Vintage Dish Towels -- I Cheated With a Sharpie

When I was deep in my obsession with dish towels that won't fall off of the stove rail, I saw that Target had flour sack towels for much less than the craft stores were charging. It's not often that I agree you get what you pay for, but these are a very low thread count that doesn't seem well suited for embroidery. (I'm sure they're fine for their intended purpose of drying actual dishes.)

I'd seen on Pinterest where bloggers were using Sharpies to decorate their dish towels, so I decided that I had nothing to lose. If the colors fade in the wash, I'll still be able to use them in the kitchen.

So I printed a couple of simple vintage designs from Flickr and got out my light box and sharpies. The qualities that make this fabric awful for stitching on also make it hard to draw on with markers. Maybe if I stabilized it on freezer paper first...but I wasn't feeling that patient.

I'll let you know how these hold up, and if I decide to try it again with the freezer paper.

I Refuse to Block This

Pattern: Pumpking

Do you block your knitting? Except for lace shawls, I don't. Some of my socks might benefit from some gentle blocking, but they're going to stretch on my feet and I don't have that kind of patience. 

I'm definitely not blocking a dishcloth just so I can take a picture of it looking pretty and flat. It'll be wadded up in the sink soon enough. 

This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, Crazy Mom Quilts , Wrap up Friday  

I Hope She's Being Careful!

Looks like Thursday is the "try not to set your dress on fire" day of the weekly chore schedule. (If it makes you feel better, I found an article that says death by setting her dress on fire wasn't actually the number two cause of  death for Colonial women and another that  says women didn't dip their hems in water to keep them from igniting.)  

What I didn't find, probably because I didn't look, was a foolproof method for coming embroidery and applique. The vintage pattern I found online didn't have any instructions and the method I did use wasn't a success, probably because the details of her hat and sleeve are small. 

See the interfacing that's visible along the edges of her hat? And the way her hat looks like a sleeve but her arm is coming out of her waist? I've seen some weird quirks in vintage embroidery patterns, but I managed this problem on my own. The pattern wasn't like that. 

That's probably the best thing about projects that are destined to be used up and worn out. It doesn't matter if my results aren't perfect. It'll dry the dishes and make me smile just the same.

It's a Doily, Not a Dishcloth!

That's the name of the pattern, which is a free Ravelry download designed by Becky Greene,  but it's totally a warshrag!

Three lace charts for a dishcloth. That part was fun The picot bindoff, on the other hand, took forever. Not quite as long as knitting the rest of the project, but by the end it felt like it had.

Professional organizer Maggie McDonald has her family's move all planned, at least until they pull into the driveway of their new home and discover that it's fallen into terrible disrepair. The bad situation quickly becomes worse -- the moving van which contains all of their possessions has been delayed, her husband's employer needs him to leave the country immediately, and the caretaker's body is discovered at the bottom of the basement steps.

Maggie is the kind of cozy mystery heroine I love to read about. She's competent and optimistic, even when camping out in the barn with her sons while waiting for the police to wrap up their investigation and her clothes and furniture to arrive. She seems to have a great relationship with her husband and kids. And her involvement with the mystery makes total sense.  Address To Die For is the first in a new series by by Mary Feliz  and I look forward to reading more about her and her new neighbors.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copy by the publisher. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, iknead2knit, Crazy Mom Quilts  

I need some new washrags

I find it satisying to use up and wear out my hand knits. The few dishcloths that are still kicking around the kitchen are getting pretty faded and bedraggled. Maybe it's time to knit a new batch!

In the past, I've made the Knitted Round Dishcloth, and the Crimeny Jickets Garterlac Dishcloth, a Pinwheel Dishcloth,and the 4-Corners Dishcloth...wonder where all of those have gotten to? For a while, I was churning out so many Ball Band Dishcloths I could do them from memory. Now there are patterns for a Mitered Ballband Dishcloth & a Pear Shaped One. I might have to try those.

Would you believe that Ravelry has more than 8000 dishcloth patterns listed? Filter it to just the free knit patterns and you still get almost 3000. Which I waded through to come up with my own to-do list.

Just in case you like short rows and lace and interesting construction techniques as much as I do, here are my choices. I've tried to link directly to the patterns when I could.

Fancy Schmancy Dishcloth
Grandma's Favorite Heart Shaped Dishcloth
Doily Style Dishcloth
Watermelon Slice Dishcloth
Vortex Dishcloth
Center Squares
Diagonal Owl
Argosy Dishcloth
Pineapple Dishcloth
Big Kiss Dishcloth
Prime Rib X or Swirl Dishcloth
Really Fierce Dishcloth - knitted on ruffles in a contrasting color
Short Row Rectangular Wash Rag
Owly-y Dishcloth
Yvonne's Double Flower Cloth
Double Diamond Circular Facecloth
Shell Spa Cloth
hex-a-cloth
Round Cotton Washcloth
Playful Plaid Cloth
Painted Sun Washcloth
Pinwheel Cloth
Optical Illusion Cloth
Circular Facecloth With Lace Edging
Greek Key Cloth
Circle Cloth
Lacey Cabled Sweater Washcloth
Sand Dollar Washcloth
Melonaid
Cotton Leaf Rag
Keyhole Sand Dollar
Seamless Circular Cloth
Heptagonal Wash/Dish/Anycloth
Around We Go
Modular Lace Cloth
Four-Square Mitered Dishcloth
Berry Basket Dishcloth
Sunburst Dishcloth
Citrus Slice Dishcloth

Do you have a favorite washcloth pattern?

This one is Yvonne's Double Flower Cloth. I just totally horrified Alex by using it to wipe banana apple yogurt off of Leif's face. If I'm going to use the thing, is there a better way to use it? A bit of baby food will wash out easily enough. And it's not like it was hard to make. I thought it was going to be hard, but once I got started "* yo, (k1, p1) 5 times, k1, yo, k2tog, k1 * [8 times]" was no problem. The most difficult part was getting started with 8 stitches on my dpns.

Last week, I printed up a bunch of dishcloth patterns that I wanted to try once I got something bigger done. But the big projects aren't getting done because they're so big and I couldn't wait to give the 4 Corners Cloth a try....and the first yarn I cast on with was this blue stuff, which didn't have enough contrast between the color changes, but I thought might work great for a lace cloth...and then I had to see how the blue yarn looked knit up into the lace.... and now that I've done two, I might as well do more.

I had some deadlines I wanted to meet, but none of them are that serious and I seem to have done something to my wrist. I'm guessing it's a baby-lugging thing and not a knitting thing. It doesn't bug me at all when I knit, but I'm a little worried about trying to knit too much for too many days in a row. So I knit two dishcloths and a repeat of the Alterknits wrap yesterday...yeah, that makes sense...

It's a 4 Corners Dishcloth, the first of what I'm sure will be several. I really like this pattern. It looked long and complicated on paper, but it only took me a few rows to figure out what was actually going on and I'm sure I'll be able to do the next one from memory.