Little Tuffys...!!

Little Tuffys
(small but tough)

This is the smallest toughest dishcloth in town and... they are super fast to knit. The pattern is for a 6" x 6" dishcloth and a 5" x 5" dish scrubby. I have small little hands and the larger dishcloths get hard for me to handle once they are wet, where as these little cloths are just right. So I wanted to share them with you.

Materials :

1 ball Sugar' n cream or any cotton worsted yarn of your choice. This is also a good way to use up leftovers because they take very little yarn to make.

Size 10 1/2 US needles

Size K or J crochet hook ( if you want a little loop for hanging)

A darning needle to tuck in the ends

gauge: 18 sts = 6"

Directions for a 6" square dishcloth:

Remove yarn label and find the inside and outside ends of your yarn. (you can also use 2 different strands of yarn held together)

With 2 strands of yarn held together cast on 18 sts.

Row 1: K1, P1 across row
Row 2: P1, K1 across row
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until your cloth measures 6" or it is as long as it is wide.

Cast off all sts in moss sts pattern, but transfer the last loop to your crochet hook. Chain 7 or 8 sts depending on how large you want your loop to be and finish off. Tuck in ends. Ta da!!! This took me a little over 30 minutes to knit and finish. These little tuffys have perfect scrubbing power on non stick pans and coffee cups.

5"x 5" dish scrubby.

Cast on 16 sts using 2 strands of yarn held together

Use the directions for the 6"x 6" dishcloth omitting the loop for hanging.

Dirty pans beware..!!


pattern and images © Adrienne Medrano 2010

wips..

The pattern that I have previously talked about that was in a missing issue of Interweave knits.. well this is it.. but instead of searching for it for days I decided just to purchase the pattern from Interweave Knit. I do hope the issue pops up someday again though. There were some other patterns in it that I liked. This is the Waterlily top from the spring 2006 issue. I'm using Lionbrand incredible ... and not having knit with ribbon for quit awhile.. it's very nice. I love the texture. I had a rough start with this project.. I miss read the needle requirements and started it with the wrong needles and some other various mistakes so this is the third attempt. Did I say this is a very easy pattern. Some times my brain is in a fog.. kind of like today..





I whipped these up in the last 2 days after work. They are very fast.. lightning fast. I think they will be good for scrubbing my non stick calphalon pans. The pans are so good they need very little scrubbing just some soap and a few swishes. I made these a little smaller because I have small hands and can't seem to manage the larger dishcloths. I think I want to make an even smaller version.. like a 4" x 4" model. I'll start that some time today.. It's off to work for me and then to my knitting group right after. (^_^)

fiber games..

I know you have seen some of these pictures before but I was just thinking how when you look at, lets say a fiber batt or a roving, your expectations of what the finished yarn will look like sometimes do not match the actual finished product. I am also finding that I have a hard time when looking at a pretty mulit colored fiber batt picturing what the finished yarn will look like. Maybe it's just lots of spinning experience that gives you that ablitity.. for me the finished yarn never looks like I think it will turn out.. For example this skein of yarn .. "chromo".. after plying the yarn it was more blended than I would have pictured it. It's always a surprise. I guess that is what makes it so much fun. The yarn below "ecospun" is a mixture of superwash merino, ecospun recycled soda bottles and some angelina for good luck. I had a decent idea of what this yarn would look like but it is so much softer than I thought it would be.. Fiber games are so fun!!

time....

This must be my year for unproductivity. I feel like I have done absolutely nothing for a whole week. I'm still working a row here and there on my Juliet scarf which I would, under normal circumstances, have finished by now. I played around a little with some fiber.. then some spinning.. all which can be accomplished in one evening. I think I spent a lot of time searching for one issue of Interweave knits magazine that seems to have disappeared... and all that took me a week.. 0.0 Time not well spent.

fiber love

After carding and spinning up the loaded batt I was excited to see how it would knit up and wanted to find a pattern that didn't use much yardage. The first place I looked was on my ravelry queue and there is was.. the Juliet lace scarf. It requires only 125 yards of yarn. The yarn is knitting up light and soft with a nice drape (probably from the bamboo) and as I knit there is a very light halo of soft angora fibers blooming. I like the little nubs of bamboo and shinny bits of tencel. If I could improve this yarn it would be to add a little more spin on the singles. I tend to under spin some times. Other than that I'm very happy with the yarn and the project.





Last night I was playing with more fiber.. I decided to spin this batt up too..

the results!!

I couldn't wait to spin the loaded batt and here it is. It's dk weight , 216 yard of lovely textured yarn. I guess from all the bamboo it has almost a linen texture but soft from the angora and wool with just a little bit of shine here and there from the tencel. OMY.. what else could you ask for. Now I have to find something fun to knit with it. I would do that right now except that I have to run out and buy a new dishwasher while the bf is willing to go shopping.. (^_^)

loaded and ready!!

Well... I never did find that issue of Interweave knits.. and I know that I had it because I was looking at the pattern and it was at one time in the book shelf.. so instead I played with some fibers and loaded up the carder with everything I could find which was angora, tencel and bamboo and blended it with some grey. Now I can't wait to see how it will spin up..

so patriotic!!!

One of my managers at work is going to NY in a week or so and she went shopping for a hat, scarf and mittens for her 5 year old son but there were non to be found in any store. We had a cold front here in Florida and everyone ran to the stores and bought everything up. So she had asked me if I could knit her a set for her son. To save her money I used what I had here. She said his coat was blue, so anything in red or blue would work. I happened to have one ball each of red, blue and natural wool ease in the stash. This is what became of it. I knit the hat and scarf on the knitting machine and the mittens by hand. I didn't realize it would turn out so patriotic..Oh well.
As far as any knitting today.... I decided to knit something for spring that I could wear a tee shirt under for work..I have yarn to make the waterlily top from the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave knits and thought Ok.. I wanted to make that last year and didn't get around to it.. I got the yarn out and looked for the magazine.. which wasn't there on the book shelf with all the other Interweave knit and crochet magazines.. so I started looking in all the obvious and not so obvious places.. no Spring 2006 issue.. I looked some more .. re looked in all the same places.. no Spring 2006 issue.. it is now 2 hours later and I give up. Maybe I'll just purchase that one pattern from the Interweave web site.. or maybe that's a sign that I shouldn't knit the top at all.. 0.o'