Sunidesus Knits

It's the slip-stitch warshrag from the MDK book!

I used a light blue and an off white 100% cotton worsted-weight from Sugar n'Cream. The pattern doesn't belong to me so I'm not reprinting it here. It was really fun and easy to knit up. The only problem I have is with the right edge, it just doesn't look smooth and "finished" to me. But I'm not really sure what to do about that.

I've heard other people have problems knitting with cotton, but I was ok with that. My only issue was that it has a kind of strange texture to it. It almost feels like cloth that has had soap dry in it, kind of waxy I guess. But the finished product doesn't have that feel at all. I've since started the bathmat project from the book with Peaches and Cream and it doesn't have that weird feel to it. No idea what that's all about.

(cross-posted to the MDK Knit-a-long)

Close up!

I just had to take a picture of this... I used my hand-knit! And oh my word does cotton take a long time to dry!

I've decided to work on FO posting today. So this'll probably be the first of a bunch of entries today.

This washcloth has been finished since the second week of August. It was the beginning of the month pattern from the Yahoo monthly dishcloth group for August. It was my first time knitting a pattern like this without knowing what it would end up as. I quite enjoyed it! It was fun to guess what it could be.

The yarn is Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton in purple. I've been using this one lately in the kitchen and the purple is bleeding just a tad. Just enough to give the dish water a slight lavender cast. I need to go hunting for how to set a color so that I'll be able to send it through the washing machine with other stuff.

Oh, and I used size 7 needles. That size seems to work the best for me with this particular kind of yarn.

This was the August Mid Month pattern from the Yahoo Monthly Dishcloths group. Based on when I took the picture I think I finished this sometime around the end of September/beginning of October.

I used Sugar n'Cream and size 7 needles. The colors I used were Light Blue (00026) for the solid and Pretty Pastels (00199) for the variegated.

I like this pattern quite a bit. I like the little blips of color in the middle of the main color. They kind of look like little flower buds to me.

This is what happens when I procrastinate.

This one was the beginning of the month pattern for September in the Monthly Dishcloths Yahoo group. I finished it after the August Mid-Month one so I'm thinking beginning of October-ish for this one.

Size 7 needles again (those work the best for me with dishcloth cotton yarn), this time the yarn is Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton, they seem to just call it Lion Cotton now but that's what the ball band said. It comes in great big balls and I love that!

I think this is the last washcloth for a while. This one is the Mid-September pattern from the aforementioned Monthly Dishcloths Yahoo group. It seems I finished this one around the beginning of October as well. I bought the yarn on October 14th and took the picture on the 16th so apparently it was a pretty quick knit!

I used the cotton cone yarn that I bought at Webs in October, doubled because it's pretty thin yarn. The end result is a lot thinner than the washcloths with the regular kitchen cotton kind of yarn. I think if I vary the way I hold the two strands together I could get it to either stripe or be kind of uniformly multi-colored. If I single-strand it it'd probably work for something for my mom. She likes her washcloths thin!

The pattern seems like it would transfer easily to a scarf or a shawl.

The Mason Dixon Washcloth from the MDK book.

I followed the pattern from the book using size 8 needles and Sugar n'Cream in the Buttercream Ombre colorway. My first time doing bobbles, they weren't difficult, just kind of a pain. I knit most of this while watching the Survivor finale on the CBS website in my dad's office! It was while I was home in December for Christmas and Mom and Dad had company so I made myself scarce.

I made this as a present along with some handmade soap and I couldn't find an appropriate ribbon to sinch up the top. So I made about 20 inches of i-cord with the leftover yarn and voila! A tie! Worked quite well. I'm sure I'll do this again since it's fairly fast and it does make a great gift.

The colors are off in this shot, but it's the only one that shows the i-cord tie.

The picture isn't the best, the stitches just don't show up that well. When I took it I had to shoot inside and use my flash and that washed out the texture a bit.

I was home for Christmas and didn't know what to get my grandpa. My mom said she'd been helping him clean or organize his kitchen or something and they found a hand-knit washcloth in one of the drawers and he said how much he liked those. So I made him a couple! It's so much fun to be able to give someone something that they like and will appreciate. I love it when that happens. And ya know, he's my grandpa! It's wonderful to be able to make him happy.

The Stats...
Needles: 8's
Yarn: Lily - Buttercream ombre
Pattern: Woven Dishcloth, the pattern calls for 8 and a half repeats, but I did 9 and a half to make it more square
Sizing: 10.5" x 10"
SPI: 4
Started: 12-16-2007
Finished: 12-17-2007

This was given to my grandpa along with the Basketweave Washcloth.

The end result is a fine washcloth, but I don't think I'll make this pattern again. The little hole things along the diagonals are a bit large for my taste; I did knit through back loops all over the place to tighten it up as much as possible.

The Stats...
Needles: 8's
Yarn: Sugar'n Cream, 00202 - midnight magic ombre
Pattern: 4 Corners Dishcloth
Sizing: 9.75" square
SPI: 4
Started: 12-17-2007
Finished: 12-18-2007

This is the first of a series of washcloths I made for Christmas. They ended up as a big stack that relatives all picked from. And I got to try out a bunch of stitch patterns.

I like this one quite a bit, it does cool things to variegated colors. Really just followed the directions from the linked pattern.

