Dishcloths...dishcloths...dishcloths...

It seems like these days when I'm not doing dishes I'm knitting dishcloths. Why you ask? Why would anyone want to spend time to make something to wash the dishes with? There are many reasons really...Dishcloth yarn is cheap,the projects are small and easy to take with you, AND the finished project is useful. The one pictured to the left is just a color work sampler...I wanted to see what certain slip stitch patterns looked like so instead of knitting up a swatch that would be useless later I can knit up a dishcloth to learn a new skill. Another reason is my kids love them and use them as blankets for toys both in the bath and out... in fact my daughters are always asking "Is that one for me???" Dish/washcloths also make great last minute gifts with a nice bar of soap or other bath product.

I was looking at patterns on Ravelry and found a spring washcloth that I designed as a weekly KAL on one of the groups... somebody had taken the time to link my pattern in Ravelry. It made me feel somewhat famous. I listed my wheat washcloth too... and now other people are making dishcloths that I designed... How cool is that? Cool might not be the right word... but hey I'm happy about it.

Here are a few of the dishcloths I've made recently...The links below are links to the pattern pages in case anyone is interested in making one.

I made this one for a KAL (Knit along)...This one gave me a bit of trouble. For some reason when I got to the fourth repeat of the pattern the dang thing was so long it looked more like a dish towel than a cloth. My original plan was to go one more repeat and make it into a fancy burp cloth (I did it in a variegated baby color yarn)… but on my 4th repeat I ended up with too many stitches and then too few so I frogged it back to the 3rd repeat (or there abouts) put the border on and made it BACK into a dishcloth.
It wasn’t that it was terribly hard… and I love the idea of the off center lace pattern… I just got frustrated with it at the very end.

I made this one as a prize for the Iron Chef contest in Jenn's Kitchen (my recipe group on yahoo). This wasn’t the easiest dishcloth… but it certainly wasn’t that hard either. As always with any pattern that has yo and ssk if you have to go back due to a mistake or dropped stitch it is a pain… but since it is just dishcloth size it’s really no biggie either. I like the smaller size…and I think it’ll make a great gift. I’ll put it in the mail tomorrow.

Here is my first crochet project. I know it's nothing special... but hey I'm proud. I usually knit and haven't had much luck with crochet.

And here is what I'm working on now... I should finish it in a jiffy.

Bookmarks and Bunny Nuggets

For Mother's day I knit up a few book marks for my mother, my mother-in-law, and two of my sister-in-laws and gave them as gifts with a book. What a great way to practice a lace pattern. Bookmarks are small so if you make a mistake frogging it is simple... and you can see what a lace pattern will look like in miniature. I got two of the patterns off Ravelry... and the other two bookmarks I used the stitch pattern from the wrap I'm working on.



This cute little project is called a bunny nugget. The pattern is located here. I found knitting the ears in the round almost impossible. I don’t know why… but a small number of stitches on DPNs are almost impossible for me… I found myself cursing so much I just knit them flat. I also knit the whole body on DPNs instead of transfering to circular for the bind off… I just did the 3 needle bindoff on 2 DPN and used the third to bind off.

Ravelry and Ravings

I haven't posted anything in a while... and it is not that I haven't been knitting... I just haven't finished anything in a while. I have been working on lots of little projects and not finishing any of them. So yesterday I vowed to finish something for a change... and so I finished up a few odds and ends. One of the projects I finished was this washcloth for my daughter. I found this cool and very detailed pattern is on another blog... check it out here

I have also been knitting up some bibs and burp cloths for all the many babies on the way right now. I finished a bib and started on a burp cloth. I know it seems odd to knit something just for a baby to puke and spill stuff on... but hey if my knitted cloths can make someone smile while cleaning up baby puke then I think I've done something truly special.

I got these patterns from the book Mason Dixon Knitting.

And last but not least... I've been working on this wrap. I had planned on wearing it to my anniversary party... but not only was it too hot...but I hadn't finished the dang thing anyway. Oh well there will be other parties. I think that I might just make this wrap in a specialty yarn instead of the cheap acrylic I used for this attempt. I found this pattern here.

The other knitting related thing that I've been doing is setting up an account at Ravelry. It is a really cool tool for all you knitters and crocheters out there! You can post pictures of you projects... meet other people that are interested in the same type of projects you are... and just have fun looking through the forum and all the free patterns. Stop by and add me to your friends list if you are a member!

Until next time,

Jenn