Things are coming along.

As we are halfway through the month I thought I would check in to see how my knitting plans were coming along.

The plan was to knit 2 barn raising blocks each month. Well I have one done and another more than halfway done.

I need to knit 34 hexipuffs each month to stay on target. I got my 34 done for December and for January I have 10 done and an eleventh one that just needs stuffed and bound off. Only 23 more to go!

My dish cloth plan is one a week for 52 weeks. I am way above this mark. Technically these first 2 were done in December for my son to take with him to his new apartment.

I have 7 others I have knit this month. This makes me happy. 52 - 9 = 43 more to go.

Yarn Order

With my Dish Cloth Challenge of knitting 52 wash cloths I know I needed to have some yarn on hand. I ordered some cotton yarn from knitpicks.com. If you haven't looked at their yarns and their prices I encourage you to head over to their site and look around.

Here is what I got today in the mail:

Comfy Worsted 75% Pima Cotton, 25% Acrylic 

Dishie 100% Cotton

Dishie in Multi

 My plan is that each person whom I knitting for will get 4 dish cloths. Here is my idea for a few pairings.

Dish Cloth Challenge Help

As I am sitting on the sofa watching some TV thinking about my challenge 52 dish cloths over 52 weeks. I was able to give 4 dish cloths to my daughter , my two sisters, and my Mom this year. (No spoiler as they already opened their gift at Thanksgiving.) However I need to add to this my son  who is getting his own apartment this month and then my nephew and my niece who have their own apartment; they live together.  So my count just went up to 7 family members.  If I add 4 a year for me I need to knit 32 dish cloths each year to keep everyone in dish cloths.

My Mom is going to try to join me in my challenge as she likes to give dish cloths to friends and students. Just because my Mom makes her own I still make some for her and she always different patters than the normal ones I knit everyone else.

For those of you who want to join my challenge I found an instructional video that may help. Just click on the link and you can watch the video over and over as many times as you need.

Learn to Knit a Dishcloth


Let me know if you are planning to join in the challenge :)  My count so far: 2

Dish Cloth Update

I have been working my fingers to the bone. Okay, not really but I am nearing the end of my Christmas knitting needs. One great thing about small projects is that they are easy to take along and work on in your spare time.

Dish cloth yarn comes in so very many colors that you won't get bored with the same cloth over and over. You can chose to knit in holiday colors...

Or a neutral color...

Something to match your kitchen...

Or that of the recipient...

Or just some fun colors.

I encourage you all to give knitting your own dish clothes a try. They end up being like a potato chip...you can't knit just one.

Time Management

Since I have more than one project going on at once I thought I'd explain how I split my time up between each activity.

Each mornings while I am drinking my first cup of coffee I plan out my day as to what I want to get done. After my husband goes off to work and I am home alone I head to my studio to sew or use my longarm machine. When my husband gets home I prefer to knit or spin as I can be in the same room as him. When my husband is traveling then all bets are off and I can spend all my free time in my studio.

This is plan for my time works great except in the summer I want to be outdoors more than indoors on beautiful days. Then I tend to spend just the mornings in my studio it gets so very hot in the afternoons. I will have to do a post one day about my studio space...when its clean.

I think last week when I told you about my self imposed Dish Cloth Challenge I forgot to mention how many cloths I had already knit. I had ten. Ten towards the sixteen I wanted to have done for Christmas. Well this week I was able to knit 3 more so just three more to go in the next few weeks and I am good for this years gifts then I can get started on next years much much longer list of recipients. You can see now why I feel challenging myself to one a week is a good idea.

This dish cloth was a use of left overs. I like how these turn out unexpectedly.

Dish Cloth Challenge

As Christmas is just weeks away I thought I would share with you my favorite gift to give friends and family.  Knitted dish cloths.

I just love these little knitted gifts. They are easy to make and the colors can be so pretty. So what's the challenge you ask? Well, when I give a dish cloth as a gift I like to give 4 at a time. Four of these cuties will last you more than a year before the colors fade and its time for some new one. I have 2 sisters, my daughter and my Mom so right there I need 4 sets of 12. Now add in friends and the number of dish cloths I need raises extremely fast. So my challenge this next year will be to knit one dish cloth a week. Just one at a time instead of a mad dash in November and December. One a week will give me 52 dish cloths, seems like a lot but that is 12 gifts and a few for me along with some margins for error if I fall off for a week here and there. 

So what do I (or you) need to make a dish cloth? It all starts for me with my choice of needles. I prefer a brand of needles called Signature. These to me are the best needles I can buy, and I only buy them once in a while as they are at the top end of the price scale. The red needles above are these Signature needles. Next you need the yarn. I use a 100% cotton called Sugar & Cream. That is it. The pattern is so simple that I have it memorized. It takes me about 4 hours to knit one up and that is with starts and stops. Easy peasy.

I have a few done and ready for this Christmas. It looks like just family will be getting them this year but next year I hope you are on my nice list so that I can give you a handmade beauty :)