The Stats...
Needles: 7's (4.5mm)
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream - colorway Beach Ball Blue (half a "super size" ball)
Pattern: Chinese Waves Dishcloth
Sizing: 8.75" by 8.5"
SPI: 5.2
Started: 11-22-2008
Finished: 11-22-2008

Another Christmas washcloth... Did one extra knit stitch on either side of the washcloth for a bit of selvage, and k1, purl to last stitch, k1 on the wrong side.

The Stats...
Needles: 7's (4.5mm)
Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream - Beach Ball Blue (half a "super size" ball)
Pattern: "tiny bamboo" stitch (#224 in Vogue Stitchionary v.1), co 44
Sizing: 9.25" by 8.75"
SPI: 4.75
Started: 11-22-2008
Finished: 11-23-2008

I think I must have done an extra stitch or two on either side as selvage, but I honestly don't remember. At least that's what the picture looks like.

The Stats...
Needles: 7's (4.5mm)
Yarn: Peaches & Creme - color #26, light blue (used 1.3 oz, slightly more than half the ball)
Pattern: Vogue Stitchionary v.1 #8, co 39
Sizing: 9" by 8.5"
SPI: 4.3
Started: 11-26-2008
Finished: 11-26-2008

This is another one that seems to work really well with the variegated stuff. It looks very cool, however it does bias quite a bit to the left. The interchangeable circs were also really helpful. One size on either end of the cable, worked great.

The Stats...
Needles: 7's (4.5mm) & 10.5's (6.5mm)
Yarn: Lion Cotton - 214 Naturals and Denim (used 1.4 oz of 4 oz ball)
Pattern: Grecian Plait, Walker v.1 pg 131, co 42, 2 stitches of garter on either side
Sizing: 10" by 9.25"
SPI: 4.2
Started: 11-27-2008
Finished: 11-28-2008

I just about always use size 7's with this kind of yarn, but the pattern just did not look right. Went down a needle size and the whole thing tightened up and looked a lot better.

The Stats...
Needles: 6's (4mm)
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream - sage green (used 1.4 oz of 2.6 oz ball)
Pattern: Parallelogram Check (Harmony Guides, 450 Knitting Stitches pg. 25), co 38, 4 rows of seed stitch at top and bottom, 4 stitches of seed on either side
Sizing: 9.75" by 9.25"
SPI: 4
Started: 11-28-2008
Finished: 11-29-2008

The Stats...
Needles: 7's (4.5mm)
Yarn: Lion Cotton - 214 Naturals and Denim (used 1.7 oz.)
Pattern: Three-and-One Pattern (Barbara Walker v. 1 pg. 94), co 43, doesn't need any selvage stitches
Sizing: 9.5" by 9"
SPI: 4.5
Started: 11-29-2008
Finished: 11-30-2008

Slip stitch patterns just work so very well with alternating colors! It amazes me how different the stitch can look depending on how the colors change (or don't change.)

The Stats...
Needles: 7's (4.5mm)
Yarn: Peaches & Creme - Light Blue (0.9 oz) and Sugar 'n Cream - Softly Taupe (0.8 oz)
Pattern: Three-and-One Pattern (Barbara Walker v. 1 pg. 94) - changed color every two rows, co 43
Sizing: 9.25" by 8.5"
SPI: 4.5
Started: 11-30-2008
Finished: 11-30-2008

Once again, I went down a needle size from my normal for this one. And I'd like to say that I planned out how the seed stitch along the edges would work with the pattern, but that was just a really happy accident. The seed stitch just matched exactly perfectly with the main pattern so the diamonds blend right into the edging. Yay for accidentally picking the right stitch count!

The Stats...
Needles: 6's (4mm)
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream - Softly Taupe (used 1.6 oz)
Pattern: Embossed Diamonds - pg 27 of Harmony Guide 450 Knitting Stitches, co 39, 4 rows of seed at top and bottom, 3 stitches of seed on either side
Sizing: 10" by 9.75"
SPI: 4
Started: 11-30-2008
Finished: 12-5-2008

The Stats...
Needles: 7's (4.5mm)
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream - 02235 Country Side Ombre (1.6 oz)
Pattern: "tiny bamboo" stitch (#224 in Vogue Stitchionary v.1), co 44, 1 stitch of garter on either side
Sizing: 9.75" by 9.5"
SPI: 4.5
Started: 12-5-2008
Finished: 12-7-2008

This particular stitch makes a really different fabric than most of the other washcloths I've done. It's a much flatter and tighter thing, kind of stiffer. I might do another one with this stitch for myself, I'm curious as to how the different texture affects it's scrubbiness.

The Stats...
Needles: 6's (4mm)
Yarn: Peaches & Creme - 165 Daisy Ombre (1.2 oz)
Pattern: Vogue Stitchionary v.1 #220 linen stitch, co 38, doesn't need selvage stitches
Sizing: 9" by 8.5"
SPI: 4.25
Started: 12-7-2008
Finished: 12-09-2008

Instead of two solids I used a solid and a variegated on this one. It did take a while to find a combination that worked well. All the colors in the variegated one had to contrast a decent amount with the solid or else it just got all muddy and seemed pointless to use two colors. I did try two variegated at one point and that just really didn't work.

The Stats...
Needles: 7's (4.5mm)
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream - Softly Taupe (0.9 oz) and Peaches and Cream - Winterberry (0.7 oz)
Pattern: Three-and-One Pattern (Barbara Walker v. 1 pg. 94) - changed color every two rows, co 43
Sizing: 9.25" by 8.25"
SPI: 4.5
Started: 12-10-2008
Finished: 12-11-2008