Friday, July 27, 2012

Like most parts of the United States, I am living in a section of the country that is affected by the drought.  Since it is hot and humid here, it is difficult for most varieties of yarn to flow smoothly through my hands.  Cotton seems to be the yarn of choice to work with this summer.  A friend gifted to me all her Sugar & Cream kitchen cotton, which I have been turning into kitchen hand towels, dishcloths and hot pads.

My kitchen hand towels were fast becoming rags and seeing the prices the stores were asking for well made ones, was more money than I could spare.  It was much cheaper to knit my own.  Doing a search of the internet brought forth tons of patterns for towels and dishcloths.  They make great pickup work and fast satisfaction of a project well done.

I will show you a few of what I have already produced.   Here are some towels. 

Here is the hot pad that I really like.  It is crocheted on both sides of the starting chain, which makes the hot pad double thickness and only one seam to sew when done.  The pattern was found when doing a search on the internet.  I have no idea as to what website it was where I found this particular pattern. Basically, you choose your yarn and crochet hook size, crochet a chain of the length that you want and then single crochet on both sides of the chain, round and round.  You keep crocheting around until two ends meet.  you are actually making the hot pad diagonal.  You only have the one seam to sew down the center.
Here are my latest dishcloths and some more hot pads.  I won't be putting up any more pictures of these, for I keep using the same patterns over and over, but be assured that I will be making a lot more until all the Sugar & Cream yarn is used up.  About every four years, I take time too knit up a goodly supply of dishcloths.  With daily use, they last about 4-5 years, or longer.  They are so cheap to make and I love watching the stack of completed dishcloths grow.  I also like to feel the completed stack, they are so squishy.
Knitting dishcloths and towels isn't all that I have been doing while away from my blog.  I have also been doing some embroidery work.  Here is a Jack Dempsey, stamped embroidery picture.  I don't know if I will frame it, or put a cloth frame around it and use it for a wall hanging, or if I will use it for a center for a baby quilt.  There are so many options, that I am going to just let it sit for a while before I decide which way I will go with this embroidered piece.  There are no babies in the family and none in the future, so I have plenty of time to decide.
My friend also gave to me some kitchen towels that needed to be embroidered.  I have three cats who share my abode, so these towels strike a cord with me.  Aren't they cute?  I have seen these  stamped towels still available in some needlework catalogs.
This is it for today.  I hope you enjoyed the show.

2 comments:

  1. Nice to "see" you posting again. And as usual - your work is very nicely done.

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  2. Nice towels and wash cloths. My grandmom taught me how to make those potholders. That was 30 years ago and I am still using the ones we made together. They are a tough item!

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