Spiral scrubbies & dish cloths

Crocheting and knitting are very relaxing, and if I pick small projects, I don't get bored before the end. So that's what I've been doing in addition to a stitched project that I can't show yet.

These cute little spiral scrubbies have always intrigued me. You can use them for your face or your dishes. The small one is knitted and the other two are crocheted. I much prefer the crocheted because you get those nice ridges by crocheting in the back loop only. I haven't figured out how to make them as neat in the end as all the tutorial photos, but how neat do they need to be really? But if anyone knows a trick they can share, I'd appreciate it. They are all done with worsted weight cotton yarn.

Click here for the crocheted tutorial.

Click here for the knitted version.



I haven't been keeping up with the Monthly Dishcloth Group, but I checked in and found a couple of designs to try.

The first is 'April Showers'. Supposed to look like raindrops I guess. Fun to knit.



The second cracks me up. The pattern is called Log Cabin, as if you couldn't guess. It's kind of hard to see the pattern in the photo. I could use a good lesson in photography I think.

Drop back 5 yards and trapunto...

Using my wayback machine to return to the 70's, I was thinking about a needlepoint pillow I made in those days when needlepoint was all the rage. The pillow sits on a rocking chair to this day, but usually just seems like part of the wood work now. I couldn't remember the name of the technique I used, but after asking around on a couple of boards, I learned this from Jamie:

"The term for raising part of a design by stuffing (or adding cording) is trapunto. The term for attaching a piece to another layer is applique. So this would be either stuffed or trapuntoed applique.

And both of those techniques (among others) are some of those used in the needlework style known as stumpwork. Technically, a stuffed applique on canvas is a padded slip. (As is a slip which is appliqued over one or more layers of felt padding.)"

Two of the strawberries in the photo below were stitched on separate pieces of canvas and then stitched to the main canvas. The main canvas was then slit behind the berries and stuffed so the berries are raised, kind of 3-d like. If you can't see this very well (click on the photo to enlarge), the two raised berries are the 3rd from the bottom and the one directly above that, almost in the center of the piece.

The design was from one the Sunset needlepoint books that I no longer have.




And for cleaning up after French cooking, we have my latest dishcloth. I love these overlapping leaves. The design is called 'Vineyards' by Danielle Côté. Both the French and English versions of the pattern can be found here.

Double your pleasure...

A friend of mine became a first-time grandmother of twin boys recently, and I offered to stitch a baby sampler for them. Just finished it yesterday. This is the 12 Houses Sampler by Drawn Thread stitched on summer khaki 36 ct Edinburgh linen over 2 threads. I substituted DMC colors for some of the hand-dyed threads. And I modified some of the specified colors where I thought it worked better. I added the path, fence, birds and flower at the bottom since I had extra space between the names. The houses use some specialty stitches which were fun to do, but hard on the eyes on this fine-count linen. The babies don't have middle names, only middle initials. The babies were conceived in vitro and the initials stand for the names the doctors gave their blastospheres. The photo is clickable if you want to see more detail.



I also found another fascinating pattern for a dishcloth. This is a round one that did not require double pointed needles. It's knit using short rows to create wedges and requires only one seam at the end to connect the first wedge to the last wedge. The pattern can be found here. This is knit using Rosewood Sugar and Cream cotton yarn.

Revived UFO and one new technique

Once I started combining the internet with my stitching, I seem to have switched to only doing smalls. It started when I joined a lot of exchanges, and then it just seemed like more fun to get things finished quickly. So I have one neglected larger piece that was in progress at that time and has since fallen by the wayside into UFO-land. I picked it up recently and discovered that I really do like working on it, although I doubt that I would start something like it today. The stitching at the bottom with the bunnies is the latest addition. This is "Countryside Spring" from the Stoney Creek Magazine, April 2005. Its on 18 count Aida from Silkweaver.com (the first piece of hand-dyed fabric I ever bought!). It's clickable for more detail.



Once the knitting needles had been fired up, I couldn't put them down either. So I tried a new technique, knitting with double-pointed needles. I made a ton of errors in this dishcloth, and I can barely recognize some of the petals in the Double Flower pattern I used. I probably should have chosen something simpler to practice on, but this was the design that appealed to me. It kind of reminds me of a white pizza!

Dishcloth Mania & Minipops

I really had to scratch my head to understand why Dishcloth Mania seemed to be sweeping the on-line knitting community. Then I realized it was like making x-stitch smalls. You could try out new patterns, stitches and yarns. You could complete the item quickly before the project bogged down and became a potential UFO. Plus they make good little gifts, and they are actually useful.

So I dusted off the knitting needles that hadn't seen the light of day for a few years. Then I found an intriguing pattern for mock cables that needed no cable needle. The cables are all made by increasing and decreasing the number of stitches. I used Butter Ombre Sugar & Cream cotton yarn and I loved how the variegation worked up. I made a lot of mistakes, but it's just a dish cloth so I don't think it matters so much.

You can find the pattern here along with lots of others.



For more quick finishes, I stitched up two additional minipop designs.

We have the Fleetwood Mac cover photo from the Rumors album. Who would believe you could get the idea with such limited detail. And then the cast of Seinfeld. A readily identifiable Kramer at least.



Finally, the winner of the Angel Collectors pattern is that Venezuelan angel, Sandra. Only took a flip of a coin to decide, but I'm happy the chart will have a good home. Thanks to both the entrants for playing!