2013 Washcloths - May Edition

May's washcloth is complete, for a total of six so far this year.  Ten more to go.  Made once again with the spring-green color of Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton (same as the January washcloth), this pattern is called Tulip Lace, from May 2nd on the perpetual calendar.  There's just a tiny ball of green left, so I think there'll be a random multi-color Nashua washcloth sometime this year.

I'm turning this in for my Transfiguration "homework" in the HPKCHC.  The assignment was to make a fish or flower or something with a fish or flower motif.  Perpetual calendar came up with Tulip Lace on May 2nd and Fish-tail Lace on May 3rd.  I thought this green yarn would be just right for the greenery around a bunch of tulips, so I picked flowers.  Ta-da.

2013 Washcloths - April Edition

The April washcloth is now finished. Knit with the cranberry color of Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton in "Stockinette Triangles," the April 4th pattern from my "365 Knitting Stitches a Year Perpetual Calendar."  I had a plan to make the triangles in two colors so the purls and knits would be different colors, but to still have a reversible washcloth that would have required intarsia with at least ten little balls of yarn, and that was not the level of involvement I was looking for with this washcloth.  It looked really neat in my head, though, so perhaps I'll try it another time.  Maybe when I'm down to using up scraps of colors.

So far so good with this year's goal!

Yarn Along - March Washcloth & Starting Them Young

Ginny's Yarn Along is a great place to see lots of knitting and reading ideas.  I'm joining again this week.  Thank goodness for the Yarn Along; it seems to be the only time I blog recently.

I found the March washcloth.  Niece K had stuffed all the knitted things from the coffee table into the toy purse they were playing with when she visited.  Makes perfect sense, but it took me a while to discover.  This washcloth is knit out of a cranberry color of Nashua Creative Focus Cotton (CFCT033), and the pattern is Box Stitch (March 7th on my perpetual calendar).

I've been reading Annie and the Swiss Cheese Scarf by Alana Dakos (of Never Not Knitting fame) a lot recently.  It's a sweet little book about a little girl learning to knit.  Lil One got the deluxe version of this book for Christmas (includes paper dolls and a jigsaw puzzle), and in the past week or so has completely fallen in love with it.  We read it several times a day and Lil One has started knitting her own blue scarf -- well, she's sat through two rows of 15 stitches with her hands on the needles, which I find impressive for a 2-and-a-half year old.  She's also incorporating phrases from the book into her speech.  She'll look at me and proclaim, "Mommy, you're a knitter!" or grab and hug the nearest random knitted thing and declare, "I love your knitting SO MUCH."  While I know this won't last, I'm pretty thrilled.

Yarn Along - First 2013 Stocking

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along again.  Check out lots of knitting and reading at her blog.

I'm getting started on the first of the Christmas Stockings for 2013.  I'll have three or four to do, so I'd like to have the first one done by the end of March.  Deep in the tangle of intarsia, but moving along well.

I've finished the March washcloth, but can't find it now.  When Niece K was over for an afternoon this week, she played with some of the knitted things that had been living on the coffee table.  I have no idea where they got to in the course of that.  They are around somewhere, but I haven't been able to find them yet.

For reading, I'm still on Turn of the Screw via Craftlit.  It's a very interesting story.  I'm not at all accustomed to having a narrator quite this unreliable.

Yarn Along and Extra Winter Washcloth

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along again this week.  Check out her blog for lots of knitting and reading fun. 

Apologies for the picture quality.  It's been very grey and wintry, and opportunities for pictures in sunshine are rare.  This is the +1 washcloth for the first quarter of the year.  Still in Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton, this time in a navy blue.  The pattern is Ribbed Slip Stitch, the pattern for February 19 from my pattern-a-day calendar.  February 19th is the day our newest nephew was born!  He of the navy-yellow-orange bsj.

My current reading is mostly through Craftlit.  Right now listening to Henry James' Turn of the Screw, which I have never before read.  Very interesting, and I'm so glad to have the discussion along with it.

2013 Washcloths - February Edition

February's washcloth is done already.  The pattern for February 2nd on my pattern-a-day calendar was Snowdrop Lace.  Since we got some snow that day, I decided it would be perfect for a washcloth.  This was made with Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton, in the color CFCT025, which is a silvery grey.  I quite like this lace pattern.  Easy to memorize, simple, looks good.  Two down, fourteen to go.

