Even More Washcloths...

Apparently, washcloths are the big thing in my life right now. A friend had told me how much she loved the hand-knit washcloth that her grandma made for her. I decided that she needed more than just one so I told her to pick a couple colors and I would make her some washcloths as her birthday present.

She picked Knitpicks Cotlin in Canary (left) and Clementine (right) and didn't care what pattern I used. 

I ended up just designing patterns for 2 of them and altering the pattern for Swifty from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside The Lines since I didn't have the pattern for the Ballband Dishcloth handy when I was casting-on.

The first washcloth is just a slip-stitch pattern that creates vertical lines with a garter-stitch border in Canary.

The slip-stitch colorwork also gave the cloth a nice backside. I'm not a fan of single-sided projects when both sides are visible, so that was a great surprise bonus to the pattern.

Washcloth number 2 was my favorite of the bunch. It's a slightly more complicated slip-stitch colorwork pattern. Even with that, though, it looks way more complex than it is.

And again, I was pleasantly surprised with the way the back turned out. This pattern had great drape to it, too, so I'm thinking that I'm going to play around with it for a garment of some sort.

Finally, the Ballband Dishcloth. Once it was knit up in these colors, we all decided that it was very reminiscent of the walls in a certain beloved video game detailing the adventures of  a not-so-average plumber. My friend was super happy to get this one.

I'm not as pleased with the back, but the front's nerd factor makes up for it.

I'm pretty happy with this group of washcloths and Sara loved them so that equals a win. Plus, it's really fun to make up stitch patterns and I've got some great garment ideas that I'm gonna be working on. I'll post about the status of those patterns once I have something worthwhile to show you, but I'm pretty excited about them.  ^_^

A Plethora of Washcloths

Happy 4th of July! I have been in such a washcloth /holiday mood over the last couple of weeks thanks to an e-mail that Lion Brand Yarn sent out showcasing some Independence Day pot holder patterns. I'm not much of a fan of Lion Brand's actual yarns, but their website is amazing for free easy patterns. So, I crocheted up my two favorite designs from the pattern collection as washcloths and made up the other 3 designs to go with them. So, now I have a 5 cloth set that will be going up on my etsy shop for sale for $25.

One of the patterns that I used from the lion brand website.

I love the stitch pattern used to make this cloth and I've got an idea for using it again in a different project. This is such a fun stitch and it's almost like magic when you're crocheting it.

This is the other Lion Brand pattern.

This one is more straight forward and is less fun/interesting than the other square but I felt that it really tied the set together and brought home that Americana theme.

Basic granny square washcloth.

Oh, granny squares, how I love you. This is actually the first granny square that I've ever made, but it really seemed to fit with the theme and I've always wanted to learn how to make one. I can totally see why people use them to make entire afghans, they are quick and super addictive! I'm already ploting ways to need more of them.

The Primrose granny square.

Again, this pattern was picked entirely because I felt that it just belonged with an Americana grouping of washcloths. It was definately more challenging to make than the basic granny square, but completely worth it! I love the way that it turned out and the naturaly curvey shape that the sides took. It feels very retro and modern all at once and I just love it. This is probably my favorite cloth in the collection.

The Never-Ending Chevron washcloth.

This one was a doozy. I started it over and ripped it out so many times before I got it right. It probably was so difficult because I was trying to convert a chevron stitch pattern for a floor cushion that I found to a washcloth appropriate size. (The magic number is 36.) I finally got the math right for the stitch pattern only to discover that there were no instructions for how to make it a complete square. The pattern for the floor cushion assumed that you would be sewing the crocheted chevron fabric to actual sewing fabric around a pillow, so you could just sew the corners on the chevrons into the pillow and everything would be just fine. Since I wasn't going to be sewing anything to anything, I had to figure out how to fill in all of the dips along the edges. This was a fun challenge, bug I'm glad thst it 's done. I'll be writing out the pattern and will post it soon.

I hope that everyone is having a fun and safe 4th of July today! See you soon.