabrics through a surface application of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide films. But when team leader Lingling Wang and the rest of the research team modified cotton textiles with zinc oxide nanorods and dumbell-shaped zinc oxide crystallites, they found the material could potentially block a wider range of UV rays.

However, doing so meant carefully suppressing the photoactivity of zinc oxide, which reacts with sunlight in a way that compromises the water repellant nature of the nanorods. So they coated the nanorods with with a silica shell that not only effectively blocks the photoactivity of zinc oxide, but helps it retain hydrophobicity.

The scientists believe this technology will be useful in the surface modification of cotton textiles, creating durable, multifunctional fabrics with enhanced superhydrophobic and UV-ray blocking properties.

via This Cotton Repels Water and Sun : Discovery News.

What would you like built into your cotton clothes? Any brilliant ideas cotton researchers should be working on?

The post How Cool Would it be if Cotton Could Repel Water and Sun? appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.