Several people commented on my Facebook link to the post about January's washcloth, letting me know where in my area I could get Sugar 'n Cream yarn.  I found out about a JoAnn's Fabrics & Crafts I didn't know was nearby, and have already been to stock up on dishcloth cotton and buttons for Baby Surprise Jackets.  Thanks, commentors!

I finished the husband's gloves last Sunday, but since he's been wearing them to work everyday this week, my first chance to get a daylight picture of them will be this weekend.

Tomorrow I'll be starting a class at my LYS to knit the Golden Lion Throne Shawl (the blue and cranberry colored shawl in the pictures on the Ravelry pattern page is the one knit by an employee at my LYS).  I'm really looking forward to it.  Fancy knitting for myself!

2013 Washcloths - January Edition

First washcloth of the year was knit January 23-25.  The pattern, from Jan. 23 on my Pattern-a-Day perpetual calendar is called "Organ Pipes."  I no longer have a local source for Sugar 'n Cream yarn*, so I'm trying to find a new go-to cotton for washcloths.  This is in Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton, color CFCT0037.  I knit this on size 5 needles instead of the 8s I was using with Sugar 'n Cream.  I think it'll work just fine, but I don't know yet if it'll be my go-to washcloth yarn.  I bought four colors of this from the LYS clearance bins, so the next several months of washcloths will likely be this same yarn.
One down, fifteen to go.


*I don't shop at Hobby Lobby anymore.  Employers may not make medical decisions for employees.

New Year, New Knitting

One thing I try to avoid with this blog is apologizing for not blogging.  But after such a long lapse, I want to make an exception:  Yikes that was a long time without blogging.
Late fall seems to be a difficult time of year for me.  I haven't figured it out yet, but at least now I've noticed the pattern.

2012 Recap and 2013 Goals:
I met my washcloth goals for the year - one each month plus one more each quarter, total of 16.  November's was late, but other than that I did well, and I had enough for all my gifting needs.  I will renew this goal for 2013.

There were only four Christmas stockings to make this year, all done on time.  Two of them were a for-pay job.   So far I know of four needed in 2013.  My stocking goal is to do one per quarter.

In the second half of 2012 I was quite into the Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry.  It was lots of fun, but somehow seemed to sap my blogging mojo and then my knitting mojo (although it may have simply been whatever-it-was in November that sapped most of that).  I completely missed the sign-ups for winter term (January through March), so I'm sitting out a semester and will see if I want to re-join starting in May.  I don't seem to have the mental energy to categorize my knitting so I can do all I want to in that game.

My main Christmas knitting projects were hats for one of the nieces-and-nephews groups:

(Swirled Ski Caps from the book Knitting for Peace.  Fun and appreciated, but a bit down to the wire, and my homemade cardboard pom-pom maker is now completely worn out)

and a hot water bottle cozy for my mom.

I'm pretty proud of this one.  I used a basic cozy pattern and a snowflake chart pattern and adapted them to fit both each other and the water bottle I bought.

Also coming up in 2013:
I know many people expecting babies in the first part of this year.  So many that I have had to write a list to keep track of them all. So there will be lots of baby-sweater knitting in my immediate future.

I will be going to Rhinebeck!  In October I'll be having a knitting weekend away!  A group of us have rented a house for the weekend of the New York Sheep & Wool Festival.  My goal is to finish the sweater I started for myself on New Year's 2010 in time to wear it to Rhinebeck.

Other big projects include at least three baby blankets for late 2013/early 2014, so I better get an early start on those.

One final note to close out 2012:  My brother knows how to shop for a knitter.  He gave me "socks; some assembly required" (yarn, pattern book, and needles), yarn for socks for him, a yarn bowl (!), another set of needles, a yarn travel book, and a "Keep Calm and Carry Yarn" tote bag.

I'm looking forward to a new year of knitting, and of sharing it with this blog!

2012 Washcloths - 2nd Quarter Report

Washcloth knitting has gone very well in the second quarter of 2012.  I already posted about the April washcloth, and here is the one I finished in May:

This pattern is "chevron rib" and is featured on April 27 in my pattern-a-day calendar.  This washcloth took the longest of any this quarter because it was a long time before I could "read" the knitting in this pattern.  For most of the time I was blindly following the written instructions, but finally I got to the point where I could tell what to do based on the previous row of knitting.  I'm not sure what made this pattern like that, perhaps that I was doing only one repeat, perhaps the narrowness of the ribs.  Anyhow, finally finished.

Next is the extra dishcloth for this quarter, knit in May and a little bit of June.  Again falling back on the Ballband Dishcloth standard, this time with yellow bricks and pastel rainbow mortar.  Whenever Lil One suddenly wants to "help knit" I'll quickly cast on one of these for her to watch a row or two.

 Finally, the June washcloth.  I knit this all in one day in early June, and will be turning it in to the Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup as my homework for Flying class.  The prompt for Flying this month was about "flying by the seat of your pants" and crafting something such that you didn't know what the finished product would look like during the crafting (or making pants).  I decided to try my hand at making a randomized pattern, so I quickly set a few rules and dove right in.  I started reading the first Harry Potter book, and every time I came to a proper noun I'd make a two-stitch cable.  For people names it would be right-leaning and for place names left-leaning.  I kept a three-stitch and three-row garter border, and cabled on both sides of the knitting.  This washcloth represents most of the first chapter.  If I were to do it again, I think I'd cable one way for first names and the other for last names, dropping the place names because there weren't many of them.
This process made for slow reading but very fast knitting, and what I think will be a very scrubby washcloth.

Finish all the things and start a game

I finished Dad's vest in time to give it to him on his birthday! and it fits! and he likes it!

My apologies for using so many exclamation points, but this project has been weighing on me for almost three years and now it's done and all is well!  I have to find a new project to promote into the drawer it has been occupying.  Probably this year's Christmas stocking knitting.

Finishing this project, and having been monogamous to it for about three weeks, seems to have inspired me to finish up several other things.

2012 Washcloths May edition:

 Ribbed chevron pattern, April 27 from my pattern-a-day calendar.  This was a hard pattern to "read" - I had to keep the pattern on hand for a long time instead of just being able to follow the knitting.  It used my regular dishcloth yarn of Sugar 'n Cream.
Purse socks:

 Universal toe-up formula with 2x2 ribbed legs.  I started these sometime last fall, which may mean that my purse sock speed is increasing.  My brother gave me the yarn for Christmas a few years ago.  I've already cast on the next pair of purse socks.  These will be top-down and for the husband.  A nice dark green yarn that seems to be a single ply.

Baby socks for the Lil One:

The pattern for these was Toddler Socks from the blog Creating a Family Home.  I used the yarn left over from the pair of socks I knit several years ago to learn the two-at-a-time technique (on dpns).

 I have recently discovered the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry.  I had heard about it in passing before, but this past month I listened to a description of it on an older episode of The Well-Knitted Life podcast, and checked it out.  It's a game where knitters join in, are sorted into houses as in Hogwarts, and earn points for their houses by knitting or crocheting.  Each term is three months long, and each month there are eight classes offered; each class gives a homework assignment, usually with several options.  You have to knit (or crochet) something within that month and make an argument that it meets the homework requirements.  The idea is that each student turns in at least one class assignment per month to qualify to get sorted and keep playing next term.  There are also Quidditch teams, challenges, WIPs can be turned in to detention, and so on and so on.  After getting sucked in and wandering around all the discussion threads and links for quite some time, I joined the group.  Because I joined after term started, I didn't get sorted into a house and my status is "Not Quite a First-Year" -- points I earn don't count toward any house's total, but they could help me earn priority for sorting next term.

It's all very complex, but also a lot of fun.  If you like the Harry Potter stories and might like to use that world as a framework for some knitting challenges, I encourage you to check out the group.  They do a much better job of explaining things than my little outline, and everyone is happy to answer questions and help newbies get started.

So anyhow, I joined and I'm really enjoying it.  I turned in the squishies for the assignment in Care of Magical Creatures.  May's prompt was about studying thestrals and abraxan (two kinds of flying horses), so one of the options was to knit something using a worsted weight "workhorse" yarn.  The squishes were knit out of worsted weight, and I knit them entirely within the month of May, so they qualified.  The toddler socks met the Mini-sock Challenge for Quidditch -- no more than four inches tall and long, and knit between May 18-28 -- so I turned those in as well.

Hopefully this trend of knitting efficiently and finishing things will continue!

2012 Washcloths - First Quarter Report

So far so good with the 2012 Washcloth knitting. I've made one washcloth in each of the first three months of this year, plus one extra for four cloths knit so far.

From left to right in this picture we have two ball-band dishcloths made last year, the January and February cloths in the same white-lime-tan colorway, the first-quarter-extra cloth, and March's. I don't have an individual picture of January's cloth, finished just in time, in a knit-one-below pattern called Bee Stitch. I have not yet been able to make a Bee Stitch cloth come out square.

February's was finished in the first week of the month and was knit in a stitch called Crocus Buds

Since I finished that one so early, I started in on the extra cloth for these three months. Back to the good old Ball-band pattern using the left over yarn from January and February and denim. This one sat for most of February and got finished in early March.

Mid-March I cast on a fairly simple textured pattern -- seed stitch diamonds -- and finished it in two days.

So I'm keeping up with the washcloth schedule and am pretty pleased with the results for the first part of the year. I'll be needing more Sugar n' Cream yarn pretty soon.

2011 Washcloths - December Edition and Wrap-Up

I met my 2011 washcloth goal!

The December washcloth was knitted in the car on family visits in the week after Christmas. It's the fall-back pattern of the Ball Band Dishcloth (ravelry link) from Mason-Dixon Knitting, using Denim Sugar 'n Cream and a multi-color remnant (also Sugar 'n Cream) whose name I've forgotten.

I knit one washcloth every month for the whole of 2011, and in two months I knit two cloths. Christmas preparation was much less stressful with these little gifts ready to go, but I feel like I'm still not quite where I'd like to be. Two of the washcloths ended up as hostess gifts back in the summer, and one was sent as a prize in the Knitters' Brewing Company's Football Knitting contest (the store is on a break this week, so here's a link to their Ravelry group, too). I figure these are also good uses for my knitted washcloths, and ones I expect to run into again.

So for 2012 I am going to continue knitting washcloths, and increase my goal slightly. For this year, in addition to knitting one each month, I plan to knit one extra washcloth per quarter. So by the end of March I should have four washcloths, eight by the end of June, etc. I think 16 washcloths a year will be a good supply for the assorted little gifts I'd like to give.

Christmas Hat and Yarn Along

The final just-in-time-kind-of Christmas project was a hat for my husband. Back in October we were wandering around a craft store looking for things to help us with Lil One's Hallowe'en costume (and taking a few minutes to just be out in the world together because my MIL was watching Lil One). The husband saw this yarn and said, "That would be a good hat." I snatched it off the shelf and tried not to exclaim too much. The husband actually WANTED me to knit him something! and he had found yarn he would like to wear and I would like to knit!

He has this thing about authenticity. It has to be just right, or he would feel silly and never wear whatever it is. He explained later that this yarn says to him, "I am wool. I come from sheep, and I am here to keep you warm. That is all."

Knitted up into a basic, pleasingly vanilla Seaman's Cap pattern (Ravelry link), it has become his best cold weather hat. We're both really pleased with it. I believe it's the first thing I've ever successfully knit for him.

In Yarn Along news, after at least a month of reading almost nothing but children's books, Husband and I joined a bookclub, which chose The Hunger Games as our first month's book.

I read all three books in five days. E-books are dangerous -- I didn't even have to stand up in between books two and three. Book two is pictured here with the February washcloth I started today. Please check out Ginny's blog for more Yarn Along fun.

Now that all the Christmas knitting is up, next I'll wrap up the 2011 Washcloth Project, catch up on the 2012 edition, and see if I can get through January's knitting while it's still February! We get an extra day this year, so maybe I have a shot :-P

Yarn Along - 2011 Washcloths November Edition

Once again joining in Ginny's Yarn Along. Check out her blog for great projects and book ideas.

Here we are on the very last day of November. So I knit a washcloth today. Simple pattern of stockinette/reverse stockinette ridges knit from corner to corner. The pattern was on the back of a Sugar 'n Cream ball band from quite some time ago. I've lost the ball band for this particular skein of S'nC, so I don't know the color name.

The book is Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford. I'm not very far into this book, because it's my nursing reading, and nursing is happening less and less. The book is about the importance of skilled manual labor and how it really takes much more mental work than our culture usually gives it credit for needing.

I almost finished the big blanket in time for Nephew O's first birthday. There are just more ends to weave in. I gave myself a whole week to weave in ends and I still couldn't make it. So I'll be finishing that up and posting about it soon, then I must dive headfirst into the Christmas stockings. December starts tomorrow, and I have three more stockings to make!

