Thursday, August 27, 2009

Comfort Knitting

This is the third Running Horse hat I've knitted. I just love the pattern. A dear friend of mine was in a horrible accident and I needed something to keep my mind occupied. Knitting a familiar pattern with enough difficulty to make me pay attention was just what I needed.

My experiment in making a bath puff using a modified kitchen scrubby pattern turned out so-so on the first try. I tried starting on the same size hook and increased the hook two sizes for a few rows and then increased two sizes again for a few more rows. The end result is cute, but still too dense and compact to make a good bath puff in my opinion. It just needs to be more airy and open, which I'm not sure can be achieved. I may give it another try, we'll see...................

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Plain Jane, but very useful


This is a quick to make set I made to finish using up the last bit of what was a huge and never ending skein of cotton. I lost count of how many dishcloths I made out of that skein.

What I like about this duo is that they are so very usable. The dishcloth is exactly the same on both sides, so there's no wrong or right side. I've never made any of the little scrubbies before, so can't swear to it, but it seems like it will be great for dishes.

The scrubby is crocheted, which I seldom do. It always takes me a little bit to get back in the swing of crochet because there's always such a long span between the last time I made a crocheted item. At first it was really hurting my hands to crochet the thick cotton, but it got a little more fluid as I went along. I still prefer to use thinner cotton to crochet, and I've always much preferred knitting to crocheting.
Both of these are the simplest patterns I've ever come across. The plain little dishcloth is called Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth (on Ravelry). Directions: worsted weight cotton, size US 6 needles. Cast on 4 stitches.
Row 1: knit 4
*Row 2: Knit 2, YO, knit across row
*Row 3: Knit 1, K2 tog, YO, K2 tog, knit across row
*Repeat Row 2 until you have 44 stitches
*Repeat Row 3 until you have 4 stitches, bind off, weave in ends.
I can't find where I came across the pattern for the little scrubby, but it is very simple and best I can remember this is all you do: Size G hook, worsted weight cotton
Chain 3
SC 6 in second stitch from hook, do not join, but turn and
*SC 2 in each SC, turn*, repeat between **'s until desired size
It won't really start looking like a scrubby for quite a lot of rows, but it's really fast to make.
I think I'm going to try using a larger crochet hook and make a bath puff from the scrubby
pattern. It would make a great machine washable bath puff if it weren't so dense. We'll see how it comes out.........

Monday, August 3, 2009

Fun Dishcloth #2


This was really fun for me to knit since I'm horse crazy. The pattern calls for size US 5 needles. Worsted weight cotton on size 5 needles can be a little rough on the hands. The larger dishcloth was knitted on US 6 needles. Much easier on the hands and a more usable fabric density for a dishcloth, but the actual horse design loses some crispness. Since I like to actually use my dishcloths I vote for the larger one on the size 6 needles. Which one do you like?

You can find the free pattern on Ravelry, it's Giddy-up Cloth by Amy-lynne Mitchell.

I've been making a few jewelry pieces and am beginning to think about what knitting projects I'd like to start this Fall. The colorwork hats I knitted at the end of last winter were so much fun I may start with something small like that and work my way into a larger project as the days grow shorter and colder. Here's a picture of one of my favorites: