A Little French Linen

I'm still on my frantic quest to replace the raveling, worn and faded dishcloths in my kitchen, and this week's contribution is inspired by the beautiful french linen that can be found all over the antique stores and in homes of those who love all things French.

I do not have french linen and I'm not sure it's exactly my aesthetic, but I do love that cheery and symmetrical burst of red against the white.

This is a favorite dishcloth pattern that I use over and over.  The waffle knit is great for scrubbing and of any pattern that I have ever used, it is the most long-lasting.

And everybody needs at least a little refined touch of French linen tossed over the side of their sink, right?

(pattern here)

Can A Dish Cloth be Inspired?

There isn't a lot of what I would call inspirational knitting going on around here.  Not a lot of rustic arans or delicate laces or mind-bending intarsias.

The kind of knitting that is going on around here is the kind that I pick up when overseeing an 8th grade math lesson.  The kind of knitting that lets me concentrate on something other than place value.  But not the kind that ties up my mind . . . because then I might miss the fact that a certain 8th grader has been doodling the Coca-Cola label on his scratch paper for the last half hour instead of solving for y.

But even the most pedestrian kind of knitting, the knitting of a new dishcloth, can benefit from some inspiration, and when these sunflowers walked in my door one gray, winter day, the glowing cheer they brought inspired me for exactly the color I needed to have flipped over the side of my sink all year long.

Love these long rows of ribs that make for great scrubbing and radiate with the brightness of the sunflower.

It may not be knitting to stun and marvel.  But for me, feeling the softness of Blue Sky's cotton slide through my fingers in one dazzling row after the other, it is knitting to inspire.  Even in a dish cloth!!

pattern here

Life vs. Knitting

My hands have been itching to do some knitting ever since the weather cooled and sitting in an embracing leather chair by the fire was what I wanted to do.  I envisioned socks.  I dreamed of a baby blanket for a sweet friend's expected child.  I pondered a chunky gray cowl.

And then reality hit.

When you've got stacks and stacks of sports paperwork, can you splurge on learning to knit socks?

source

When your Child #1 needs help with his essay and Child #2 needs to review for his Spanish test and Child #3 needs to make a wind sock out of a hanger, trash bag and tape, when will there be time for a chunky cowl?

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And when the dishes stacking up in the kitchen are threatening the health of the household, can you possibly indulge in knitting the cutest baby blanket ever?

source

And so, the daily, critical "to do's" of life squeeze out creative dreams, until finally a crisis hits,

I'm running out of dish cloths!!

I love my hand-knit dish cloths.  I need my hand-knit dish cloths.  Once you have used hand-knit dish cloths, nothing else seems to fit so well into your hand and do quite the same job of wiping down the counters.

My current trio of hand-knit dish cloths is trying to make a quiet exit---fraying edges, holes, and dumpy gray-ish color changes are rendering them ineffective and depressing.

Time for some fresh yarn and new patterns.

Enter Blue Sky Alpaca's Organic Cotton Yarn in the winter-busting color of "Poppy," in one of the 3 patterns below.

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Somebody, fill the dishwasher.  Athletes, postpone your soccer season.  Kids, Google your homework help.  

There's a crisis, and I'm knitting dish cloths!

Finish Line

The scrumptious Prairie Fire Throw is done.  It was done just in time for the weather to turn a sweating 85 degrees.  Who wants to cuddle up in wool yumminess in that?  Maybe one of the kids will cuddle with it to protect themselves from the blast of the air conditioner!!

The throw turned out to be around 42" x 53".  Can someone please tell me how you can knit your head off and still not come up with a large and generous throw?

It's a little skimpy in my mind, but I knit up all the beautiful wool that I had bought and then that was it.  Done.

It sits, looking all cuddly and full of texture and softness on the couch in My Husband's office.  This is probably the only time you will see it folded.  The rest of the time it will be scrunched up on the couch or in a heap on the floor or stuffed into the corner of the recliner.  This will, undoubtedly, drive My Husband crazy!!

We like to do that around here!

Necessary Knitting

There are all kinds of reasons to knit. 

Today I'm starting some necessary knitting.  My dishcloths are in shreds, and once you use a knitted cotton dishcloth, there is no going back to some other cheap substitute!

Let me just insert here that as pretty as lace-patterned dishcloths may look, they just can't stand up to the wear and tear of every day use in a family of 7.  Leave the beauty in your drawer and just pop it out when company comes so they will think you always indulge in such luxury of freshly-knitted, lace-patterned, bright red dishcloths.

I'm looking forward to starting this dishcloth by Mason-Dixon.  Love the bright colors and the nice, tight stitching.  No more sissy lace-knit dishcloths for this family.

