July 29, 2009

Knit Cotton Dishcloths

I love to knit cotton dishcloths. In fact, that's what got me started knitting again a few years ago. I was flipping TV channels and came upon "Knitty Gritty" and they were knitting bar cloths. It made me absolutely yearn to knit something so I ran to the store and grabbed some needles and cotton yarn.

There is a very cool website of free patterns for all kinds of clever hand-knit dishcloths/washcloths at Knitting Pattern Central.com. In fact, they have patterns for many things available -- if you haven't seen it, you should check it out.

I've made a bunch of these cute dishcloths for gifts. The apple, knit in red, is a great teacher gift and the pear in green is adorable. I've made the cowboy hat for my sister who loves all things western. My other sister, who has been to Paris, got the Eiffel Tower. The duckie and teddy bear are wonderful little washcloths as part of a baby gift. I've given the dragonfly to my mom and the butterfly to my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. I've made the bunny and used some fuzzy white yarn for a pom-pom tail at Easter.

Dischcloth on the knitting machine
Dishcloth on the knitting machine
Just recently, I've started knitting a square on my knitting machine (27 needles, 35 rows), then crocheting around it; first single crochet, then double crochet, then another row of single crochet. They are so fast and easy and look beautiful -- love the variegated yarns. I've been able to get 2 dishcloths from each skein.

I've made a bunch that I use myself. They really are functional and work well in the kitchen, wash nicely and wear like iron. These two I am giving as a hostess gift next weekend.

Cotton Dishcloths

I was trying to come up with a way to present these dishcloths to our hostess without just using a gift bag and thought this was fun ... tied up together with a ribbon to look like a bouquet.

Bouquet of Dishcloths
Bouquet of dishcloths

2 comments:

Kelli said...

You were right. They are too pretty to use, but I finally gave in and they work fantastic. I think of you while I do my dishes (the old-fashioned way), and remember how we used to try and wiggle out of doing the dishes and I always got stuck drying! (now I get to wash AND dry)!

jayaycee said...

Let me know when you need a few more. ;-)