Oceans, Cotton, and Cross-Stitch, Oh my...

Here's an interesting diversion a friend just sent me... Oceangrams! Go to the site and you can send a message in a bottle...or just wait for a little while and you'll pick one up! These can come from anywhere in the world!

Now on to the cotton. Our guild is bringing in Judy Pascale this fall to teach her Vertical Vest class! I'm very excited about this class, but now find myself with the following dilemma... We got the materials list the other day - here it is:

For the beaded vest you will need between 1050 and 1300 yds of fingering weight yarn (Koigu or something similar). She sells the beads she uses in her class, but if you want to purchase your own, you will need to buy size 6 seed beads. I did not ask how many oz of beads needed, but can do that.

For the other vests, you can use any weight yarn from fingering to worsted. You will be doing a gauge swatch so will be able to make it to whatever size you want. She said that Cotton Classic is a great yarn to use for our area, she loves how it works up, but cotton or wool is okay. No chenille or textured wool, cotton, etc.

So, I did some hunting online the other day to get an idea of what I was looking for, and found a few options. First, I'd like to stick to cotton or a cotton blend, but I WILL be doing the beaded vest, so fingering weight is a must. I'm also going to reserve a decision a bit, since I will be going to the Fiber Festival in three short weeks in NY, so may find something there that I'd like to use. I am a little afraid though, that they might not have much cotton, since it's a spinning fest in NY in the fall... Will keep an open mind however!

In the meantime, this is what I've come up with:

Yarn possibilities:

Mississippi 3 Print

$6.10 - 230 yds

Meilenweit Cotton or Cotton Fun

$7.35 - 207 yds

Mayflower Cotton 8

$3.59 - 186 yds

Rowan CashSoft

$8.50 - 197 yds

Stork by Dale of Norway

$5.00 - 195 yds

Mondial Cotton Soft Yarn

$6.95 - 196 yds

Ringspun Cotton

$12.00 - 700 yds

Also in my stash I found Paton's Grace mercerized cotton. I don't have enough for this project, but it's a lovely yarn and another that I might consider.

Edited to add:
Two more links that Janette (aka - my enabler) sent...so I have them when I'm in NY ;)
KnitPicks Gloss
$3.99 - 220 yds

And a SALE! on Mississippi 3
$2.50 - 230 yds

Oh, and I know that the CashSoft doesn't have any cotton in it, but it looks SOOO lovely that I had to consider it... No idea what color I want to do this in either...but will let you know all of that as soon as I figure it out!

As for the Cross-Stitch? It's actually going pretty well! I worked on it for several hours last night...the good news is that there isn't really ALL that much to it! But, off to stitch now!