Happy 2010

My life story is being a bit behind lately.  Anyway here’s the January Monthly Dishcloth KAL.
Here’s wishing everyone a happy new year!

December Cloths

I decided to post all the cloths I knitted in December.  I’ll start with the last ones I did, which were the December Mid-Month Dishcloth KAL.  As I started knitting I saw what looked like leaves appearing, so I knitted this in green.  (Sorry the picture is a bit blurry)

After knitting this, I discovered the title was Vegas Fountains so I decided to knit it again using blue for water.

The rest of the cloths I knitted in December are Christmasy.  This is the December Monthly Dishcloth KAL (from the first of December).  This is called Wrapper Cloth.

I forgot about this angel.  It was November’s Mid-Month Dishcloth KAL.

I found this pattern on the Mason-Dixon blog and decided to try it with a variegated yarn.

This is called Shades of Christmas and was shared with the Monthly Dishcloth KAL group by Janet Nogle.

Someone in one of my knitting groups did this Christmas cloth in stripes yarn.  I loved it so much I decided to do one also.

A feather and fan in variegated yarn.

Grandma’s favorite with a crocheted border.

Another Grandma’s favorite with crocheted border.  The stripe was inspired by the above Wrapper Cloth.

Christmas Tree Dishcloth

This is the November Monthly Dishcloth KAL. It was a nice simple cloth to do. It has gotten me excited about other Christmas dishcloths that I want to do.

Log Cabin Dishcloth

Here is the October mid-month Monthly Dishcloth KAL. I really enjoyed doing this KAL - especially because I had not a clue what I was knitting, which was front or back until I finished the peak of the roof. Then it was, Oh, it's a log cabin!
I knitted this one twice. Once reading the pattern forwards, and again reading it right to left.

A Dish Monkey

I've been missing in action a bit lately. Lance updated the computer with Windows 7 and I'm totally lost on it now. I have no idea how to edit photos or for that matter upload them.

Here's my Monthly Dishcloth KAL for the beginning of October - I knitted this with size 5 needles.
This next monkey was knitted with size 4 needles - the cloths only differ in size by about 1 inch. (Editing photos, i.e. cropping this picture is still something that I can't do. I don't know what program use yet. Hmm, I don't like change.)

Amber has been wanting a cloth and has picked the darker brown monkey as one of her favorites.

Finally Caught Up

Since I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL at the end of March, I've been keeping up with the dishcloths as they've come along. In between time I've been trying to play catch up. Well I've finally finished January through March and their mid-months. This is March's Pot O' Gold.

I did a little experiment with the lighter yellow cloth. According to the pattern, the image is created on the right side of the cloth, with the wrong side being border then purling across. In the lighter cloth, I tried the pattern by creating the image on the wrong side with the right side being border then knitting. The difference is very subtle, but I believe that the image is stronger when created on the right side - as in the darker yellow cloth. The colors and yarns can fool one a bit, but I was able to feel a difference.

Playing Catch Up

For the past several weeks I've been trying to catch up on the February mid-month dishcloth. I am finally done with this one!! This is called Circle Cloth.

Rhombus

This is the September mid-month dishcloth KAL. We just got the last rows last night, so I don't have the official name for this cloth. I decided to name the cloth, Rhombus, because it is a rhombus. I also wanted to dedicate this cloth to Amber, who is trying to memorize the definition of a rhombus.


A rhombus is an equilateral parallelogram.

September ABC Dishcloth

School has begun and my times seems to be tied up with helping Amber with her home schooling/charter school work and my job - the office manager at her charter school. Some nights I'm so tired that I don't have the energy to knit.
This is my excuse for not posting my knitting lately.
Here are the September KAL dishcloths - very appropriate for this time of year.
I added one row of knit before I did my border on the yellow dishcloth. Subtle but I think I like it better.

August Mid-Month KAL

I was hoping for a name for this cloth before I blogged about it, but so far no name as been given to us. I need to make a quick disclaimer - I don't usually block my dishcloths before I take pictures or use them. I figure that they are to be used to work and don't need to be shaped.
I did get carried away with this dishcloth and made four different cloths. This tea rose colored one is as the pattern reads.
I found that I didn't care for the last row of eyelet hole at the very top before the border. I decided I wanted it a bit more symmetrical, so for the purple one I omitted row 56.

As I finished the purple one, I realized that it wasn't symmetrical from left to right. So I decided to try another cloth - the yellow one. For this cloth, I cast on 41 stitches and changed the eyelet rows by adding a K1 before I started the yo, k2tog repeats. This centered the eyelets much better. I also omitted row 56.

