Things I've discovered about dishcloths

I developed a thing for knitted cotton dishcloths after I received one from Suse at a bloggy meet in February this year. Before that, I'd always wondered why on earth you would bother knitting dishcloths, and why they would be preferable to other cleaning cloths.

When I put it to use, I discovered that it was brilliant for wiping down counters, the stove top, the Scanpan, the sink, the breadboard and a whole manner of dirty dishes. It lifted grime and grease with ease. Somehow using it lended kitchen cleaning duties a pleasingly natural, tactile domestic air, instead of the clinically processed air that cleaning product commercials portray. It was the perfect size to hang on the sink spout to dry, and unlike pretty much every other dishcloth I've ever used, it actually did completely dry between uses (which is one of the key things to keeping your cleaning cloths bacteria free without a barrage of chemicals). I also discovered that when I tossed it in the laundry for a thorough clean, I was lost for a cloth for a day.

So I decided to knit some more myself.

When knitting dishcloths, your pattern choices seem to fall into three basic types- ones that have a textural repeated stitch pattern, ones that have a "picture" (frequently a map of a state in the USA it would seem) in stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch relief, or ones that have a different shape, or are knit on the bias.

Personally, I'm attracted to knitting the textural ones. They're like little stitch swatches, a chance to try out a pattern which might turn out to be mindnumbingly boring at one extreme, or a pain in the arse to knit at the other (like the lacy one above, which includes purling two through the back loops, which I found really annoying). But fear not- such discoveries needn't be a problem because you won't be knitting it for too long. Hopefully your pattern choice will fall somewhere between- interesting to knit, without being too difficult, and producing a pleasingly textured effect.

After the first couple of dishcloths I made (each a different pattern) I realised that if one is going to blog about the dishcloths one has made, then one really needs to take photographs before using them. You won't be seeing the first few I made. Once pressed into service, the yarn stops looking as soft and smooth, the corners can get stretched such that they don't lie in a neat even square, and if you wipe your knives carelessly with them you end up with holes appearing (that weren't written in the pattern!), which while not immediately detracting from their ability to perform their job, can lead to a desire to knit yourself a new one. And another new one. And so on.

The Vital Statistics:
Pattern: the one above is the Diamond Drop Lace pattern from the Monthly Dishcloth Knitalong archives. But you can find a million and one patterns on the net. Here's 50 links for you for starters.
Yarn: I like mine to be a classic off white, and am using Heirloom 8ply Cotton that I picked up at Woolbaa (2 dishcloths to a ball). It's cheap and does the trick.
Needles: 4mm Brittany birch straights, which I received in the first Backtack swap. They're not very long, so perfect for little projects like these.
Comments: I think this one is really a bit lacy to be kitchen dishcloth. I may have to relocate it to the bathroom, or save it for use on special kitchen cleaning occasions (should such things exist). As I said above, I found the P2togTBL’s threw my knitting rhythm out (Mental note: don’t ever knit a garment with P2togTBL’s in the pattern). I also seemed to keep on loosing my place in the pattern- it just didn’t stick in my head- and was relieved to get to the end without too much frogging (maybe lace knitting isn’t for me?). I also would have preferred a wider moss stitch border- 2 stitches really wasn't enough, but I couldn't be bothered frogging and starting it again.