Pages

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Use it or Lose It: Stash Knit-down 2013

 

The ladies over at the Stash and Burn podcast issued a challenge last January: to knit 13 yarns out of your stash in one year. I came to the party a bit late, but joined in especially for July's goal: knit your dishcloth cotton. A quick look at my stash and I found 9 balls!

Dishcloth cotton comes in many forms, but my favorite is the garden variety "Lily's Sugar & Cream." It's easily found and one solid ball usually can give you two dishcloths. There are SO many patterns to choose from on Ravelry. Google "dishcloth cotton" and you will find several to choose from. The easiest one is called "Grandma's Favorite." Here's the pattern:

Cast on 4 stitches.

Knit 1 row.

Knit 2, YO, knit across. *continue this way until you have 39 stitches.

Knit 1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, knit across *continue until you have just 4 stitches.

Knit 1 row.

Bind off.

So far, I've knit 2 balls of cotton yarn or 4 dishcloths. If I knit all of my cotton, I'll have 18 dishcloths. Of the handknits, dishcloths really work hard. They are great for dishes and cleaning sinks. It takes quite a few uses for them to wear out. They make great housewarming or "just-because" gifts. Dishcloth knitting is also great for when you are between projects or when traveling. I like knitting dishcloths during the summer when it's so hot outside. You can try out stitch patterns on a dishcloth to see if you like it for another project.

Speaking of, Deb Buckingham of TheArtfulYarn blog, just published "Dishcloth Diva" over at Cooperative Press. For about $0.50 per pattern, you can have 20 new washcloth patterns to use and share. So far, I've knitted Abstract, but there are several in my que to knit up.

** I'm on my way to using my little stash of yarn. I added it up recently and discovered that I have approximately 9,919 yards of yarn. Compared to others, that's not much. And I'm not counting, my handspun just yet. Not willing to cross over the 10,000 mark.

Gotta get to that stash! My knitter friends, have you added up your stash? I'm curious to know if I'm average...

 

No comments: