Here's The Stuff

Ok so, as promised, here's all the knitting that I've been up to recently!

First, I did a washcloth in the "lacy mock-cable" pattern that I got from Dishcloth Boutique. I highly recommend Dishcloth Boutique. All the patterns there are free and they are very nice. This washcloth is done one skein of Sugar & Cream in the Rosewood colorway. I chose this because it actually looked like Neapolitan ice-cream! I like how it turned out. I am giving this cloth to my mom with some other goodies for her birthday. The other dishcloth in the picture is for my Dishcloth Swap pal, who said that her kitchen was done in black & white. This is the pattern from the Mason Dixon Knitting book. Do not adjust your monitors! :-) It really is black on white, then white on black, then black on white again! I think it turned out cool! Again, this is just regular ol' cotton yarn, Bernat Handicrafter, one black and one white skein. I probably have enough left over to make another cloth too.


Here's another shot of them, without a flash so you can kind-of see the patten a little better on the Neapolitan one:

I ordered a bunch of stuff from Yarn & Thread By Lisa, again, a site I highly recommend. She has great prices on yarn, particularly the cottons. So I bought some Bernat Handicrafter in a twist of colors, I think it was called Summer Twist. Anyway, the twist yarn is really cool! Because you don't get any pooling or weird striping of the yarn because all the colors are twisted together as separate strands. There was a free pattern on the label for a bath mitt.



So I made one to include in the package for my Dishcloth Swap pal. Super easy and I think it turned out pretty nice! I plan on making a bunch more of these.

Then I started another Market Bag. I bought some Bernat yarn called Cool Crochet in their Neapolitan colorway. This is interesting yarn. It's mostly cotton with a bit of nylon in it, which gives it a sheen. I am knitting this bag with 2 strands together throughout because it's thinner than regular cotton yarn and the Fantasy Naturale (which the pattern calls for). I tried to line up the two skeins so that the colors would match up. So far so good.





I mentioned once before that an ongoing project of mine for the last month or so has been a baby blanket for my sister's baby. I am using the same "lacy mock-cable" pattern that I used in the dishcloth above. It translates really well from a dishcloth to a larger-scale project, such as a blanket. To me, the pattern has a very organic look to it. I really like it a lot. I am knitting this with Caron Felt-It yarn in the Wildflowers colorway. Honestly, in person, the yarn is a lot less impressive. For one thing, the colorway isn't quite as pictured (as you will see in my photos below). There isn't nearly as much variety in color, but it's still nice. Also, it's 100% wool that is like barely twisted beyond wool roving into yarn. It's obviously meant for easy felting, but I really liked the colorway so much and couldn't find anything comparable. I'm about 1/3 done:


Here is a close-up so you can see the pattern:


Overall, I am happy with how it's turning out. I still haven't decided if it's going to be too itchy or not once it's done. I might try to sew a cotton or flannel backing to it after I block it. But I'll have to see if a gentle wash will soften it up a little. I hope to have this finished soon. Maybe I should stop casting-on new projects and just buckle down and get this DONE!

So that's what I've been up to. That and reading the Song of Ice and Fire series and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I swear, there seriously aren't enough hours in the day, I'm telling you....