Double Bump Dish Cloth & Random Mitred Squares

Using some Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn for some textured dish or face cloths... for a gift for a friend. 

A fun break from caps. 

The Double Bump Dish Cloth pattern (pictured below in bright, bright green)

 is fun and easily memorized.

 I found the pattern HERE.

What's knitting...

I would not say I am losing interest in knitting but I have to admit I am in a bit of a funk when it comes to knitting.  After my chemo cap frenzy in March, I've been at a loss as to what to make next. I think I am feeling a tad burdened by my stash and am feeling like I want to bust through some of the yarn I like the least so I can reward myself by working on some of the bigger, nicer projects I have in mind.  Of course I am still knitting... just ever contemplating what's next.  Above, a vintage looking mitered dishtowel.  I need to make the button hole a tad smaller.  The pattern link is HERE.  My friend, Harriet, has made a few of these retro-looking dish towels and I've been admiring the nice style. It's a fun, quick knit! 

A collection of cotton kitchen goodies.  Some dish cloths, a hand towel, and in the center, a cup cozy.  The cables on the cup cozy are supposed to look like an owl.  It needs eyes. I am not happy with how it turned out.  I've been experimenting with cup cozies lately... I have some bugs to work out I suppose.



A close up of the mitered dishtowel. 



What's next... I am NOT sure...  I am crocheting some goodies for the local animal shelter...

more stash busting...

Vacation Knitting... dishcloths.

DISHCLOTH #4



DISHCLOTH #3



DISHCLOTH #2

DISHCLOTH #1

Phew, I am catching my breath after vacation and after a week at work (I work Sunday through Thursday right now).   Here's what I made on vacation... four dishcloths.  The photos are completely out of order so I labeled them.  I knit dishcloth #1 en route to Carlsbad, New Mexico.  We passed through Roswell, New Mexico.  Nope, did not see any UFO's or Aliens from Outer Space while in the Roswell area, but we found a Church's Fried Chicken Restaurant and my husband was pretty happy about that.  We stopped there for lunch.  Dishcloth #1 was inspired by the "Hurricane Hat" pattern I've been making lately.  We explored the Carlsbad Caverns. Have you ever been?  They are amazing and worth the trip, but they are kind of the middle of no where.

After our cave adventures, dishcloth #2 was made en route to see my father-in-law in Tuscon, Arizona.  The pattern was inspired by a hat pattern I printed off called "Boardwalk Hat".  I repeated the lace chart two times to come up with this width.  It's a fun pattern; I need to make this hat!  I left dishcloth #1 and dishcloth #2 at my in-law's place for gifts.  In Tucson, we ate at lots of great restaurants including Bubb's Grubb for good BBQ and Claim Jumper (known for ridiculously large portions... I had a salad... good girl!)

Dishcloth #3 and #4 where made on the trip home.

Dishcloths are perfect car knitting and I enjoyed making the patterns as I went along.

In-law's dog, Ginger. She's quite a princess!  She keeps her front paws nicely groomed.  She looks so pretty in the early morning light.  Good girl, Ginger!  Ginger and I went for a walk one evening when the sun was setting and I loved looking at every one's front yards... filled with different kinds of cacti, mesquite trees, and other things that only grow in the arid desert climate. 

Happy Pi Day

Today's date is 3/14.  Math lovers probably love March 14th.  Get it... 3.14... Pi.  You know... as in, how do you figure the circumference of a circle... or the area of a circle?  Pi!  In honor of Pi Day, the teachers at my son's school asked kids to bring... pies. I baked pumpkin pies. Dang it, son couldn't carry two pies to school so we had to eat one at home.  It was rough.  We can polish off a pumpkin pie in our house in no time at all. 

Speaking of Pi (and pie), I've been noticing beautiful lace shawls called "Pi Shawls" on Ravelry and it wasn't until recently that I started to read more to find out the details. 

Apparently, Pi Shawls were "invented" by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  I don't know much about this gal, but I see her name everywhere and understand she is quite an iconic figure in the hand-knitting world.  On Ravelry, I read that Pi Shawls are a circular shawl based the geometry of Pi--the relationship between a circle’s circumference and its radius containing six shaping rounds. The other thing I am learning about Pi Shawls is that they are incredibly versatile.  The construction is such that you can insert just about any lace pattern to tailor the shawl to your liking... simple or complex.