Yarn Along - 2011 Washcloths October Edition

For this week's Yarn Along I have two recently finished items.

The October washcloth was finished way ahead of time. The pattern uses the October 19 stitch from the "365 Knitting Stitches A Year Perpetual Calendar," (the day I started it) and is called Diamond Drops. This is the last of the ball of Buttercream Sugar 'n Cream cotton, which comfortably made three full washcloths.

The book is Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende. It's the story of the year and a half he and his wife spent living in an Amish-type community, trying to find the level of technology use that is "enough." It was quite an interesting read, and has gotten me thinking about simplifying my life, too.

Ten successful months of my washcloth project! Also, check out other people's yarn along projects at Ginny's website.

2011 Washcloths - September Edition

Presenting the September Washcloth. This was actually done well BEFORE the last minute! I've had a pretty strict knitting schedule this month, so I can stay on track with a few big projects that have specific deadlines. On September 18th I got a bit ahead of schedule and had my needles free for a bit, so I jumped on the opportunity to make this month's washcloth.

The pattern is from the "365 Knitting Stitches A Year Perpetual Calendar," which I got for my birthday this year. The stitch for September 18th is Seed Stitch Checks, so I used that pattern and more of the ball of Buttercream Sugar 'n Cream cotton that I used for August's washcloth. I think I may get three complete washcloths out of this one skein.

Sorry for the less-than-great picture. When I was trying to take pictures --

someone had other ideas.

2011 Washcloths - August Edition

Knitted in the second-to-last week of August (so early!) was a washcloth in Bee Stitch, a simple pattern using "knit one below." This pattern is the first one in a Leisure Arts booklet called "Kitchen Bright Dishcloths." This pattern plays nicely with variegated yarn, where most of the ten patterns in this booklet are better done with solids. The yarn used was Sugar n' Cream in the Buttercream colorway.

This month I joined the NFL Football Knitting sub-group of the Knitters' Brewing Company Ravelry group. The price of admission for that is one dishcloth -- I'll need to send a cloth to the person who wins week 7. I'm not sure yet if I'll make a special washcloth for that, or use one of the ones I've already made this year. I recently started listening to their Yarn on Tap podcast, and joined on a whim at the last minute. Hopefully this way I'll have some more people to talk with about football, since no one in my immediate family is remotely interested.

2011 Washcloths - May, June & July Editions

I've been very successful so far at sticking with my goal of knitting one washcloth each month, if not so successful in documenting these projects.

May:

Coming in just under the wire in the last few days of May, a corner-to-corner washcloth done in stripes of stockinette and reverse stockinette. The pattern for this came off the back of the ball band.

June:

I actually made two washcloths this month, while on vacation at Lake Michigan. I left them there as gifts for the cottage's owners. One was a basketweave pattern, and the other a trinity stitch. The first pattern was pulled out of my head, and the second was made with the help of a stitch-pattern-a-day calendar I got for my birthday. Sorry for the low-quality picture. I almost forgot to take one before we left.

July:

Once again remembering to make a washcloth in the nick of time, I fell back to the good old Mason-Dixon Knitting ballband dishcloth. I ended up making two in the last three days of July, using up the bits and pieces of yarn remaining from previous washcloths.

I seem to have been all about the green washcloths so far this year. I think that will change for the August edition.

2011 Washcloths - April Edition

Once again, the blog post is late, but the washcloth was done on time.

Last month for the April washcloth I improvised a pattern. I noticed while doing the dishes that the seed stitch border was the part I kept using. So I decided to make a washcloth that was mostly seed stitch. It came out a little smaller than the others I've made so far this year, but one of the nice things about making so many is that there is room for variety.

2011 Washcloths - March Edition

The blog update is late, but the washcloth was finished on schedule. Just barely.

After finishing the toys that had to be done in March there were only four days left, so I cast on my stand-by washcloth pattern, the Ballband Dishcloth from the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book. For some reason this pattern seems to take no mental energy at all, and I cranked out a cloth in about two days. I modified the pattern slightly just to make the washcloth a bit smaller. Used the green yarn left over from January's washcloth along with a green-white-bluish variegated. I must have bought a half-pound of this variegated at some point, because I've had to re-roll it into a smaller ball and I still have quite a lot left. One quarter done, and I'm quite pleased with my washcloth project so far!