Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Knitting a Dishcloth

Ever since I read in Mason-Dixon Knitting that they regularly knit dishcloths, I have been consumed by curiosity. How could that possibly work? Would the dishcloth actually be functional?

The driving urge to answer these questions was fueled by the fact that no matter where I look I can't find a dishcloth that isn't huge (maybe 10"x10"?) and also quite heavy. Quite difficult to get into little nooks and crannies of various utensils, lids, and so forth. I realize these things must be part of some sort of a general trend but all I wanted was the old style dishcloths that used to be so easy to pick up at the grocery store ... maybe 6"x6" and fairly thin so it is easy to manipulate in the sink.

Finally, this weekend I dropped into our local crafts shop, picked up a nice, inexpensive ball of Peaches and Creme all cotton yarn and took it home for experimentation.

Lo and behold, it worked! I cast on 30 stitches onto size 8 needles, knit up a half-linen stitch 6"x6" square, bound off, and tried it out. It was just what I wanted, bumpy enough to do good scrubbing, yet flexible and small enough to get to every corner that needed scrubbing. Tom washed the dishes last night (what a guy!) and also gave it the thumbs up.

It is the small victories that make everyday life fun. This small victory is good for many days as I look for more stitches to try out with my little square of cotton dishcloths.

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