Needlework Tuesday - Dishcloths and more

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.


How was your Christmas? We rented a chalet in a provincial park for a few days and it was awesome. I didn't get to spend a lot of time knitting, but it was wonderfully relaxing. The chalet had a two person jetted tub (among other amenities), while the lodge next door featured a salt water pool and spa as well as a small fitness centre. Even with all of that "relaxing", I managed to get a few things accomplished.

Before we left I started the latest project from Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month. If you remember, it was a hat/fingerless mitt set made with sock yarn. Since the yarn is quite fine, a hat made from it wouldn't be that warm. Therefore, the pattern gives the knitter the option of either making two thinner hats or making one doubly-thick reversible hat, essential one thinner hat inside the other. Cool idea, eh?

I wanted to start it to see how this yarn was going to knit up. That is, to see if a pattern would emerge like the photo accompanying the kit. I know a number of you assured me that would be the case, but I had to see for myself. Here's the beginning of one hat:

I'm having just a little trouble with stitches falling off the needles, but otherwise I love it!!

While we were away, I worked on two small projects...dishcloths. The first one features my all-time favourite pattern. It's a basket weave pattern surrounded by seed stitch.

The second is a pattern I made up myself. When I made my shawl, I learned how about using slip stitches in a pattern. I essentially used the same technique in this dishcloth. It turned out a little small, but it was an experiment after all, so I'm quite pleased with the result. Here it is:

The left-hand edge is a little wonky, but it has all of the yarn joins on it. I think I made it worse by trying to carry one of the yarns up the side.  Next time, I'll have to make it a little bigger and be more consistent with joining yarns.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I like big dishcloths and the ones I made at that time were a too small for my liking. To see the difference, here's the latest two along with the one that's too small:

In addition to these, I've been working on the pink baby blanket I mentioned two weeks ago and am still enjoying the entrelac technique.  I'll have an photo to show of that next week.

This coming week I'm going to continue to work on the baby blanket as well as the sock yarn hat. Another project from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month should be coming next week, so I might have a look at that project.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.