Tag Archives: dishcloths

Dishcloth doubles

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who observe it participate in it or whatever is the right verb for the day’s events.

Some knitters are obsessed with very talented mostly garment designers like Isabell Kraemer or Andrea Mowry. They dutifully “Find [Their] Fades.” Then they “Free [Their] Fades.” They “Don’t Ask” and then they “Don’t Ask Again.” I knit my share of shawls and even the occasional sweater. I knit garments and accessories by both these designers, who I admire. But I knit more of Vold’s designs than anyone else. Slip stitch/mosaic dishcloths and I are a thing.

I know. All together now: “More dishcloths? How many dishes does this knitter wash?” It will come as no surprise that I don’t use all the dishcloths I knit. Most are gifted. All the cloths in this post are patterns by Amy Marie Vold. This first one is Cloverleaf Cloth knit in Knitpicks Dishie.

Next up is Shore Lunch Cloth. I’ve dubbed it my Fishcloth.

This set is knit in Paintbox Cotton Aran. I really enjoy seeing how these work out when I knit a pair reversing the main color and the contrast color.

Here’s Squirrel Away the Dishes. Knitpicks Dishie looks great in this set. I used the linen and coffee colorways.

One of my brothers is a big fan of my dishcloths. I decided to knit him, well, a bunch. And I aimed to cover all the seasons and holidays. Here’s part of his summer set. Though, actually, ice cream and I are a season all year long. This is How Many Scoops. Seventy grams, two cloths. Again, Dishie.

The next Dishie knit is from the Flock of Sheep eBook Vold recently released. It’s Washstand Sheep. This time I departed from simply flipping the colors. I’d started with the white sheep in the green field. Then I realized that green sheep standing on a cloud would look a little too weird even for me. So, instead, I made the sheep brown.

Next up is an early Vold pattern calling for DK weight. I used Paintbox Cotton DK. It’s Dishscraper that Never Sleeps. This one’s especially fun to knit. If you’re wondering that some of my cloths, including this one, have rather wavy edges and sides, that’s because I don’t steam my cloths before photographing (or gifting) them. I try to never lose sight of the fact that these are dishcloths. Dishcloths. Humble dishcloths. They will lead a hard life and they might as well get used to it right off the bat and not try to rise above their station.

I feel like reversing the colors in Dishscraper is especially sweet–depicting the daytime and nighttime skyline.

Covering all the holiday bases, I needed to include some wintry scenes. The first of these last two Dishie sets is Fir Sprucing Up, followed by  Chameleon Snowflake Poinsettia.

 

I know that some knitters think knitting dishcloths is, well, a silly waste of time. I think it’s a wonderfully useful diversion.

More mosaic dishcloths

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So. I was working on a rather major project. It wasn’t totally holding my attention. I was wooed away from it by Amy Marie Vold’s newest dishcloth pattern: Balloon Rides.  The pattern includes the balloon and six center motifs to decorate the balloon. My red and white set is knit in Sugar ‘n Cream, the workhorse of dishcloth yarn. First, my white balloon. And now my red one.

For me, these are top drawer, the cat’s meow, the creme de la creme of dishcloths. Great fun to knit. And they are cheerful and useful.

I knit two and then immediately decided to knit another pair, this time in Knitpicks’ Dishie. And this time in two different motifs.

Some knitting is downright addictive. Vold’s mosaic cloths are that for me. She comes out with a new design and I “run, don’t walk” to Ravelry to download the pattern. I know that all the worsted weight ones work for me on size six needles (US). No need for gauge swatches. I just choose two contrasting colorways and set to knitting.

This next cloth is another of Vold’s newer ones: tOwl. I also knit this pair in Dishie.

I’ve never seen an owl in the wild. Hopefully that day will come and that will be a thrill. For now, I can knit their likeness.

Once I took my 4 balloon rides, I was ready to tackle that big project again: a wedding present throw. More on that, soon.

Yep, more Amy Marie Vold cloths

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These are Amy Marie Vold’s a/k/a Ravelry’s CornucopiAmy’s Fresh Knit Apple dishcloths. I knit mine in DROPS Paris. Most of my cloths are gifted to friends and family. These made me want to keep a few for myself.

First up is a nice red Delicious Apple.

This one’s a Golden Delicious, I think.

Possibly, a Fuji.

And, here’s a Granny Smith.

These easy slip-stitch cloths are tons of fun to knit. If you’ve not tried this technique before, Vold’s instructions are clear and there are many videos on the web that teach the technique as well. It’s also known as mosaic knitting. Better yet? Have a friend show you, once, and that’s all you’ll need to be off to knit your own.

If not apples, how about a Cloverleaf Cloth?

No? Then move to the animal kingdom for “Some Bunny to Do the Dishes.”

No? Care to try a farmyard animal? Here’s “Pig Pen’s Kitchen and Spa Cloth.”

My Piggy is sort of hiding in the spring grass. But you’ll make a better color choice and your piggy will pop.

Looking for an edgier cloth? “Along Came a Spider” could be just the ticket.

I think this next one is a Brown Recluse.

From edgy to a bit cartoony. The next set is “Window Patrol Cat Coasters.” I’ve got a “Go Blue” Michigan Wolverine colorway going, because that’s all the DK weight I had in my stash at the time and I live in Michigan so it’s forgiven. These cats are definitely eyeing that little yellow birdie.

There are a lot of major and splashy talents in the knitting universe. In the smaller knitting world of dishcloths, Vold stands out.

Salty dishcloths

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saltsetfull

I know. I know. Pretty soon I’ll have to change the name of this blog to longlakedishcloths.com. I couldn’t resist Aimee Alexander’s Ravelry invitation to test knit her collection of cloths: “Salt.” “Salt” is an ebook of 4 cloths, 3 worsted weight and one DK weight. But I wanted to see a few in different yarns so I ended up knitting some of the patterns more than once.

First, is Himalayan Salt, knit here in Knitpicks Dishie.salt2

Such a nice easy lace. And it knits up quicker than two shakes of a lamb’s tail which is the equivalent of about two shakes of a salt shaker. Well, not that fast. But if a knitter can’t complete this in two hours, she’s taken a little nap between casting on and casting off.

This next one is Sea Salt. The green one is Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream and the pink one is Knit Picks Dishie.

seasalt_both

I’ve never done this tucked stitch before. Alexander’s instructions are spot on. The only thing that seems to confound people is they aren’t sure whether they should photograph their cloths so that the stitch looks like “v’s” or like arrows pointing upward. Not that it matters, but it develops like arrows on your needles, so I figure that’s the way to go.

Here’s another look at Sea Salt, so you can get a closer look at the tucked stitch.

newgreensalt

Alexander has worked up a series of other patterns in this same stitch. It’s fun to do.

Finally, here’s two versions of Infused Salt.

infusedsaltpair

This is the easiest of the bunch, as I see it. It’s a slipped stitch (mosaic) pattern, worked up in a DK weight. What was fun to see, and quite unexpected–at least to me–was how different the two cloths are when you simply swap Color A and Color B. These cloths are both knit in the same two shades of DROPS Muskat. These two skeedattled out of my house almost as quickly as they popped off my needles. When it comes to dishcloths, it’s ask and ye shall receive.