Dishcloth set

We camped last weekend and i had a washing up sponge and tea-towels but no dishcloth so ended up using a tea-towel to wipe the sides down when i was washing up and tidying up. This is not ideal so when i got home i started checking out the dishcloth/washcloth patterns on Ravelry. Of course, none of the forty or so already in my queue was right so that meant a very pleasant stroll through the pattern browser. I love playing with it! I wanted crochet, i wanted free and i wanted texture on at least one of them.
I had a rummage in the cotton stash box - i try to keep all the cotton together for this very reason, it's so hard to match up colours etc when it's separated into the colour boxes so all the cotton is in one crate - and came up with a dark brown, a beige, a burgundy and a variegated mix of all three! The solid colours were bought as part of the Munks' wedding present experiment which turned into a Click hexagon blanket cos i realised that crocheting that much cotton would kill my hands and the variegated was part of a Peaches and Cream stash enhancement that occurred in late 2008! Apparantly i bought it for "Chrimble knitting - washcloths and tribbles"... Like that was ever going to happen! :D



I wasn't sure how many i would make, i just wanted to use as much stash up as possible and it worked out just right! I had to find something else to use for the back of the potholder as i had run out of all the others by then but i found some mercerised cotton in a pale pink that "fits" with the colour theme just about!
I had to then tweak the pattern slightly to allow for the smaller gauge but it just meant doing doubletrebles on the last round instead of trebles and it all worked out great as far as i'm concerned.

I've seen "Corner to Corner" (also known as C2C) blankets popping up in my newsfeed on Facebook via the Creative Crochet group, it seems to be quite the in-thing at the moment and it had piqued my interest but not enough to want to do a blanket so a dishcloth was the perfect size to have a go at it. I can see why it's so popular! It's fast to work up and it is very rhythmic, i can see more in my future ;)
The "Squaring the Spiral" dishcloth was also another itch that needed scratching. I have tried spirals before but i end up getting really confused as to where i start and finish so i thought i would give it another go. It's not perfect but it will do and i have a better idea of how it works now. I would have liked the spiral to be bigger before it got squared off but i was following the pattern closely because i didn't muck it up again lol
Finally the "Flower Potholder" has been in my queue for about 5 ½ years and the handle on the new kettle gets quite warm so rather than have a tea-towel flapping around or burn my hand i thought i'd scratch another itch and get it made! It will also double up as a trivet to protect the worktop from the hot kettle :)

All in all, a pleasant few days of crochet. Now i just need to decide what will be next!

Dishcloth Swap - from Deb

Dishcloth Swap - from Deb
Originally uploaded by franneyk

Look at the wonderful parcel Deb sent me for the Dishcloth Swap over at CTnY! Two scrumptious cloths, one in seed stitch for extra exfoliation and one with a seed stitch border, a lovely piece of Sprintime fabric which just screams daffodils to me for some reason ;o) and a cute bunny called Harry :oD
What's that you say? Chocolate? OH YES!! A sample pack of Green & Black's, there are two of each flavour bar and Bloke and i have enjoyed the cherry and the butterscotch so far, they are the perfect size for a treat, and besides, it's such nice chocolate that you don't need much of it to satisfy you :oD

move away please, there's nothing to see here!

Someone has stolen my mojo man!! I can't craft *sobs*
You'd think with all this convalescing time i'd have got loads done, but i just can't seem to settle on a project :o( I started a dishcloth while i was in hospital, didn't finish it though cos i didn't like how it was turning out - it was an experiment with mitred squares and picking up the stitches to knit the next square rather than sewing them all together at the end but it went wrong *lol*
When i came round from the anasthaetic and went back onto the ward i was too woozy to do anything except doze off and wake up continuously - the morphine helped with that nicely :oD is it a good thing to enjoy taking morphine?? i'm happy to report that up til now the news is good, nothing too nasty going on that we didn't already know about, i am just waiting on some histology to come back which should be in a week or so and then i don't have to see the doctor again for three months - WOOTWOOT! I've been struggling with this convalescing thing though, i hate having to leave off doing things until Bloke comes home so i end up doing them myself and then feeling rough... BUT i am accepting responsibility for my actions and i don't want sympathy for hurting myself, just for the initial surgery please *giggling*
So, this weekend we are off camping, and i am under strict instructions to TAKE IT EASY! so i'll do my best ;o) Actually i think it will be hard. I enjoy setting up camp and usually do it pretty much on my own, except for putting the awning up so sitting down and watching other people do it is gonna be a toughie!
I'm taking a pair of socks to knit, a tam to crochet and a dishcloth to knit in case i can't concentrate on anything else. I think it's this headache, i just can't concentrate, i am finding it difficult to read too :o( It seemed to ease off for a few days but now it is back with a vengeance so i wonder if the painkillers i was taking for my sore tummy were also helping my poorly head? Something to discuss with the neurologist in June anyway.
Goddddd, must stop whinging!
I've made another dishcloth, this one is the Four Corners one, but i really don't like it, the holes seem way tooooo big that form the corner to middle lines but as it wasn't for me i had to be happy with it and send it on it's way to Germany ;o) i've sent LOTS of parcels this week and it felt really good to be surprising so many people :o)
I've sent a set of stitchmarkers for the "Stitchmarker Swappydoodle" at CaftyThreads, a parcel to my SP (obviously can't say what it is in case she reads this blog by some freaky coincidence *lol*), i've also sent some needles off to Germany that i bought in Lidls which is weird as Lidl is a German company but they didn't have any in their stores *lol* and i also sent 2 sockbags off which were on offer at CraftyThreads :o) There's only one left now from the 4 i originally listed, two have gone to new homes plus a larger version of the dinky gingham bag which i am using myself as it's perfectly dishcloth sized :oD
I feel sure there was something else that went off but it's escaped me for the time being... my memory really is rubbish!!
Well, i hope you all have a wonderfully spiffing weekend, i know i will! *hugs*

I luv learning new things!

On Sunday i knitted four mitre squares a la Mason Dixon in my yummy Lidl cotton, it's for a swap so i don't really want to post piccies in case the recipient sees *winks*
It really is a very easy technique to learn and i can see myself doing it again in the future :o)

Yesterday i learnt how to do.... *drumroll please* ENTRELAC! YAY! I finally got the hang of it! I only made a Criminy Jicket garterlac cloth (along with thousands of other people *lol* ) but i DID IT! It helped having a picture to check which direction i should be going and once i had done two "rows" the rest came easy and this morning when i finished it off i didn't even need to check the pattern. Entrelac is like magic, and although i did enjoy making the washcloth i doubt i would ever make the Lady Eleanor stole as my hands are killing me today and all that turning back and forth was very tedious!

I'll come back and add some links later, i am dashing off to Lidl to see if they have any more yummy cotton *wink*

Have a good day y'all *GG*

This is a quick knit!

WOOT! Finished the second pistachio cotton M-D washcloth. This one took all of 2½ hours, maybe 3! It went a lot more smoothly this time, with only one or two decreases being missed, but i was able to drop the stitches down and pick them back up again, go me! I also had to do double rows of knit after the decreases but it worked out fabulously and i am immensly pleased with myself :oD

My back is feeling SO much better today, i am going to have a stint on the sewing machine and make up some swap gifts so i can get my parcels sent off. I have finally decided which yarn and patterns to send (can't send just one pattern, oh, no! That would entail Making A Decision!) and i had a hard enough task deciding which yarn to send!

AHA!

I figured out where i went wrong with my washcloth. When i did the bobble, i only knit into the front and back of the 13th stitch, then when i did the p3, k3, sk2togpsso i was decreasing each segment by one stitch which was then leaving me one stitch short and my eyelets came out unevenly spaced and the decreases came out a bit weird too! I've cast on the second one now and am about halfway through - i've been doing two rows of knit after the decreases as i am using a different yarn and a smaller needle and well, my gauge is out ;o)
The washcloth will go lovely with Mum's Christmas present, i'm sure she'll like it, even though she was laughing at me down the phone tonight for knitting washcloths!

In other news...
I've joined another KAL :o)
This one is a Holiday KAL for all those secret holiday projects that you need to show off but re too afraid to n your blog in case someone sees it! Well, as no-one reads my blog that i am knitting for (or does anyone read it at all??) i can post the addy here in case any of my non-existant readers want to sign up too! God, i must be tired, i am talking a load of crap!
Annnnnnnyway.... SIGN UP HERE and spread the word, there's a good chap ;o)

masondixon-washcloth number one!

masondixon-washcloth
Originally uploaded by franneyk.

What a quick knit!
I started this last night and finished it at lunchtime. It's now blocking gently just to give it a bit more shape as it was a bit skewy *lol*
It was intended as part of my Mum's Christmas pressie but as it's a first attempt and not very pretty in places i'm going to do another one and keep this one for me ;o)
I could probably do with a set of 4mm addis as this was 3.5mm and just a little too tight, but then i guess it'll be a bit tougher and scrubbier in the shower that way? I've got some nice soaps stashed away too so i'm putting one of those inside it and i'll find some pretty sparkly ribbon to thread through the eyelets to finish it off :o)
I dooooo hope she likes it!