From the Yarn Basket: Practical Goods for Our New Apartment #3

Next up on the list of much-needed knit-able household items is washcloths. We bought a few new washcloths when we first moved in, but since we do not have a dishwasher in our tiny Dublin kitchen, they weren't sufficient. We dirty our washcloths at a terrific rate, so we needed to supplement our stash. 

The challenge with a project like this is finding the right type of yarn. Wool yarn is not an option; you cannot machine-wash it, which makes it a terrible idea for something that is meant to get wet, and it's too nice to use for something that will get worn out so quickly (seriously, I would probably cry the first time it got used). Acrylic yarn is cheaper, but it isn't all that absorbent, which is a critical feature for items like this. The solution: cotton! 

My mother-in-law gifted me some I Love This Cotton! yarn in Ivory Spark (which means it has some glittery thread running through it) last Christmas. Since I had the perfect washcloth materials in the yarn basket already, I dove right in!

Yep, that is an "H" for Hanson!

These were easy enough to stitch up. I made the washcloths using stockinette stitch, and I bordered them with seed stitch. To make the "H" (top picture), I reversed the stockinette stitch. I was even too lazy to plan out the H pattern; I just made it up as I went. Fortunately H is an easy letter (being symmetrical and all), so I got it right on my first try! I made a third one that isn't pictured, but is very similar, and I am working on a fourth. It got moved to the back burner once the need for them decreased. They all work well as washcloths, and they wash up beautifully in the machine. Already stained and well-worn, they are used almost daily in our kitchen!