A Dishcloth pattern

Set of 4

It has been a while. Several posts in the pipeline, itching to be published. I will have to jump into those another time. As time is short presently. However, I wanted to share a pattern I've always been meaning to publish, for the perfect dishcloth. Or at least I think it is. 

Off, with a bang!

The May, birthday parties for our children, have come and gone. But not without their respective dramas. David had his car damaged, while parking at Grand Central in Toowoomba - a major shopping complex. It was a hit and run, that had the paint scraped on his car door, and the mirror dangling.

It happened the day before Peter's birthday too. David was collecting last minute party supplies. It's going to be an expensive birthday, after paying the $600 excess on our car insurance. But it wasn't going to ruin our day, because cars are just things. Money comes and goes. Parties however, are about making lasting memories. Those were the important things, to invest our thoughts and feelings into.

So what of the amigurumi present, I was fervently crocheting, for his big day...

Hurry up Luigi, get dressed!

Thanks to this clever crochet pattern, I made Mario, in about a week. I had a bunch of other stuff to do, in between. So Mario patiently awaited the arrival of his brother Luigi. Thankfully, it only took about 3 days to make him. Because who can resit the Mario brothers, right?

Two men & an egg!

Not long after Luigi was finished, I had my sights set on making a Yoshi egg. Apologies to those unfamiliar, with the Mario Brothers franchise. This will all sound like gobbledygook! But strangely enough, Yoshi is a dinosaur (a happy go lucky guy) who has this ability to devour his friends and enemies, and turn them into eggs.

Normally, it's Mario's job to avoid Yoshi in the various platform games, but in this case, they make excellent babysitters! So why would Yoshi want to eat them?

The Mario gang

Luckily, the Mario Brothers, were almost the same size as Yoshi - who was an official Merchandise plushie, Peter got from his uncle, several birthday's ago. How were the amigurumi plushies, received? Well, Peter takes them to bed every night, they get up every morning and eat breakfast with him. He calls them his best friends, and even talks with them.

I was hoping he'd like them, but I was amazed how MUCH he does! Which makes the amount of time I put into them, extremely worthwhile. We seriously could have saved us some money, avoiding the other toys we purchased. They have barely had a look in.

I had a lot of fun, making the Mario brothers, too. I could easily become addicted to making amigurumi. But more than that, it was really nice to be able to give my son, something I made with my hands.

Buns and Candy-stripes

This morning, I pulled some more fruit buns from the oven. The weather cooled sufficiently enough, to be able to bake in the morning again. The kids will have a few today, now school holidays have started, and my husband will get the rest. I like to freeze them individually, and he can grab them for his lunch.

Afterwards, I continued knitting my candy-stripe, dishcloth. T'is the season for candy-stripes, right? But it came about more because I wanted to use up a ball of cotton, which I purchased from a second-hand store, many moons ago.

It was a case of seizing the opportunity, and not realising until I got it home, that I don't really like pink. Don't ask me how "white" cotton for my candy-stripe, ended up in my collection either. I must have thought it a good buy at the time.

In an effort to use up my supplies, instead of letting them collect cobwebs, year after year, I decided I could have a least one, candy-stripe dishcloth, as I am busy replenishing my supply. It means a lot of weaving-in ends, changing colours all the time, but at least I get to use up two colours, I may not have appreciated on their own.

Pink is not my thing, but making dishcloths are. I can't remember when exactly, I started making them (I estimate 8 years) but I know I only have to replenish my supply of dishcloths, every two years or so. I've always made the waffle knit dishcloth, from Homespun Living.

Only I modify mine, using 4 ply cotton now, and number 9 needles. I still use the same number of stitches though. It means I get a smaller cloth, but it fits perfectly over the sink faucet, and it doesn't hurt my hands to squeeze out. I found I struggled with the larger cloth, knitted with 8 ply cotton.

The other brilliant thing about using 4 ply cotton though, is the cloth dries really quickly in summer. Meaning no time for it to grow smelly or mouldy. If I haven't been writing much, it's because my knitting needles, are busy clicking in the background instead.

Knit tip for cloths

It's time to start knitting dishcloths again. The ones I've had for several years are beginning to develop holes. One thing I discovered recently, which I didn't know before...

