Wash cloth and hand towel - Strange knitting?

When I first started knitting, it would never have occurred to me to knit something that is readily available in the shops, and not particularly expensive in its most modest versions.
However, my brain has been addled altered by knitting exposure, and when it was getting a bit hot around here to knit woolly things in the middle of the day, somehow I started knitting handtowels to match my bathroom. I am really pleased with them







Doesn't everyone happen to have stray balls of yarn wandering into the bathroom so that you can see how well they co-ordinate with the bath?
Maybe I shouldn't ask that question ;)

I do have a pattern for a washcloth and towel, in Jo Sharp Knit 2, but this pattern book was not in my vicinity when the urge to knit these overcame me, so I had to make it up with a vague recollection of the picture. I think I came pretty close.

The washers are all moss stitch, and the hand towels have a  moss stitch border and a stocking stitch middle.

The yarns I have used are Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran, 10ply cotton with microfibre.

This yarn makes a lovely absorbent towel or washer after the first wash through the washing machine. However, the Chamba (dark maroon) did run a little for the first week or so, although never enough to stain the pale yarn Solstice permanently, nor to mark the skin.

Having made these humble items, I find them incredibly luxurious to use. They are certainly on the list for my knitting-in-front-of-the-telly projects.

Small knit series - mega thick doily

I am not quite sure what to call this knitted thing. Jo Sharp calls it a tea pot mat, and she has a point.

However, it reminds me of a doily, being a bit lacey.

It is pretty good at keeping hot things off the table.

I used the yarn indicated in the pattern in Knit 2, Garnet desert garden aran cotton. The only issue with the pattern was that cotton does not block very well, you need to get your shaping and tension just right whilst knitting.

It uses less than a ball, just right for a left over project.I thought I was knitting this for my grandmother -in-law, for her birthday, but made a bit of a mistake currently hidden under the tea pot. I could have made another one, or frogged this one, but have started some cushy soft fingerless mittens instead.

Knit Issue 10 Jo Sharp Cotton T shirt

The Desert Garden Aran jumper in Knit Issue 10 has been lurking at the back of my project list for a few months now. With warmer weather, I have faithlessly abandoned my blanket in progress, and my 1/3 completed wooly waistcoat, and frivolously started on this top 2 weeks ago - on a weekend away camping. (Yes, we did need our beanies at night, and they were beautfully warm)



The Desert Garden jumper was a perfect knit for car travel, easy stitches, washable, non-fuzzy cotton/microfibre yarn, and I was happily up to ball 4 on the sleeve/upper bodice section whilst still on the drive north west (passenger, naturally) when I ran into a problem. The ball I pulled out of my knitting bag was not the same shade. Horror! I had pulled the yarn straight from the shop shelf on Friday, not looking very closely, knowing that there was only one dye lot per yarn on the shelf. What could have happened? Alas, I had a mixed bag of colour Solstice 237, a white/cream shade, and Stark 668, which is, as the name suggests, Stark white. I had no other knitting project with me, what could I do but start a second top in Stark?

As I had more of the Stark with me than the Solstice, I progressed further with the second top during the weekend away, and have now finished it, much to the displeasure of daughter the second, who had dibs on the first one. As this is a quick knit, I might manage to get hers finished too before the very hot weather starts.

I am afraid that I cannot agree with the magazine that this is a t shirt. In my opinion, this garment is a boat neck jumper. It is designed with a loose tension, so that an undergarment in a contrasting colour is visible underneath. It would be rather cheeky worn without an underlayer.



This particular jumper is size B, for a 90 cm chest. The smaller size is for an 80 cm chest, slightly smaller than the dimensions of the recipient, and my daughter did not want a close fitting or negative ease garment, hence the larger size. I have lengthened the sleeves, and the body, slightly, to fit my daughter, but still used only 10 balls. The printed pattern called for 24 balls for this size, which was an errata corrected by the Jo Sharp team to 14 balls, but in my knitting, even with lengthening, I was 4 balls short of this.