100% viscose vs cotton yarn summery knits?

After two years of knitting with wools, I went looking for suitable summer garment knitting yarns, and running across viscose was interesting. Visually it seemed to be a summer hit yarn, but I wasn’t sure about touching, care, and all that info I like to look for on yarn manufacturers.

I checked Alibaba to see what specs the 100% viscose yarn suppliers were giving yarn, and 100% cotton suppliers too. Things like fiber length, twist per inch, moisture absorption rates, maximum temperature for washing, and so on. All this is way easy to find out from Alibaba, as information is laid out by supplier! This helped me see if the attribute differences slotted in easily for cotton to viscose.

Came across a hand knitting and yarn craft facebook group where knitters compared types, specifically for application to summer knits. Viscose came up in comparison as significantly more drapey than cotton. Drapey = better for flowy garment shapes but more challenging for knits that are supposed to be shape-holding as Viscose needs blocking care members explained. Had to take more care with its temperature in washing than cotton does, and textured yarn blends were a soft place to land neutrally for makers wanting to gradually graduate from summer cotton knits to summer viscose knitter.

I ordered a trial amount of 100% viscose from a supplier whose specifications on Alibaba correlated to the quality indicators described by my facebook group members and the drape they told me about was all there and more, and a finished knit of the same size and weight in an equivalent cotton weighed heavier in hand compared to the viscose weight. The forthcoming honesty and fair representation was so nice to have! And that speci fiber research helped me frame the practical care right into my project instead of having to learn by falling into the washing fail pit.