Tag Archives: Dishcloths

Knitting Fun

Posted on November 13, 2007 | 1 comment

There was finally time to take some pictures of the dishcloths I have been making in the past few weeks.
The first several are examples of the Hills and Valleys Cloths of my own design. In typical fashion for me, their sizes vary.

Hillsandvalleys4
This one is made with Peaches and Creme #198 Black Cherry. It was fun to see how these colors played out.

Hvbrntor_5
  This one is made from  Peaches and Creme Burnt Orange . It looks bright and cheerful.

Hvsnflwr
This one was an experiment using a color I had never used before. It is Peaches and Creme Sunflower. The yarn for this was part of a large order of cones received several weeks ago. The colors are vibrant and beautiful. They are remind me of a pumpkin with the blend of orange, yellow and green. I am so glad there is a whole cone of this. :)

Hvsnflwra
This is a close up of the stitches from the previous cloth. I decided it was time to play with my camera and learn to use the Macros feature. This is some of the result of that.

Epscrubber
This pattern is the Peas and Carrots Scrubber Cloth posted at Elmore Pisgah.The dsigner is Maile Mauch. The yarn used is Lily Floral Prints. The edges on this cloth are very  uneven due to my  own  lack of  even tension. They are not the fault of the designer. The cloth  is vey heavy and sturdy. It is a pattern worth using again.

Rib1
This cloth pattern is one from the group : Cloth of the Week. This group is one of the best  which I have ever belonged. There is lots of fun and learning.
The yarn is Peaches and Creme Shades of Blue. This pattern is simply beautiful and will be used again. It was also fun to make.

Spaclthsscha
This is the Spa Cloth found at Harvest Moon Designs Upper Room. It is made with Peaches and Creme Gumdrops. If this gets given away, another will be made to replace it.

 

Weston1                        
This is called Weston and is another pattern from the Upper Room.
It is made from Lily Sugar and Cream Holiday Stripes. This is also a pattern that will be used again.

Please do not let the flaws of my knitting be a negative reflection on Sue or Maile. 

 

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A Passion

Posted on November 11, 2007 | Comments Off on A Passion

It seems like I have disappeared from this blog. I have been busy taking care of working on one of my passions which is almost anything related to dish, wash and face cloths. The truth is, it is an addiction. At one time in the past few weeks there were at least five cloths on the needles. I am now down to three. Some of them are freebies and others are purchased.  One of them sort of does not count since there will normally be one in my knitting bag for those times when I am either a passenger in a vehicle or when I am out and have waiting time. There is a pile of them waiting to be photographed for sharing.  That is going to have to wait until my day off in the middle of the week in a few days.

The other project which has been consuming my time is working on one of my other blogs: Dish and Wash Cloth Mania . It started out innocently enough at a different location. We had little or no money at the time and my household was running low on dish cloths that were not worn out. I did what an computer knowledgeable crafter would do and turned to the internet for help. That was about a year and a half ago. The small blog has become a bit larger to say the least. I have discovered lots of patterns, both free and for sale,  by fantastic designers out there on the internet. In the past few weeks much of my time has been spent updating that blog.  My motivation for saying this is not  is not to  get you to that site, but merely to tell you how my time has  been spent.

There is  more to  be said on this topic, but  it will have to wait. There are  other responsibilities  calling for my attention.

Have a great day!

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Life and Knitting

Posted on October 26, 2007 | Comments Off on Life and Knitting

It has been almost two weeks since I last posted here.
Life has been busy but  not exciting.Here is some of what has been going on:

  • I continue to knit and crochet in odd moments.
  • A few dishcloths have been made. Some will stay here while others will go to assorted new homes.
  • Work continues on the Comfortghan for a friend at work. It is going very slowly.
  • My family and I have been diligently cleaning out and rearranging the basement of our home. This has consumed the past couple of weekends I have not worked for my employer.
  • Work is going through a super busy phase. There are days when I come home so tired it is all I can to have a snack combined with family time and go to bed. Sleep takes over.
  • This is allergy season for my family. It saps our energy. We sleep, try to eat healthy foods  and force a lot of fluids to keep going.
  • As a person with heart disease, exercising is a must. Walking daily, or at least trying to, is a priority. I can now walk almost a mile before needing to stop and catch my breath. My goal is to be walking five miles daily by my next appointment with the cardiologist.
  • We homeschool. Family time and teaching/learning time are a high priority and as such dominate life in my household.
  • I belong to some online email groups and have another blog. Mail is way behind in all of these areas. I feel badly about it, but am trying to catch up.

These are the things that have taken my time and attention from this blog. It is life and it is important.

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Free Pattern

Posted on October 10, 2007 | 2 comments

Here is a pattern for a dish or wash cloth knit on the diagonal

Hillsandvalleys2

Hills and Valleys

Materials:

100% Cotton Yarn  Peaches ‘n’ Creme 1.2 ounces-Yellow
Knitting Needles: size 7 ( 4.5 mm )
Gauge: does not matter
Finished size: varies depending on how large you want it to be.

