Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I Say Washrag, You Say Warshrag

Why I Heart Washrags

1. Instant Gratification - They are quick, easy knits. Cast on and bind off in the same day.

2. Affordable - I use Sugar 'n' Cream cotton yarn, roughly $1.50 per 50-gram skein. A washrag takes up less than 50 grams. That's cheap.

3. Practical Handknits - You can use washrags every day at home. They can be machine washed and dried. And they make great gifts.

4. Easy Pattern - The pattern is easily memorized for on-the-road or tv-watching knitting, and yet it is fun to knit.

5. The Community - You can share you handknits with many, many of the other Mason-Dixon knitters on the knitalong, the official site, or with the swapcloth.

The SwapCloth

I knit and mailed these to my swap buddy, Lisa, in Texas...



That's three warshrags and two petal dishcloths in "girly colors" as per request, which I adore. My buddy says she loves them as well - woohoo!

I received my swap package... all the way from Colorado.



I love it! Thank you very much, Kristine! The dishcloth is the MDK hexagonal washcloth in Peaches 'n' Cream "Fiesta." The happy colors reminds me of Mexican restaurants - bring on the margaritas and quesadillas! My package also included two handknit sachets filled with moth-repellent and green chile jelly. I tried the jelly on toast with scrambled eggs, and it's divinely delicious. I hope I can find more here on the East Coast when I run out.

Gifting Warshrags

What's true Mason-Dixon Knitting? Knitting gifts up North and sending them South, over The Line, for a friend's birthday. One of my childhood girlfriends requested something handknit for her September birthday. She's recently moved to South Carolina, so she didn't want winter weather clothing or accessories. Mason-Dixon towels and warshrags seemed like the perfect gift.



These are the suckers that bled and bled and bled in the vinegar wash. I washed and washed until they stopped bleeding; I didn't want my poor friend to turn all her laundry purple.

For a wedding shower, I knit my old college roommate a couple washrags in berry and tan. My boyfriend picked the colors, and I thought berry was a great color choice since that is the shade of my bridesmaid's dress.

It looks like bricks!

I picked out the perfect matching towels without the washrags
on hand - booyah!


Believe it or not, I'm not done ballbanding just yet.... I currently have a blue and white ballband bathmat on the needles, though that may get tossed to the backburner since I'm in the middle of many, many other projects.

13 comments:

Angela said...

wow I would oe to see the ball band bath mat when you are done, how many did you cast on for your bath mat??? All of your dishcloths that you made as gifts were absolutely beautiful!!! I am sure the recipients will value them greatly.

Susan said...

All your wash cloths are beautiful. I love the petal ones!

Juls said...

nice work! I too have been tickled by the instant gratification. Plus, I love how soft the cotton is after being knit up.

Juls said...

nice work! I too have been tickled by the instant gratification. Plus, I love how soft the cotton is after being knit up.

Rohanknitter said...

All the dishcloths look great, both the ones you are giving and the one you got. The fiesta colorway is great for that bobble cloth.

Stephanie said...

Thanks, everyone. I cast-on 99 stitches for the bathmat since my boyfriend wanted one that was twice as wide as the towels I knit (50 stitches wide), but I think that's too large, so I'm gonna start over, probably casting on 81 stitches instead.

Monika said...

In response to your comment on my blog. I did buy 10 skeins of Knitpicks Daffodil's becasue I like orange and green. We'll se how they look with another pattern. And it was hard work to knit the three pairs in a week, but I didn't do anything else (knitwise), but stuck to it. Normaly I'll knit some here and knit some there. ;o)
Love your washrags. They look so neat on the edges.

Stephanie said...

Thanks, others have said my ballband edges look neat. I've worked long and hard on them, but I still think they look messy, but then, I am a knitting perfectionist.

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Beth said...
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Beth said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beth said...

Do you have a pattern for these? I love them and think they'd make great holiday gifts!!

Stephanie said...

The link to the original petal dishcloth pattern is dead, but this pattern seems to be the same: http://www.groupepp.com/dishbout/kpatterns/petal.html

I followed the ballband dishcloth pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting book, and that's available online also: http://www.canadianliving.com/crafts/knitting/knit_a_ballband_dishcloth.php