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My next project was knitting washcloths using different stitches. It requires all cotton yarn, because you need to be able to use and wash them regularly.

The first one, a plain knit stitch wash cloth, I have cast on multiple times. I find 100% cotton yarn to be much more difficult to work with than wool and alpaca. Maybe because it’s a stiffer material.  Also, I found the pattern in the book for the first washcloth, which is to cast on and do a knit stitch which creates a garter stitch, to be quite large for a wash cloth. So I cast on only 35 stitches. But, I found that 35 was a bit smaller than my other wash clothes but not so small that I couldn’t use it. But cotton is not my favorite. I can see why the book suggests to do just a knit stitch for the first cloth. I was having a lot of problems with it.

I probably cast on five different times until it looked close to normal and once I got to knitting, I found it different to keep the end of each row as tight as the other stitches. But this is the finished result. I think it looks nice.

Next one is using a purl stitch. This was my first project with it. The cloth has a knit stitch border.

-knit stitch a few rows for the top border

-knit stitch a few stitches to continue border, I used 5 stitches,

-purl stitch the row until the last 5 stitches, knit stitch those

-knit

-repeat until last few rows

-knit last few rows for bottom border

-bind off

I obviously had a couple of issues, but that’s what happens when you’re watching the newest episode of Revenge, thank God for Hulu Plus :), and not paying enough attention to your needles, so from now, after I complete a few rows I’ll always check to see if there is anything I should fix.

Next was the basket weave washcloth! Probably my favorite, pattern wise and the colors in the yarn. This is what I did:

-cast on 50

-knit 5, purl 5, continue pattern

do this for 5 rows

-purl 5, knit 5, continue pattern

do this for 5 rows

-continue to alternate until desired length is reached.

-bind off

I just did it until I ran out of yarn. I used my row counter for this just incase I forgot what stitch to start with and even wrote out, row 1-5 start with knit, 6-10 purl, 11-15 knit, 16-20 purl, and so on to keep me on track.

As much as I do not enjoy cotton yarn, I know I’ll use it again if I redecorate and I make wash clothes and other kitchen items.

So now I have three wash clothes to use in my kitchen 🙂 Maybe I’ll enjoy cleaning more knowing I created/made the wash clothes I’m using? Hopefully?