Abbreviations used:
CO= cast on
K=knit
P=purl
Inc=Increase: knit in front and back of stitch unless otherwise stated
K2tog=knit 2 stitches together
P2tog=purl 2 stitches together
Bo=bind off

Pattern:

    Cast on 4 stitches.
    Row 1: Knit  across

Increasing Rows:

Row 2:Inc 1 in first stitch, then knit across the row.
Row 3:Inc 1 in first stitch, then knit across the row.
Row 4:Inc 1 in  first stitch, then purl across the  row
Repeat Rows 2-4 until one side of the cloth is the length you want it to be.
The yellow cloth above has 44 stitches across and measures 7 3/4 inches on each side.

Note: I like to end the increase rows by doing a purl row ( row 4 ) It is up to you.

Decreasing Rows:
Row 1: Knit across row to the last 2 stitches, K2tog   
Row 2: Knit across row to the last 2 stitches, K2tog
Row 3: Purl across row to the last 2 stitches, P2tog
Repeat Rows 2-3 until there are 4 stitches left on the needle.

BO and weave in loose ends.

If you have have any questions, please let me know.

Pattern Revision as of March 28, 2008:

The ending corner of this cloth tends to look not quite right with the pattern written the way it is. I have experimented and have re-written as follows:

Repeat Rows 2-3 until there are 5 stitches left on the needle.

BO and weave in loose ends.

This has the effect of making the first and last rows have the same number of stitches in them. Please let me know what you think of this change.

Please be advised that this pattern is copyrighted to Norma R. WAMPLER and Oct.2007-All Rights Reserved.
You may PRINT OUT A COPY for personal and charitable use only.

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What a Week!

Posted on October 5, 2007 | Comments Off on What a Week!

I am so glad it is Friday morning. This means there is only one working day left in the week.
Work this week has been a bit busy to say the least. As an RN my shifts can go from super quiet to super busy in less time than a heart beat. Most of my days have had that happen to myself or my partner since the weekend.Thankfully the nurses where I work are a tight knit group who support each other not only in words but in actions.

I placed an order on Monday with Elmore -Pisgah, which happens to be one of my favorite yarn sources. It was a huge order to say the least, but my husband and son encouraged me to do so saying it is time to spend some money on myself for once. The Customer Service lady with whom I spoke said my order would be worked on that day. From past experience I figured my order would arrive late this week, just in time for my weekend off.  Wednesday morning there was a very loud knock at the front door. It was the UPS driver who runs the route in our neighborhood. The parcels he had with him were from Elmore-Pisgah.

To say I was excited was an understatement. I spent the  remainder of my morning going through the boxes. The cones of yarn were counted, admired and sorted by color families. Several of the colors are new to me. It will be fun to play with them. The packages containing the Specials   which had patterns in them  were opened and the patterns read. They look fun and interesting. Some of the yarns they contain are new to me. I have never used Country Cotton Cabled Yarn before. Using it to make the items in this package will be an experiment.  I will definitely order from this company again.

I have only made one dishcloth this week. Three more are on the needles. One of them is the Peas and Carrots Scrubby Cloth.  The other two are a cloth of my own design. One of my goals is to post a picture of the first one this weekend. Another goal for the weekend is to post pictures and the pattern for the cloth I designed.

This has been an interesting week.


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Early Morning Writings

Posted on September 24, 2007 | Comments Off on Early Morning Writings

It is hard to imagine that I am up and awake at this hour. Normally I prefer to be in bed asleep long before now. It has been a busy few days since my last post here.
The new washing machine  was delivered on Thursday, Sept. 20 at the time it was scheduled to do so. It works wonderfully. There has been a lot of laundry done this weekend thanks in part to its presence in our home. That combined with my Fall Cleaning mood has meant a very busy weekend. The house has been de-cluttered so much that it has been worth the time and effort.

I have been struggling with the lack of progress on the gift for my friend who lost her child this past summer. The crocheting is easy. The hard part of the process is that when I work on it, I sense her sorrow and pain. This might sound totally crazy to some people, but it is the truth. Of course, she is in my prayers daily, but she is even more so when I am making her gift. At this time, it is only 1/4 of the completed. My goal is to have it completely made and ready to give to her by the middle of October. It will just take a bit of self discipline to do so.

I have spent my knitting time in the past few days  making coasters and dishcloths. I find these to be wonderfully relaxing items to make. I will post pictures of them later this week.

My treat to myself for the past two days has been lots of computer time. It has mostly come in the form of adding  patterns to Dish and  Wash  Cloth Mania. Last year I promised to have an ample supply of Holiday related links to patterns listed on the site. Hopefully there are plenty this year.

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Interesting Day

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Interesting Day

Today started out like a normal work day. I did a few things around the house; did some knitting and crocheting and spent time homeschooling. In the middle of those things, I did a few loads of laundry. That is typical. At least it was until I went downstairs to see if uniforms were ready to be put on an extra rinse cycle. The washing machine had stopped in the middle of the wash cycle and would not restart. I checked to make sure it was properly plugged in, which it was. I tried to start in on different cycles with no success. By that time I was worried. All of my uniforms were wet, dirty and soapy.

I did the best things I knew to do. I checked the checking account balance; figured out what could be spent to replace or repair the machine and called my husband at work for his thoughts on the subject.  The conclusion of our conversation was that I would ask my boss for the day off if possible and then check on the price of repairing this machine. If repairs were not cost effective then I would go buy a new washing machine.

My boss responded by giving me the day off. Now for the fun part of my day. I called a local appliance dealer with the reputation of honesty and integrity. Based on the symptoms the washer was displaying he said it sounded like the motor was going bad. This was not good news. He said the estimated replacement cost is about $175. This was worse news. It was clearly not cost effective to repair a machine that already had other problems besides that. It was time to do some shopping. The result is that a new washing machine will arrive here in the morning.

A check of Laura Spradlin’s site last evening provided a wonderful surprise update on the Rebuilding Greensburg Block by Block Project. Take a look here if you are interested. Words fail at this point. :)

I have been busy and having fun with fibers in the past few days.

Dworbla
This is a Darrell Waltrip Cloth made with Bernat Summerset. I enjoy using this pattern with variegated yarns because it shows off the colors well. It also works up quickly and easily. Despite all of the patterns readily available, this is one of my favorites.

Kbbdishclothbycathywald_3

This cloth is one I have never made before. It is called KBB Dishcloth by Cathy Waldie. I made it using Sugar’n Cream Twists in the color Denim Twists. It was started on 4.5 mm needles. Somehow in the middle of making it I started using one 4.5mm needle and one 4.25 needle. That was the result of knitting at the kitchen table with several needles handy and not paying attention to what I was doing. In spite of that, the cloth came out looking fairly well.  This is one of those patterns well worth using again and again in a variety of yarns.

Some time was spent this morning working on part of the gift for a friend at work. It is not progressing as quickly as I wish it were. One of the issues is that I am finding it a bit difficult to switch from using the natural fibers in the dishcloths to the acrylic fibers being used for this project. Could it be my taste in yarns is changing?

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Working Hard

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Working Hard

I have been working hard to switch this blog from one Host to another. The other host was quite fine, but I outgrew it in terms of what I wanted to do with this blog.
This is a test post and will most likely be deleted in the next couple of days.

Grandmasfavs2
After struggling with photo placement in the past week, adding this picture has been easy. My concern is how the custom features will look once this is published.

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Photos to Flickr

Posted on September 10, 2007 | Comments Off on Photos to Flickr

I took the time yesterday to weave in loose ends on a lot of cloths. It feels good to have them ready to be used.

This morning I organized the photos on my hard drive and loaded some of them to Flickr. There is now a Flickr Widget on the side bar here. There are pictures of finished cloths as well as some WIP’s and other FO’s.

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Dishcloths

Posted on August 29, 2007 | 3 comments

As some of you may know, one of my other blogs is Dish and Wash Cloth Mania. While I was sitting here this morning adding links to some of the pages and generally updating the site, I came across this article: Lots of Cloths by Cathy at Wishing I was Knitting at the Lake.

Thank you for writing it. :)

I read the article a couple of times to take in all that she says. First of all, she offers an interesting variation on an old dishcloth pattern. It sounds like an idea well worth the try. It has been added to my list of “Patterns to Try”.

Secondly, is that she expressed a lot of how I feel about making dishcloths and the arts of Knitting and Crocheting. As a teenager I secretly wanted to be an artist. On the talent end of it I was a bit short to say the least. Because of some eyesight issues, not only do I literally see the world differently than most people, but I do not have some hand/eye co-ordination skills. For me this means that I know what I want to write or draw and how I want it to look, but cannot make it happen on paper or canvas.

This is where my hooks and needles come into play. When I pick them up I can do almost anything I choose. I can change the color of a pattern. The size can be changed either by adding a border, adding or taking away a multiple of stitches, or changing the number or rows made. I can use different stitch combinations than what the original pattern suggests. Did you ever try a garter stitch top instead of a ribbed top on a pair of socks? Did you ever uses a 1×1 rib instead of a 2×2 rib in a pattern? I can also use more than one strand of yarn to make an item. Did you ever take a ‘new to you’ pattern from a stitch dictionary and use it in a scarf or dishcloth? Did you ever combine 100% cotton knitting worsted yarn with #10 crochet thread in a dishcloth? How about crocheting or knitting with large hooks or needles? Have you ever used a yarn other than that called for in a pattern? ( Be especially careful with this one. A gauge swatch could be a life saver with it. ) Have you ever tried making up a stitch pattern? Have you ever made an item using a Cro-Hook or the Tunisian stitch? These are some of the ideas that come to my mind to try.

Hats, scarves, mittens, baby bibs, afghans, doilies, dish and wash cloths and other items become unique creations when these things are done. It is amazing to see a simple scarf pattern look different by using different sizes and colors of yarn. My imagination can and does run wild with ideas. The possibilities are endless. Now all I want is more hours in my life to turn my ideas into reality.

Maybe I really am an artist.

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