Just like sewing, it turns out that knitting can be addicting. Since it’s now spring, I didn’t want to knit a winter accessory like a scarf or hat that I wouldn’t be able to wear for months. Instead, I made two dishcloths.

Now, I agree that it seems silly to spend hours knitting something used to wash dishes. But, if you’re going to spend hours knitting something anyways, why not make it something useful?

This pattern is Nana’s Favorite Dishcloth Pattern, and it’s available for free on allfreeknitting.com. As a knitting noob, this pattern looked complicated, but it is really just four repeating rows of different combinations of knitting and purling. On the first dishcloth, I struggled to keep the pattern consistent, which you can see in the picture below by the way that the rows don’t totally connect across the whole cloth on the right. For the second version, though (on the left), I had no problem keeping everything consistent and lining the pattern up.  Practice makes perfect!

I bought the yarn for this project in Colorado while on vacation over the holidays. It is a cotton worsted weight by Peaches and Cream. I made both out of 1 skein of yarn using size  5 needles.

In terms of knitting firsts, this pattern was my first time: 1)purling; 2)weaving in ends; and 3) blocking. I used a plastic needle to weave in the ends, and steam blocked using my iron. The blocking wasn’t supper successful, as the pieces still aren’t perfectly square, but I didn’t think it was too important for this project. For a sweater, on the other hand, it really would be.

Having spent so many hours knitting these little guys, I have a hard time thinking that they will really be used for washing dishes. I’m thinking that they’ll serve more as hot pads instead. Tomato, tomato.