Dishcloths Galore

Okay, so I finished one of the toys, and have finished the knitting for the other toy. Unfortunately, I've since learned that I HATE post knitting construction and have been procrastinating on it ever since. It's currently sitting in my room, languishing without it's arms, legs, or eyes attached. Instead, I bring you more dishcloths. Because they're my favorite.

First up is a lovely double knit potholder. My boyfriend and I are watching Star Trek from beginning to end, and are currently in the good times for TNG, so I thought this was a rather fitting project. I can't wait to get to Voyager, so I might have a special project to commemorate getting there. Maybe it'll motivate me to watch faster!

Pattern found here.

I've also been interested in making a few little scrubbies, but my attempt at the Tribble ended in a broken string and some severe frustration so I can't show it to you as of now. On the other hand, this little Fleur-de-lis cloth is almost the perfect size for a scrubbie without the difficulty that tightening a string seems to present me.

Pattern found here.

Okay so I haven't sewn in the ends or blocked it yet, shoot me. I've been similarly neglectful of the other two I will be sharing today. It's a small, quick knit and I know several people who either like this elegant design or the football team that uses it as their logo. I can see this being at the top of a stack of homemade, beribboned cloths for a nice present.

This dishcloth is meant to emulate stained glass, and I think it is the best looking variegated yarn usage I've seen yet. Of course, it is helped by the fact that I picked out one with bold colors. Even as I was first joining the color, I knew I loved the vibrant green and blue colors. It was almost decadent to knit.

Pattern found here under April 2011 KAL. Members only, but joining is free.

Back view is pretty too!

Finally, let's talk about the fact that I am still learning to knit. And I might need to work on my pattern following skills. Because when you don't follow the pattern, sometimes bad things happen. Like this:

Same place as last time, it's Aug 2007's mid-month KAL.

Two things went horribly awry in this dishcloth, preventing it from being quite as lovely as it should be. First of all, I held the yarn for the cable in front wrong from the beginning. It is twisting together instead of outwards, and I didn't realize until it was two sets of cabling later and I'm not yet brave enough to undo rows where I've cabled. I thought I could live with it and decided to move on. I even knit some of the middle of this while celebrating St Patrick's Day. No mistakes.

Then I decided to do the last two sets of cabling and finish it off the next morning, and unfortunately made a big mistake. I didn't pay enough attention to my pattern. I obviously cabled too soon, and then ended up knitting the stitches I was supposed to be moving around. Part of the problem is that I didn't listen to what the cloth was telling me.

Back view.

This view is a little difficult, but you might be able to tell that the lines of purling that are on either side of the stitches which are cabled zigzag in a uniform way until the mistake at the top. I saw these while I was knitting. I saw them. And I did nothing. If I'd bothered to look at my pattern as a whole before I got to the last five rows of garter stitch, I would've realized my mistake soon enough to fix it. Instead, I happily knitted along, ignoring my instinct because I totally had the pattern down by the last set of cables.

Obviously I was wrong! I will try to never ignore my instincts again. I don't think this will stop me from ever making another mistake, but it might mean a few fewer. I haven't sewed in the ends and blocked it yet because I'm still debating at least fixing those last two sets of cabling. It's not so very many rows, and I could probably figure out how to backtrack through cabling. Plus, I could document it carefully and make myself a little guide for if/WHEN I need to fix cables again.

I'm heading on another trip next week, during which time I will be giving away several dishcloths. This means I will finally be able to post pictures of them on here! I've done some interesting patterns, and another few picture patterns. I considered saving them for Christmas gifts, but that's just so far away I don't think I can wait that long. I also found a nice deal on some sock weight wool yarn, and I'm going to be attempting to knit a sock or two in the near future. I just need to get myself some size 1 dpns...