It’s been a productive and exceptionally busy week. I’ve been working on small projects as I’m between big things right now, and as I haven’t had a ton of knitting time lately. The other day the wifey and kiddo found a ball of white and green cotton yarn at Goodwill and brought it home for me. I asked Z (the kiddo) if she’d like me to make her a flower washcloth with it. She said yes so I tracked down a pattern and knocked it out. There ended up being just enough yarn for two.
I used this Cherry Pie Dishcloth pattern. It was a fun knit, and went quickly. I hadn’t done anything with short rows for a while, so I ripped out my first attempt (I had only done a couple of sections, so not the end of the world) and redid it once I figured out where the pattern was going. For the second one, I made some modifications. The pattern doesn’t include directions for seaming the cast on and cast off edges, so I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out until the end. On the first one, i whip stitched the two edges together. It looks okay, but it’s a little bulky. If you look closely on the picture, you can see it around 8-9 o’clock. So, for the second one, I dredged up some techniques that I haven’t done in a loooong time: provisional cast on and Kitchener stitch grafting.
So, neither of these things are really that difficult ultimately. It’s just a question of muddling through the initial confusion until they start to make sense. I chose a provisional chain cast on which meant I had to remember how to crochet. Did I mention it had been a while? I wish I had a video of my initial attempts as it was pretty funny. I couldn’t figure out how to get the yarn back to the back of the work and kept pulling it around instead of just moving it back and over. It resulted in a horrendously twisted row of cast on stitches. I just kept pulling it out and trying again until it clicked–and it eventually did.
After knitting the washcloth, I had to remember how to do Kitchener stitch. I found this very helpful tutorial on knitty. Again, I fumbled through my first couple of attempts to follow the instructions, but then it all came together. It worked out really well! The join is nearly invisible, nicely stretchy, and not at all bulky. I omitted the last row of knitting on the pattern in order to get the edges to line up right. I have now somehow misplaced it, so I can’t post a picture. I blame the cats.
In the grand scheme of things, these may not be huge accomplishments. But, I’m still happy that I chose to try something a little trickier in order to get a nicer result, and that I kept at it even though it wasn’t intuitive at all. I cast on yesterday for a dishcloth from the same pattern, and I was able to knock out the provisional cast on in just a few moments:
I’m planning to make a handful of these to use, give away, and use up some of my less awesome stash.
My other FOs to share today are also dishcloths. I found six dishcloths in my long-unopened WIPs box (that box made it through several moves untouched) that just needed the ends woven in. I might have mentioned before that I hate finishing/weaving in ends. Well, these dishcloths date back to at LEAST 2007, and maybe earlier, so I decided it was time. Yesterday I sat down and finished them all:
There’s one more that’s not pictured as it immediately got co-opted into use as soon as it was finished. These were all made out of your basic Lily Sugar’n Cream kitchen cotton. I made close to a million of them in nursing school. I knit through most of my lectures as it helped me concentrate better. It’s such a simple pattern that you can go completely on autopilot, so it was perfect for that context.
My list of planned projects keeps expanding. Here’s what I have in mind currently:
- A bunch more dishcloths to use up some more stash
- A twirly skirt for Z
- Quicksilver for the wifey
- Some sort of shawl or lap blanket for my MIL
- An ice pack cozy (maybe?) for my FIL
- A Rivulet scarf for me!!!
- Preemie/kids hats to donate
- A bunch of other stuff that hasn’t completely coalesced yet
Also, I got the rest of my Colinette Wigwam the other day, so I can start working on my Old Shale blanket again! And I may have picked up a few other new yarns here and there…man, I love yarn and I love bargains. When I find those two things combined, I have a really hard time resisting. I suppose I will justify it by doing some serious knitting!
alexand knits 