Then of course, I decided to try one other experiment. The previous cloths had the eyelets in vertical rows, so I changed this last cloth to alternate the holes. I did this one by following the pattern that I changed for the yellow cloth. Then I alternated the eyelet rows by reading it forward the first time (row 8), then backwards, right to left, the next time (row 12), back and forth.

August Dishcloths

I finished the August KAL just in time to start the August mid-month KAL. I struggled with this cloth. I had it almost done (11 rows to the end) when I realized I couldn't make out the flower or the words. So I ripped it out and started over using needles 2 sizes smaller.
After finishing the thank you cloth, I decided I wanted to make an August themed dishcloth as my second cloth. So I went back into the files and found this lighthouse from 2006. This reminds me of August and summer because I love going to the beach this time of year.

School of Fishies Bath Cloths

I know that I already posted pictures of the fishy Tawashi, but I made some more of these last night. Heidi, I liked your idea of using these as kids' bath cloths. So, I'm sending these to Aimee, Betty, and Katie from their Auntie Miriam. Grandma and Grandpa will deliver them this weekend. Enjoy!!

Fishy Tawashi

I am slow at posting, maybe because I went through a bit of a knitting lull. Here are July's mid-month dishcloth KAL. It was supposed to be knitted in acrylic yarn. Well my dishcloth stash is cotton, so I knitted this in cotton. The eye is done using the crochet method.
After seeing what I was knitting, I remembered a book I used to read to the kids, Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. I decided my next fishy needed to be blue and green. I also made a change in this fishy. I knitted this with a smaller needles (size 8) and CO 20 st. It turned out slightly bigger, but I like the closer knit.

Two fishies swimming in the sea.

Beach Umbrella

I have just finished the July dishcloth KAL. I spent my whole knitting experience trying to guess what in the world I was knitting. This purple one was my first beach umbrella dishcloth. Because I'm a left-handed knitter, my umbrella leaned to the left as opposed to the pattern which leans to the right.
Last night I made the green one and knitted it reading the pattern from right to left. Sometimes that can be a trick!

June's Mid-Month Dishcloth

I have finished June's mid-month dishcloth. The recommended color was a variegated yarn, but I couldn't see the pattern of the cloth because of the distraction of the color changes, so I ripped it out and started again with a solid color.
After knitting the red cloth, I made a change by doing rows 1-10 twice to balance the center diamonds. Mom says this is one of her favorite patterns so far.

More Dishcloth Catch-up

I only have a few more patterns still to catch up on. Here is February's Monthly KAL.

I didn't really care for this pattern. I have tried to figure out why, and decided that it may be the same reason that I don't like posters on bedroom walls or wearing T-shirts with writing on them. Since I didn't like it well enough to do another one, I found another valentine type dishcloth and decided to make it.

American Flag

June's Monthly Dishcloth KAL was the American Flag.
After doing the flag above, I thought it would be fun to do it in color. I have knitted different colors only by changing color at the beginning of a row. Intarsia is a technique where the color is added in the middle of a row. I figure this is as great a time as any to learn a new technique. I think I did o.k.

Cabbage Patch

Here's May's mid-month dishcloth with my revisions. Now that I know the name, I thought it would be appropriate to knit it in green. Unfortunately this has been the extent of my gardening this year.

Dishcloth Fever

I have been driven by dishcloths lately, to the extent of staying up until the wee hours of the morning. The following two dishcloths are my catch up of January's Mid-month KAL, called Cheyenna. The first is knitted from some scrap yarn that I have gotten from a knitting basket that used to belong to Ida Shurtz. Many of you will remember her from Eugene First Ward. I found out after I married Lance that she was also one of Grandma Bacon's best friends.

This one is called grandma's favorite. When Theresa (Holland) Raymond taught me to knit, she taught me with this pattern. A couple of years ago I started adding a crocheted border to this pattern. I started this on Thursday night when I went to a Book Club for Enrichment. I have a hard time sitting still and not having my hands busy.

Weekend Knitting

I had a wonderful weekend with a little bit of down time, so I was able to do some extra knitting. I finished this wonderful dishcloth which was designed by a very talented lady. I didn't find the pattern until after Mother's Day, but how appropriate.
Since I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL at the end of March, I didn't get the dishcloths knitted from the beginning of the year. I've decided to try to knit those dishcloths when I can find the time. If I can get them all done and posted on the KAL group site, I will enter the 2009 Challenge for the year. This is January's dishcloth.

It will be fun to have a bunch of dishcloths with monthly themes and then also just dishcloths.