Wash 'n Dry

I knitted up some small projects over the past few weeks...

I made a couple of hand/dish cloths to send to my blog give-away prize winner, Roxie.

She wanted me to choose a multi color yarn.  So, I picked one of my favorites, Countryside Ombre.

I love the lavender/purple and green hues.  So pretty!  I hope she likes them too.

I also knitted another Basket Rib Hand Towel.  I've knitted a few of these and love them.

This one is knitted with a ball of Sugar N Cream yarn that I bought just because the colors were pretty.  Actually, that's my main reason for every ball of Sugar N Cream that I buy.

The color name on this one is "Emerald Isle".   I have to admit that I don't like it as well knitted up as I did when it was a ball of yarn.  I'll enjoy using it though.

I just love cotton and making things with it.

I'm currently in the middle of making a giant doily/table cloth with some natural color

Handicrafter Cotton.  I hope to have it finished soon.  I'll post pictures when I do. 

Christmas Knitting

The only knitting I was able to do for Christmas this year was this hand towel for my husband's aunt.

I knitted it with size six needles and a 150 yard skein of Sugar N Cream in the color, Buttercream.

The pattern is called, "Basket Rib Hand Towel" and it's available for free on Ravelry.  

The colors seemed perfect for her.  Plus, she's moving and this is flat, light weight, and easy to move.

I forgot to measure before I wrapped it but it was about the size of a standard kitchen hand towel.  It's a fun and easy project that works up fairly quickly....if you don't make mistakes that take you back several inches at a time from being in a hurry!  :-)

I made a towel with this pattern last year.  You can see it on the bottom of THIS post.

Colorful Fun

Just before our summer vacation, I popped into my local Michael's store in hopes of finding and buying a few new colors of Sugar N Cream yarn.  I found a soft, pretty blue, called "Robins Egg", and a happy, buttery yellow.  I packed them with some colors I already had and took them on vacation.  I thought it would be fun to make some chunky doilies for my daughter's new apartment.  I used some patterns I had in a little Leisure Arts booklet with a little improvising and came up with two beauties.  Here's the blue one.  I love how it turned out.  So pretty!  It reminds me of a snowflake...

Here's the buttery yellow one.  I used this pattern last Christmas to make a red one for a gift.  

I think I like it even more in yellow...

Before vacation, I had already started making things for my daughter and her apartment.  We had bought dishes and dishtowels for her one day and were so excited about it all that she decided to crochet some place mats to go with it.  She bought a great big skein of Handicrafter Cotton in a beautiful pinky/watermelon color.  She's made two, so far.  They're adorable!  I wanted to join in on the fun!  So, I made a dishcloth for her.

I used an H hook and made a simple, single crochet square.

I edged it with reverse single crochet.  It made a cute, twisted edge.

That was so much fun that I whipped up another one with a variegated blue skein that I had.

I'll either save this for a gift or use it myself.  

I made this orange one on vacation...

I made up a different edging for it.  I think it's pretty cute!  It's not this bright in person.

It's a softer, prettier, orange.

Sugar N Cream makes great dish cloths and it seemed like two put together would make a nice, thick hot pad.  So, I made one of those too!  I used two different colors, Mango and Tangerine,

to make it reversible and more fun.

I bound the two sides together with little white, triangle scallops.

Now, she has a few more useful and colorful things for her new apartment.   

They're all in softer, prettier colors than what they appear in pictures.  They go great with her white dish towels that have watermelon, pink and orange stripes in them.  And, it all looks great with the cute, watermelon place mats that she's making.  It also ties in with some of the colors in the quilt we're making...especially, the yellow, the blue, and the pinkish hues.  It's all so bright and cheery!  :-)

While I was having so much fun with Sugar N Cream, I decided to make a little case for my "peepers".  I call them that because I feel like I'm not old enough to need "readers" and "peepers" is more fun to say.  Although, I'm finding myself needing to use them more and more.  Sheesh!

I made a chain, single crocheted one row, and crocheted in the round so I wouldn't

have a seam to sew on the bottom or the sides.  I made a little button hole and stitched a

button on the inside so I could close it up and keep the "peepers" from falling out.

