Sunday, August 21, 2016

The Ravellenic Games

I wanted to participate in the Ravellenic Games, but between prepping all my classes, getting settled in the new house, and having lots of sewing projects and knitting WIPs already going, there was no way I was going to do any sort of big project
But we've been talking about replacing our succession of gross kitchen sponges with washable scrubby cloths for a while now, and I had two skeins of cotton yarn in my stash from years and years ago, so Robert encouraged me to knit a few dishcloths.  The first one, up at the top, was fun and easy to knit, although since it has a seam that doesn't stretch, it ended up not being round.  I didn't manage to photograph it until it had already been used.  The second one was a super simple Grandmother's choice washcloth.  It used significantly less yarn than the first one.
The third one is a pattern I made up to try to use up the rest of the cotton yarn.  I started in the center with a turkish cast-on and a 3-stitch garter tab, then picked up three stitches on each side and started knitting in the round.  Then after a little bit I started knitting spiral stripes.  I did that until the red yarn ran out, and then I did a few rounds of garter stitch in blue and finished with a picot bind-off.  I didn't use up all of the blue yarn, but it was getting to be too big.  I also didn't manage to photograph this one until it had been used.

These were definitely a success!  They're not quite as scrubby as the scrubby side of a sponge, but on the whole they work well.  We'll see how they hold up through the washer and dryer, but I'm already planning to make more.  Our new washing machine has a very large capacity and runs best when it is completely full, so we're going to need several of these so we can change them often in between doing laundry.  Also, I have that leftover blue yarn to use up.