Wednesday 11 September 2013

A bit of crafting

First of all, a big welcome to Lisa and Sharon via Bloglovin.

We have just spent a few days away, staying in our son and his fiancé's house whilst they were on holiday. As this was our 'holiday', we ate out at both lunch and evening - such extravagence! Back home now and ready to get back to the simple life!

I am in full dishcloth making mode at the moment. Some will go for C. presents, others are destined to be used here when we stop using the flannels from last year.

Normally, there is only one shop locally where I can buy craft cotton from and it doesn't come cheap. On-line, most are the same price, until I came to the Fred Aldous site - dishcloth cotton.

From here, I bought a bag of 10 x 100g balls for the price of £13.00 plus £3.75 postage. Tesco offer a similar thing but their charges are £3.95 to pick up from their store (plus of course, petrol to get there).

Compared to what I normally buy, (and yes, I know some of you can get it cheaper), this is far softer, slightly thicker but not quite so tightly wound. Occasions, my needles pierce it but doing so is immediately obvious and I can correct myself. Although it is off white (ecru) rather than white, I always wash my cloths once finished to 'tighten' them up and it becomes almost white then.

Here is a nice pattern I have tried, before being washed.
 
Here it is after being washed but not ironed. You can see how much closer the weave is and the change in colour. It measures between 7" and 8" square and is now quite thick. I am using 5mm bamboo rather than the stated 4.5mm bamboo as that is what I had..
 The pattern for this and many others, comes from this site Emily Patterns



14 comments:

  1. Lovely dishcloth........what a bargain for the cotton yarn, thanks for the links.

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  2. That's a good price for the cotton. It has been much more expensive than that when I have seen it for sale in a ' proper' shop. Your dishcloths are very pretty!
    Glad you enjoyed your time away. x

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    1. Thank you. I love these patterns and am going to follow about 8 of them.

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  3. Glad you have enjoyed your time away, eating out is a lovely treat.

    The dishcloths are really pretty and you got yourself a great bargain with the pack of cotton. It brings back memories of when my Mum taught me to knit, we always made dishcloths, not fancy ones just garter stitch.

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    1. As lizzie mentions below, they could of course be used as wash cloths and given with a bar of soap as a gift.

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  4. Great ideas and glad you had such a good break - does us all good to get away!

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    Replies
    1. My legs are still complaining from our 5 hour walk up and down 1100 feet!

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  5. That is where I buy mine from Dc - it is a good site

    I like the butterfly

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    1. It is a good site but am not sure if all of their prices are as good as elsewhere.

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  6. I bought a cone of pure white Sugar and Cream cotton and make wash cloths rather than dish cloths (which I also make).
    Have a look at Yarn Harlot s blog; she is making them for Xmas and pairing them with a bar of soap.
    I use Bee Stitch on mine - very simple and very effective. Everyone love receiving them.......

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    1. I suppose they can be useful for either thing but I need dishcloths so that is what I am making at the moment. Like your friend said on her blog, I too get silent looks as though I have gone mad. Frankly, I don't care if people think I am strange, these will be far nicer than tatty cheap bought things. Some people have told me in the past that they would be offended to recieve a hand made gift, how strange!

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  7. Glad you enjoyed your trip away DC - it's nice to get away now and again and sample different surroundings. Your dishclothes are great and such a good idea for gifts. I love receiving handmade gifts and always means a lot.
    Patricia x

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  8. It was only for 3 days up to my son's whilst he was away - nice and cheap! We had two good walking days, really nice weather, not too hot.

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