Elizabeth Zimmermann’s elaboration on the Pi Shawl (from Ravelry):
“When you set out on the annual family trip naturally you have to take your knitting; something has to keep you sane in face of the possibly quite ferocious situations you will be up against in the next two weeks.  Try a shawl.  I have a circular shawl for you which starts at the center, has absolutely no pattern, and only six shaping-rounds in the whole thing.”

Hmmm, now I am really curious... this deserves some attention... another knitting goal for me in 2011:  make a Pi Shawl!  For today, if you are interested, check out this project (click HERE).  I plan to sit down with this pattern and some cotton yarn tonight... in observance of Pi Day!  Too bad the pie at home is all gone.

Dinosaur bathcloth

For my coworker's boy to make bath time more fun! Mrs. W and her family recently went to "Walking with the Dinosaurs" (it's a big production which travels the country if you haven't heard of it). Her four year old son is now obsessed with dinosaurs... so much so that I think OBSESSED should be in all capital letters... too cute! Both sides look equally nice!

Two more dishcloths

PAW PRINT DISHCLOTH

http://www.knittingknonsense.com/pawprintcloth.html

STEAMING CUP OF COFFEE DISHCLOTH

http://knittingmemories.blogspot.com/2006/08/my-coffee-cup-cloth-just-to-keep-you.html

I have been having a blast this week searching the internet for cute free dishcloth patterns. I have come to the conclusion that bloggers who knit are very generous to provide folks like us access to their cute creations! Please check out the links above to check out these great blogs! If you would like, you can find these patterns and many others... Next a neon green dinosaur and a tree frog. I am also working on another GAA block today. Lots of knitting going on here, just not a lot of blog posting...

Om design in a face cloth

I was browsing the internet the other day and stumbled across a pattern for the Om symbol in a face or dish cloth. Ommmmmm... you know, what folks say when the meditate. Here's the link:

http://talithascrazyknittingbag.blogspot.com/2005/12/om-dishcloth-pattern-aka-why-are-all.html

I know a lady named Marie who has her own yoga studio called Mountain Om. http://mountainomyogaandyogatherapy.com/ Marie incorporates the Om symbol in her business logo. I thought she might enjoy this so I whipped it up for her. It was a fun, quick knit! By the way, I've been calling such projects Spa Cloths. Sounds a bit more luxurious, doesn't it? Here's how the design turned out. I hope Marie likes it! She's a really great lady.

Mock Cable Dishcloth

I found this quick and easy dishcloth pattern in Creative Knitting Magazine. The pattern is called "mock cable" since it's really not a cable stitch. The dishcloth is pretty much knit 2, purl 2 rib. On every fourth row (on the right side) over the knit stitches, you knit the second knit stitch, then knit the first knit stitch, and THEN you move theses stitches from the left needle to the right needle. It makes a nice texture for a dishcloth. I made a few dishcloths this week as a bit of a brain break from the difficult Tree of Life block which is on my needles right now. Will post about that next...

Breast Cancer Awareness

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS VIDEO ON THE INTERNET? I encourage you to check it out and make sure your speakers are on. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEdVfyt-mLw&feature=fvw

It's great and I love the upbeat song. My mom sent the video link to me. My mom worked at this hospital (St. Vincent's Hospital outside of Portland, Oregon) for over 25 years (I'll have to check on the exact figure). I enjoyed seeing the video as well since I worked as a Junior Volunteer at this hospital for a few summers... great experience! I whipped up this face cloth this week. I got the "ribbon" cable portion from a square in the book for the Great American Aran Afghan and then I just designed the rest of the block around it.

A dish cloth frenzy

I am enjoying knitting my chestnut colored sweater (of course!) but I am at a rather boring place where I just knit around and around and around the sweater body... no increases, no decreases, no yarn overs and no purling! I should not complain since I really don't like the purl stitch as much as the knit stitch. That being said... I am taking a break every little while and have whipped up two cute cloths (face or dish cloths) this week. The cloth of the left is the Spa Cloth from the Fall 2009 edition of the Creative Knitting Magazine. The cloth on the right is another face cloth; the pattern is also from Creative Knitting Magazine (online... November 2009). This pattern is from a set of three items called Festive Bath Set. In person, the cloth of the left is a camel color and the cloth on the right is lavendar. Thanks for letting me raid your yarn stash, Mom! By the way, everything I am knitting this week is made with yarn from my Mom! These cloths are going to my good friend, Tracy, to say thank you for allowing me to borrow her mother's precious knitting needle collection while I work on my Great American Afghan. Thank you, Tracy!