Halfway There

The blazing Prairie Fire throw is halfway done, and I still remain enchanted.  I thought I'd be out of my mind with the knit one, purl one of the moss stitch by now.  But instead, my fingers have started to move automatically and my mind can wander elsewhere as the stitches slip off the needle one by one.

I was, actually, going at a galloping pace with nary a slip-up, until the evening I was in the passenger's seat of the family vehicle while Oldest Son practiced his parallel parking and I was a-knitting and a-purling.  Parallel parking just wasn't going right for him, the test was in the morning, he was stressed and frustrated, I was stressing and worrying for him, and before you knew it, the even bumps of the moss stitch had turned into the beginnings of some unwanted ribs. 

Of course, that meant ripping out rows and backing up to the pre-parallel parking stitches.  Most frustrating to be sure.

So, we're back at it.  Knit, purl, knit, purl.  There will be some lovely warm toes this fall.

Prairie Fire

I am enchanted!!


This girl of the South (by transplant!) has done most all of her knitting up to this point in time in cotton or linen or bamboo or silk.  Well, there was the one ghastly use of pale aqua bulky weight acrylic, but we won't talk about that.  ::shudder::  We just don't usually need the warmer fibers in the "sunny South."


Until this winter, when we seemed to be cold...all...the...time and I determined that I would, indeed, bring warmth into the house.


This was my inspiration for my latest knitting creation:

Cold kids, frosty days, and the need for endless cups of hot cocoa.


And so . . . I bought wool!!


Have I mentioned I am enchanted?  This is my first time ever knitting with wool.  As it runs through my fingers, I just can't get over the fact that the beautiful fibers are right off the backs of sheep . . . real, live sheep . . . donating their beautiful soft wool . . . so I can knit up a throw to keep my children warm.  I feel just as complete as if I had sheared, carded and spun the wool myself.


Here's the wool, Prairie Fire by Brown Sheep.  It's super bulky, so it's loose, thick and soft.  

Isn't Prairie Fire just perfect for this yarn?  I can see the white of the ash, the black of the soot, the grey of the smoke and, of course, the roaring red of the fire, all loosely twisted together.  


I'm knitting it up in moss stitch.  

Did I say something about this yarn just flying off the needles?  Yes, of course I did because that's how it should have gone as viewed through my typically rose-hued specs.

However . . . I found out that if one is knitting in moss stitch and you mess up a few stitches and you think, "Ha, no one will never know, living with imperfection, you know, and all that jazz," then soon you will find that instead of a wide swath of moss stitch, you will have moss stitch with several "ribs" up through it.  Knitting is no friend of the concept of living with imperfections.  Knitting doesn't seem to get along well with imperfection at all.

So, the beautiful throw was ripped back and started over again.  This time with no overlooking of imperfections.  Not this time.  And it's actually given me more time to handle this fiery prairie of wool, lovingly donated by a sheep and his friends somewhere in the world.


I had better get to work quickly.  As wonderful as handling this wool is on a damp, gray day in February, knitting a large wool throw in the color Prairie Fire while watching one's children playing in the pool on a baking hot day in July does not sound quite as charming.

Knitting Flat-ness

At this stage in my life, everything I knit is flat. 

Flat, flat, flat.  No shaping.  No sewing seams together.  No knitting on 4 needles.  Nope.  Flat. 

Flat can be taken in the car.

Flat can be worked on next to the computer as Youngest Son slogs through his composition.

Flat can be knitted on while finding out who is going to be "The Next Great Baker" with my kids.

I'm sure a 3-D project could also be taken any of these places.  But it scares me.

I did crochet a 3-D project once.  I am still recovering.

2-D seems considerably more safe at this stage of life.  And right now, when it comes to knitting, safe is good.

Here is my latest flat project:

I did roll it up so I would feel a little less self-conscious about my knitting's flat-ness.

I got the pattern for this sweet little dish cloth here.

Love the way that the stitching gives a little basketweave look.  Easy peasy.  Just garter and stockinette stitch.  Very, very safe.

 

To up the cute-ness factor, Deb adds a little sweet single crocheted edge.  Love the extra special touch it gives.

I must say, now that it's done, I think I could have done a little better on my color choices.  Red is always a favorite, but when I added that creamy white edge, I did get a little of the feeling I had knitted a dish cloth for Mrs. Claus.  I guess I could put it out with the cookies and milk next Christmas Eve.  Don't suppose Mrs. C. gets much brought back to her for all she loans her husband out to the entire world for a complete 24-hour period.

Oh, well, it's useful, it's pretty, it's satisfyingly made with my own hands.  All in all, a very satisfactory dish cloth, indeed.

A Crisis of Warmth

Here in the South, where winter usually drops in casually for a short few months, we have found her visit this year to be cold, C.O.L.D., cold.

