I can now, if desired, do copious amounts of washing (dishes) with a variety of dishcloths. Um, ... yay?

I can't say that I'm thrilled with the prospect of hand-washing my dishes, but I am tickled with my selection of hand-knit cloths. I can finally throw out the kitchen sponge and all it's icky bacteria-ness, and enjoy a new dishcloth every day for a while.

There is a sum total of 11 dishrags and 2 scrubbies. Yup - these were knitted, too, with nylon netting (tulle). They were a little more difficult to knit, but since they only need to be a fraction of the size, I managed.

Come on, I know you wanna see 'em.

All of the dishcloths were knit up on either US#7 or #8 needles using some version of kitchen cotton. The brands I used varied from what I had on hand, was given by a friend, and found at stores. If I can remember the brand and/or color used, I'll note it in my descriptions below; otherwise, oh well.

One of the biggest motivations I had for making these was a book I picked up at the Half Priced Book store called A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker. There are over 2,000 patterns in this book, each with an accompanying photo (b&w, of course). It was printed in 1970 and from reading the intro, you can see how excited Ms. Walker is to have these new and wondrous manmade fibers available; the colors are so bright and gay! (Remember, in 1970 "gay" still had it's original meaning.)

So I'm slowly working my way through this book, knitting up dishcloths and such, and learning as I go. Sounds fun, huh?

On to the dishcloths! From left to right:

The black&white cloth was knit with Peaches & Creme® Dalmatian; Twin Rib pattern from the book. The cream w/ specs of color was knit using Lion Brand® Kitchen Cotton and the Ripple Stripe Pattern from the book. The blue is knit up in the Square Lattice pattern (book, again) using L.B. Kitchen Cotton. The two scrubbies were knit as a bit of ribbing (2x2 and Seeded Rib Check) with some purple nylon tulle.

The L.B. Kitchen Cotton in Sunflower (yellow) was knit up with the Moss Diamond and Lozenge pattern from the 2nd Treasury book. I really like this pattern. The blue&green variegated yarn is Lily® Sugar'n Cream and has a subtle pattern that is Fluted Rib. The variegated blues is another Sugar'n Cream yarn and knitted in Twin Rib. I had previously posted about the blue&yellow variegated cloth when I first started knitting these in January.

Both the pink and yellow variegated dishcloths were mentioned in prior posts, using patterns from the Dishcloth Boutique. The bright red dishrag was knit up in Steep Diagonal Rib pattern from the book. I realize that the dark green cloth can barely be discerned in this foto, and since I had to wash some dishes anywho I've taken another pix for y'all. It's another L.B. Kitchen Cotton knit in Four Winds Check, which is a nice pattern.

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