If you have a favourite dishcloth pattern, requiring 8 ply cotton but can only source 4 ply, simply knit from two separate balls. I'm happy to report this worked a treat for me recently. I had no problems unraveling the two balls at the same time and the needles never caught on the separate threads.

I worked a neutral colour and variegated, to give me a light coloured dishcloth. This combination will easily hide any stains it may develop while in use. What I appreciate most about this waffle knit dishcloth pattern, is that it creates a flexible cloth, but also holds its shape once wet. If you have a favourite dishcloth pattern, stick with it!

One down already, just a few more cloths to go...

Whatever happend to...

I don't believe I ever did an update on the shrug I started knitting for my daughter, back in winter 2012. The fur yarn I was experimenting with for sleeves, didn't work, but the end product wasn't compromised.

I hurt my back (I think ironically from knitting, lol) so it stayed on the unfinished pile for quite a while. I actually finished it in Spring when the weather started to heat up again, so she really only got to wear it a few times before it got packed away.

Thankfully, it still managed to fit as the cooler weather of autumn set-in recently, and I took some pictures with her posing for fun.

Kids and their clothes - they're so fleeting aren't they! It takes so long to knit and very little time to outgrow them.

I'm glad I was finally able to take something off the needles for my daughter. Something she actually likes! I have been busy knitting something for her baby brother too. I wish I had known what I could achieve with knitting when she was a baby.

I suppose while I still have needles (and opposable thumbs) I can keep knitting something for her.

On a lighter note

Before calls in the afternoon, of the fate of loved ones, I finished my shrug on Monday morning. I was very happy to finally have it off the needles and trying it on for the first time.

 Front

I did cheat a little, skipping the last 4 rounds in the project, only because Dave and I had a movie date planned for that morning too, and I wanted to wear it. Eliminating the extra rounds, only altered the thickness of the moss stitch band.

 Back

This could be why the bottom of my shrug tends to roll upwards at the back. Or maybe it would always do this no matter how thick the band was? I'm glad I skipped the extra rows, because it fitted nicely as it was. I do have to figure a way to get that back to stay down though. Ideas???

I was ready to move on to the next knitting project for myself, but my daughter loved my shrug so much, she asked me to knit her one! We went through my yarn collection, and she only liked the black colour. Unfortunately it was acrylic, which is way less fun to knit with.

Another shrug on the needles

Do you know how hard it is to knit in black? It's like knitting a giant ink splot. It's very difficult to see the stitches in natural light.

Nonetheless, I'm enjoying having something to knit again. As I did with my own shrug, I plan to tweak Sarah's a little too. Instead of the monotonous knit 1, purl 1 of the moss stitch, I have some fun fur yarn I will just plain knit (with larger needles) for the collar and the cuffs on her sleeves.

My daughter gets up every morning and checks my knitting needles, to see how far I've gotten, LOL. Thankfully, it's smaller, so hopefully won't take as long to finish.

Knit wit

I have some cause for celebration today, as I've reached a stage in my knitting project I can distinguish what I'm actually making! Can you guess what it is?

Two sleeves (1 folded, 1 flat) with the back in the middle

If you haven't guessed, I'm going to reveal it anyway: it's a shrug! What's a shrug? It's like a cardigan, only shorter and normally comes without buttons. It's meant to be worn in those "in-between" months, when it's too warm to wear winter woolies, but too cool not to wear something extra.

I got the free pattern from here. You may need to join Lionsbrand website to read the knitting instructions.

From the book Glam Knits by Stefanie Japel

You will notice my design is a little different, as I'm going for the full sleeve by adding extra ribbing rows. Not sure how it will look when it's finished, but worth an experiment!

I actually just wanted longer sleeves. Now I'm off to start the collar!

SIDE NOTE: I started this on Good Friday (Easter) and has taken this long to get to this stage. I had to take a few weeks off from knitting however, as I was so enthusiastic I knitted non-stop and got RSI or Repetitive Strain Injury. That's why I'm a Knit wit, or just some witty banter to be had about knitting instead.

Either way, "Knit wit" works, LOL.