This has affected the attitudes of all the children of the household most severely. They scamper down the stairs in the morning, bent double, arms tightly wrapped around themselves, shivering.

Never mind that they are in shorts, short-sleeved shirts and bare feet. Repeated admonishments of, "Put on something warm," "Get something on your feet," "Didn't I buy you a bathrobe last winter?" do not seem to be connecting with them.

And so, they shiver, and shake, and curl themselves into little balls on the couch and bewail the arrival of winter and all its trappings.

And what is a mother to do, but try and get them warm in some way.

It is, in fact, time to knit up a throw.

source

Timed perfectly is this throw from Purl Soho.

Knit up with huge yarn on huge needles, in simple moss stitch, it should fly together.

Oh, how I wanted to knit it of this beautiful "Pixie Dust."

 

It is made of wool, mohair and "pixie sparkles."  Pixie sparkles!!  Perfect for covering all the chilly toes and hugging all the shivering shoulders.  This color is called "Lemon Meringue."  Almost magical!  Some of the colors also contain silk, camel, and yak.  Oh, my . . . exotic.

"Pixie Dust" also costs $35 for a scant 35 yards.  ::ahem::  

Because I want to make this a nice and generous throw, I would need to decide between "Pixie Dust" and groceries for 2 weeks for our family of 7.

I will not be knitting with "Pixie Dust."  ::sniff::

Instead, I will be knitting with the much more prosaic but hopefully just as soft and warm "Burly Spun" by Brown Sheep in . . . red.

yarns.com

It's looking like the crisis may soon be averted.

Try, Try Again

Aaah, this family of 7 has just arrived home from more than a week of traveling up to Minnesota and back.
Yes, that would be 24 hours up and 24 hours back . . . driving in a van . . . 7 people . . . all together . . . small space.
So, you are asking, what did you find to do for those 48 hours? So glad you asked, because I need to tell you that instead of giving up on my plan of having a cotton market bag, I instead am trying, trying again. This time in yellow; this time with needles instead of a hook.
You can find the pattern here.

For the yarn, I chose Cotton Twist by Berroco in a warm, golden yellow and spent the entire trip silently cursing it. It is terribly split-y and then it has a single, slender strand of rayon twisted into it that gives it a lovely occasional touch of a shimmer but is horrible to knit with---splitting, fraying, and catching all over the place.

::Sigh:: Sorry to be negative, but those are the sad facts of this yarn.

Other than my yarn angst, the bag is really fun to knit but for me would be best knitted in total quiet and solitude. Of course, this was a total impossibility in a van . . . with 7 people . . . for 48 hours.

I would just be getting a "slip, slip, knit, yarn over" accomplished, avoiding a split, avoiding a catch of the rayon, avoiding the needle sliding backwards out of my hand, when a voice would call from the back:

"Youngest Daughter just dumped an entire box of crayons out by mistake and they are now melting in the back window,"

or

"Oldest Son has fallen asleep and his 6'3" frame is invading the entire length of the backseat, causing the two of us sitting back here to have difficulty in sitting upright . . . staying strapped . . . breathing.

And the "slip, slip, knit, yarn over" would have to be abandoned to right wrongs in the rear of the van. And who knows exactly where my mind would be when again taking up the knitting.

So it is with great delight that I can report that this pattern is quite forgiving with the occasional mistakes, mess-ups, and misadventures that may occur in its creation.

(Please note the splits, fuzzes, and catches in this picture.
Don't ever knit with a shimmery strand of rayon
twisted into your cotton yarn.)

Hopefully I will shortly be able to show you a completed knit cotton market bag. And when it is filled with organic lettuce or library books or balls of yarn, you'll never notice all its imperfections.

Spa Washcloth

I've been looking for a pattern for a spa-ish washcloth, and I've found just the perfect one.







Actually, no, it wasn't perfect. I fiddled with it and reworked it a little, and now I do think it is the perfect spa washcloth.






I used an eco-cotton that has just a little acrylic added so it has a little "scrub" to it, not the soft silkiness of a pima cotton. After all we want to slough off that dry skin and expose the dewy cells underneath, right?






You would like the pattern too? Of course, glad to share.

It's below. It works up quickly and is a perfect little project to practice some very simple "lace" stitches.

Enjoy!

Spa Washcloth:

On US 6 needles, cast on 35 stitches.

Rows 1-4 - Knit

Row 5 - Knit 3; * yarn over, knit 2 together. Repeat from * 14 more times; knit 2.

Rows 6, 7 and 8 - Knit

Continue Rows 5 through 8 until spa washcloth reaches approximately 6 1/2 inches, ending with a Row 8.

Final 2 Rows - Knit.

Bind off, weave in ends and trim.