Dishcloths September 19, 2007
This entry on clementine’s shoes has prompted me to blog about my own love affair with the knitted dishcloth.
I knitted my first dishcloths about 2 years ago now. They were attractive as small easy projects to work on and I felt kind of virtuous since the first few I knitted were made from cotton yarn recycled from an old jumper. As it turned out they were great to use and lasted pretty well - as long you didn’t a serious bleach cleaner with them. Mark has pinched one to use as whiteboard duster because it does such a good job.
I played around with patterns and found that most of them annoyed me and some worked better as dishcloths than others. My favourite for its simplicity, speed and efficacy as a dishcloth is “Grandmothers Favourite” from this site. It really does make a great dishcloth, even if it is a bit boring to knit one after the other.
In general I prefer to knit my cloths on smaller needles than recommended. With 8 ply yarn, for example, I tend to use 3mm needles. This makes the cloths a bit tighter and denser and they have a bit more substance to them. I think they last a bit better too.
The original cloths I knitted are starting to show their wear which set me thinking about how I needed to knit some more for us and how they might make a good, cheap christmas gift for our families this year. I always find christmas shopping a bit stressful as I don’t like to buy people crap they won’t need or want and, our financial circumstances being what they are, I resent spending our money on stuff that people don’t need or want. Who wouldn’t need or want a good dishcloth?
So our families are getting dishcloths for christmas this year. How many and what patterns will depend entirely upon how quickly I can get them done. I worked out that to give 2 to each household on either side I would need to knit 18 dishcloths. That’s a tallish order. At the moment I’m knitting the Grandmothers Favourite for about the fourth or fifth time. As I said, it’s boring, but it’s also quick and easy.
Sounds good to me!