Knitted Tea Towel

I like knitting simple useful projects like this tea towel. It is something I can finish fast and knit without having to think about it much. I got my idea for this from Page's Soft Cotton Knit Dishtowels . Her towels are much smaller than I wanted but I got the basic idea. I found a huge bag of cotton yarn for five dollars at my local Goodwill Store. It is South Maid Cotton 8. Most of it is white or ecru and a few peach and periwinkle skeins too. It is finer yarn than Page's towels used so I adapted the pattern to fit what I had. I used size 5 knitting needles and I cast on 70 stitches. My towel ended up about 14 inches by 18 inches.

I picked up these three vintage dishtowels a few weeks ago at the auction. They were among three boxes of household linens that I won for only $4.00. They are in really nice condition one has several stains but I may try a more aggressive washing to see if I can get them out. Or I may just use it as is. I patterned my knitted dishtowel after these. I have been having so much fun going to the auction and coming home with my new old goodies. I already completed another project with some other things from this buy. I will show this soon.

A gift for the cat.

I picked up Nicky Epstein Knitting A Kiss In Every Stitch a few weeks ago. This book has some adorable knitting projects that would make great gifts for family and friends. There are many darling hats for all ages from infants to teen and beyond. I want to try the Pampering Spa Cloths. They have a beautiful organic look to them. The sweet sock have a cute lace cuff that I would love to try. I love making socks but I get all happy making the first one and never get the second one finished. I have several sock projects in progress around this house I supose I should finish those before starting on another.

Well I spotted a project that would be quick to finish and I already had everything I needed in my stash. The Knitty Kitty Play Mat was something I knew my cat would love. Well my cat is kind of lazy and mostly sleeps so a play mat is not something she would play with. However I knew she would love to sleep on it. This mat is easy to knit and then it is felted in the washing machine to make it nice and thick. And Chloe my large cat does enjoy sleeping on it.

I thought she need something for this basket that she took over. I had used this basket for holding crafts at Bible School and had emptied it out and sat it on the floor. Chloe imediately decided to take a nap in it. Now it was covered in cat hair so it now belonged to her. I didn't really mind because it was an old stained basket not much use to me anymore. As you can see Chloe like her new mat.

Knitting Necklace

This is the first thing I made for my partner in the Cupcake Swap. I got the idea while visiting a yarn store while on vacation a few years ago. I wish I had taken a picture of the necklaces they had, but I have kept the idea tucked away in my head for a while. I wanted to buy one but the $65.00 price tag told me I couldn't. I'm not sure mine is anything like the knitting necklace they had.

For the Knitting necklace I made has stitch markers hanging from a large hook. I made the stitch markers using Shrink-its. At first I was just going to make cupcake stitch markers for my partner. Then I remembered the necklaces I saw on vacation and I have been wanting to make one for a long time. I had already collected the items I needed to make one. Even though the yarn cutter doesn't match the cupcake theme, I already had it and the necklace need a yarn cutter I think. Then I added 2 row counters. Now my partner will have everything she needs at hand to keep track of her knitting.

I find the stitch markers to be very handy even for simple designs. You especially need them for more complicated designs. But I often forget to change my row counter after every row. I really don't know of a better way. Do they make automatic row counters for knitting that change themselves after every row. As usual I want to make one of these for myself. I have some really cute cupcake stitch markers that I got in the last cupcake swap I was in. I just love them and have used them many times.

Spring Flowers

I have all kinds of daffodils blooming in my yard. I decided to go out and cut a few to decorate my table. Keeping with the daffodil theme I crocheted a new dish scrubbie. I really have several knitting and crocheting projects in the works right now. I wanted to make something quick and easy. This project came from one of my new books Big Book of Dishcloths Potholders & Scrubbies . There are several other adorable flower scrubbies in there and some cute dishcloths too. I love using the cotton knit and crochet dishcloths. They are really quick to make and I can practice a new stitch on a small useful project. I know I will be making many more projects from this book. I like projects that can be finished in a short amount of time.

Some of the other projects in the works are much more time consuming. I am working on a crocheted sweater and some knitted knee socks. The sweater is actually going together pretty quickly. But the knitted knee socks are going to take a while to finish. I also have a blanket I have been working on for about a year. I haven't worked on that in quite a while. Even though I have several projects in the works I do manage to finish some of them from time to time. I guess my favorite part is starting something. I will be letting you know when I finish something else.