project: housewarming dish cloths

To start, I have to let everyone know that I have finished the Smarch Lady Sweater! I still need to block it, and sew on the buttons. A long blog entry with photos will be done soon...

In the mean time, I needed to take on a knitting project that was more instant gratification, since the sweater consumed most of my life for the month of March.

I recently signed a lease on a new studio apartment (YAY!) that's in West Logan Square. Thankfully, most everything I own is still in boxes. I started gathering a few things that I've been using, when I noticed the dish cloths I was using in Seattle. While looking at how dingy and worn they were, it dawned on me that I made those when I first moved to Florida. That was back in 2005! I am long overdue for some new, fun dish cloths, and that has become my new project.

I had some left over yarn from when I made my friend Steph some dish cloths this summer, so I picked that up and went to town. I've already completed two, and am half way through the third. I have two other friends that have just moved into new apartments, so I am going to make a few for them as well as a nice housewarming gift :)

Funny story about these dish cloths, it was a friend of the family who did all of our alterations on clothes, curtains, etc (this was way before my days of sewing began...). Whenever she did some work for us, she would give us some hand knit dish cloths as well. So growing up, we always used these cotton, hand knit dish cloths whenever we washed dishes, never woven ones.

When I began to knit in 2004, the first thing my family wanted was for me to figure out how to knit those same dish cloths. The ones everyone had were old and totally falling apart, and new ones were desperately needed. It took me forever to find a pattern online that was the same as the dish cloths we were used to. When I found the pattern, I realized what was so unique and awesome about them: they were knit on the bias.

For those of you that don't know, sewing or knitting anything on the bias automatically allows for more stretch. So the fact that a) these dish cloths were knit, which means they are stretchy to begin with and b) they were knit on the bias means these babies can be pulled in any direction!

I've made so many dish cloths since 2004 it's hard to even throw out a number. I have found that they are the best housewarming gift I can give. And they are a mindless knitting project to pass the time (each cloth takes about 2 hours to complete). I use a size 7 needle, and 100% cotton worsted yarn. The brighter the colors the better! I'm a big fan of the sunflower color way these are made from. The wash is easy- just toss them in the machine with the rest of your cotton clothes. And, in the end, they are completely biodegradable! Yay sustainable living!

playlist: housewarming dish cloths

"train song" - vashti bunyan
"merry land" - hey hey my my
"alone again (naturally)" - gilbert o'sullivan
"another one goes by" - mazarin
"in the summertime" - jesse sykes and the sweet hereafter
"objects of my affection" - peter bjorn & john
"to the sky" - maps
"melody day" - carabou
"let's call it off" - peter bjorn & john
"strange powers" - the magnetic fields


This playlist was actually a list that my friend Hannah made for me back in 2008, when I first moved to Seattle. It's a very laid back mix, and today I needed to listen to some music that was just some nice tunes from a different place and time. The original still lives in my car, and is always put on for those rainy days.