Knitting with cotton

Up until now I had never tried knitting with cotton. A few months back I had splurged and bougth a mega sized ball of cotton, Sugar n Cream with the intention of doing some knitting using cotton.

After going through the Ravelry pattern library, I found several patterns for washcloths that I thought would look really nice done in a caramel color. My first attempt is grrr cloth. It's an interpretation of Tigger which I figured would appeal to my daughter. She's a huge Pooh fan.

hat came out isn't exactly what I was expecting. I can hardly see the image on the cloth, and the finished cloth doesn't feel as soft as I've read it should. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I have to give it a wash, block it and hopefully the pattern comes out?...

Until I have time to figure out what I've missed... if anything. This ball of cotton is going back in my stash.