I topped it off with a row of reverse single crochet for a cute, twisty edge.

My "Peeper Pouch" is soft and thick enough to protect my glasses.  

The pouch makes it easier to find them too!  I love this turquoise color!

I still have a few skeins of Sugar N Cream, Handicrafter Cotton, and some other cotton worsted yarns in my stash.  But, these projects sure helped in de-stashing.  They also eliminated a lot of bright, cheery colors from my stash.  I'm kind of feeling some withdrawals.  I might "need" to buy some more!  Wink!

Delightful Doilies

I'm happy to share that all of the gifts I made and gave this Christmas were hits. Everyone seems to love them. That always feels great! I enjoyed making them and I like that some of them helped me do a little de-stashing of fabric and yarn.

These three doilies were no exception. I used yarn from my stash for all of them.


I used patterns from booklets I had for thread crochet doilies. They worked great with larger yarn and larger hooks. I made a few modifications to this one to eliminate some of the bulky texture of clusters and to make it so I could complete it with one, 120 yard ball of yarn. If I make this one again, I'll use an "H" hook instead of an "I" so it will be a little tighter. But, it turned out pretty. Not sure what happened to this photo. It looks a little squashed. I don't remember it looking like that. Maybe I goofed a little in my blocking. Ooops! But, the recipient loved it and had plans right away of where she was going to put it.


I forgot to measure them but I think they all turned out to be about 12"-14" wide/across. I like the pattern I used on the next two. It's a little more frilly and didn't need much modification. This white one was made with about 107 yards of KoolSpun Cotton. I liked working with this yarn. It was softer than Sugar N Cream.


This red one was made with a 120 yard ball of Sugar N Cream. The person I'm giving this one to hasn't gotten it yet. But, I have a feeling she'll love it because red is her favorite color. I can picture it in her kitchen that has so many other red things in it.


That makes three happy people...plus me. And, that's three less balls of yarn in my stash.

Sugar Addiction

To Sugar N Cream yarn, that is. I think the Lily yarn company is wonderful and genius. Really! They create a yarn that is made from cotton, a wonderful, non-itchy, earth friendly, natural fiber. They dye it in gorgeous, irresistible colors or leave it beautifully natural. Then, they sell it in little balls for .99 cents to a couple dollars. Who could resist? Beautiful and so cheap that I can buy it guilt free! And, I do...over and over and over! I've bought a lot of balls just because they were pretty and cheap. I have over a dozen in my stash. However, I prefer to buy it with a project in mind and most of the time I do. I've gone through dozens of balls of Sugar N Cream yarn to make dish cloths, wash cloths, shower puffs, placemats, doilies, coasters, bags and more.

I love Sugar N Cream so much that I'm always trying to find new projects to use it for. A few weeks ago I was playing around with some crocheted motifs. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I found a pattern called, "Double Bump Dishcloth" and quickly got started on it. What fun!


This turquoise yarn was in my stash. I love the color!


The texture of this pattern is really nice and the pattern was fun to do. However, I decided it's a bit too stretchy for my taste as a wash or dish cloth. So, I used the other half of the ball to make a plain dish cloth, like the many I made a few years ago for gifts. The pattern is also used for a scarf. I think it would work great for that and I might make one someday.


Right after I got started on the "Double Bump Dishcloth", I stopped in at a local Michael's store and saw a new color of Sugar N Cream that I couldn't resist. The color is "Earth Ombre". It's so pretty!


I couldn't wait to use it! So, after I finished the two turquoise dish cloths, I quickly found another pattern I liked and got started. This pattern is called, "Basket Rib Hand Towel". The texture is similar to the dish cloth I had just finished.


I'm using size 5 needles and I love how it's turning out. The texture is nice to look at and it's soft and thick for a hand towel. It's knitted with a four row repeat that is easy to memorize and fun to knit. I originally bought one ball but went back for another so I'll have enough to make a towel.


I've been working on this when I'm not working on my Maia Shawl. It's a nice break for my hands to switch back and forth between knit and crochet.