I never did any pictures of the first big snow that hit our area about 10 days ago. Life decided to interfere with other priorities. It came quickly and seemed to leave almost as fast as it came. For this area that is typical.
I have spent as much time as possible in the past couple of weeks knitting. There was a challenge on one of the groups to which I belong on Ravelry to knit 10 dishcloths before Christmas. I met it, but just barely. The last two cloths were finished a couple of days ago. It was fun and did prove to be a bit of a challenge. Here are pictures of some of what was done:
This first one started out as a smaller cloth but grew into a large one
very quickly. It is for my Sister in Law who likes the cloths I make
for her. It is made with Sugar and Cream Lime stripes. I used my own
Hills and Valleys pattern partly because it is easy and partly because
I like the way it feels when it is wet.
This is the same pattern made with Peaches and Creme Victorian yarn. My original goal for this year was to make a bunch of Christmas looking cloths for my home. I did not succeed, but there were other priorities.
This one was an experiment. I had never made a round dishcloth until this one. The pattern can be found here. What a treat it was to do. I was a bit worried to say the least about being able to follow the directions correctly for finishing it. This turned out to be an easy process. The cloth is not perfect, but the pattern is printed out and bookmarked for future use.
These next two cloths are part of my first experience of knitting with Chenille yarn. This is a bright pink made by Crystal Palace. The wash and care instructions say not to dry it in the machine. Ooops!! It got dried with the other cloths but other than being a bit smaller than originally, seemed to be all right. For this one i just used a basket weave stitch with a couple rows of garter stitch in between.
This cloth is made with the same yarn only using the Spa Cloth pattern from Sue Schaefer at Under a Harvest Moon. This is the pattern where using the Chenille proved to be a real learning experience. I learned almost immediately about the need to watch my work and the amount of tension placed on the yarn. I am now making a third cloth from the same yarn and am finding that it is much nicer to look at because of the experiences I had with this one.
