I like knitting, as long as the project isn’t too big! I can manage a beanie or a tea cosy, even a scarf that requires more than one ball of wool.  But then my enthusiasm wanes.

Way back (6 years ago when I think about it) I started a size 5 jumper for my oldest child who will soon turn 10.  She must have been 4 at the time.  I still have the one sleeve and half of the front of my started but never completed lolly pink project.

But it helped me acknowledge my own limitations.  I am not saying or course that I couldn’t knit a whole jumper.  Obviously I could, if  I really wanted to.  I just don’t.

Anyway, knitted dish cloths are really my thing.  Less than an hour of knitting and you have a finished product. I use size 7 needles (UK not US), 2 balls of cotton at a time (4 ply at least if I can find it) and cast on 25 stitches.  I knit plain.  Every now and then I throw in a row where I wind the cotton twice around the needle before I knit  (I am sure this has a technical name, I just don’t know what it is), to give that holey look.  I aim to make a square shape.

Given that cotton is so expensive to buy, and comes in relatively small balls, I look out for it in op shops. All of the cotton in the cloths pictured came from op shops.

These cloths really are GREAT.  Mine have all lasted at least a year.  When they get dirty I put them in the washing machine.  When they get holes I dispose of them in the compost bin.

My nanna made me one.  She knitted large ones for everyone for our homemade Christmas one year.   Now that she has passed away I remember what a great nanna she was and all the skills (like knitting) she taught me and all the love she gave me when I use her cloth to wash the dishes.

Keep an eye out for cotton, and size 7 needles, and make yourself a dish cloth … or make one for a present.

* Note, there are also knitted scourers in the picture.  These are knitted from hemp garden string which you can buy from the $2 shop or Bunnings.  Just as easy, can be smaller in size, but are pretty rough on the hands to make (it’s like knitting with sandpaper!).