It was going to be a blanket, but....

Has this ever happened to you? I was almost finished with this crocheted cotton blanket (about four years ago :)) and ran out of the white cotton yarn. I mean couldn't find it anywhere. So time one thing led to another and like so many other things it was tucked away in a box to be finished some day.
Fast forward to last week as we were hosting a calligraphy class for several girls in the neighborhood and a dear talented friend was knitting away as we visited on my front porch. What a lovely dish cloth she was knitting!! I fell in love with the idea, asked her for the pattern, and promptly went in search of white cotton yarn and my long lost knitting needles. Up in the dreaded closet of unfinished projects I ran across the half completed cotton blanket- perfect.
Here's the start of a very fun, very easy knitted dish cloth. This is a wonderful pattern not only is it easy (great project for beginning knitters), but look at the lovely border knitted right into it.

O.K. - so I went a little crazy and had a ball doing it. I found dozens and dozens of patterns on line and now my half finished blanket is almost completely dish clothes. You know you can't have too many :). By the way if you have never tried these cotton dish clothes they are the best!!!




P.S. Don't get bogged down in looking at the patterns - there are literally hundreds, but get out there and make one. It's fast, easy, and you'll love it.

Fancy Handkerchiefs

How about dressing up a simple cotton handkerchief? We found a package of cotton handkerchiefs at our local Walmart store and decided to add a fancy feminine border. You can use a border from some crochet patterns you have on hand or use our simple pattern as follows.

Using a very fine crochet hook (size 10 or 1.3mm) and cotton crochet thread stick the hook firmly into the fabric and work around the handkerchief in single crochet stitches. This will be your foundation row. The next time around we made a shell stitch- skip stitch, slip stitch, *3 dc in the same stitch, skip stitch, skip stitch, repeat from * until the corner sc . On the corner single crochet we worked 3 double crochet, chain 3, 3 double crochet in the same stitch.

Don't worry you can't mess it up and this project is a wonderful opportunity for beginners to practice easy stitches. You can place the handkerchief, ball of thread, and needle in a zip lock bag and its perfect for time in the car or waits in the doctor's office.

If you have trouble getting your crochet needle to poke through the cotton fabric machine baste in large stitches around the handkerchief and then pull the thread out. The machine needle will have made the hole for you. Start your single crochets about 1/4 inch inside the edge of your handkerchief. It'll be pretty!!