I often see people use milk cotton yarn for various things… decoration, plushies, clothing. After having looked into it, I found out it’s mostly available from chinese websites like aliexpress, temu and other.
On reddit I read about it being produced using formaldehyde. Formaldehyde can cause skin irritation and if longer exposed to it, it will have other not-so-nice side effects.
Do you guys have any insights and advice for me? I’d really love to give it a try, but without wanting to risk my health. Where do you buy it from? Is it even worth a try to begin with?
I use milk cotton because I bought it on accident. Let me put it this way: it’s just soft acrylic yarn. Is it nice? Sure. But is it worth going out of your way to get? No. I have enjoyed using it because it has an almost plush look to it without being a chenille yarn but I wouldn’t repurchase it unless I started a project with it and ran out and couldn’t finish it. If there’s formaldehyde truly in it, that would just solidify my opinion on it lol.
Thanks a LOT for this detailed opinion! This helps me a lot in my decision making process. Sticking to basic acrylic yarn (if i seek something more soft) might be the call then?
Absolutely. Basic acrylic comes in bigger skeins for cheaper costs anyway. And as another mentioned, acrylic is easy to soften. Honestly, I tried one yarn that was an acrylic polyamide blend and I think it was the softest yarn I’d ever used apart from faux fur.
I’d also like to point out that while many people tote this as a hypoallergenic yarn it isn’t. They use the Casein protein in wasted milk to create casein fibers, meaning that this can be an allergen for those with milk allergies. While yes milk allergies are lesser (as in they aren’t nearly as prominent, not that they are lesser in the allergic reactions) than other skin allergens it doesn’t make it wholly hypoallergenic. So if you do decide to make it and if you ever decide to sell items with it I would specially mark them as “made with milk cotton/ casein fiber”
