Get Knitty With It

I first decided I wanted to learn how to knit when I saw my sister-in-law knitting. It looked neat and I wanted to see if I could figure it out. So I started looking around online at websites about knitting, and I found learntoknit.com. I printed off instructions from this website and taught myself how to knit. That was three years ago.

Obviously my post today is about knitting. If you already know how to knit skip down below. If you do not know how to knit and would like to learn, you can try it on your own using a website like learntoknit.com or a book. There are plenty of knitting books at the library and bookstore. Your local yarn store (LYS in knitting lingo) should also offer knitting classes if you would like to learn from an instructor.

You can buy cheap knitting supplies at Wal-Mart, which is what I recommend when you are first starting out. That way you can see if you even like knitting before you spend a small fortune on supplies. For practicing stitches you should just use cheap yarn like Red Heart brand. Your LYS will have better quality yarn and knitting needles and once you are a more experienced knitter you can venture in there and take on a more challenging project.

For today though you will only need to know one stitch and will only need one kind of yarn. For my first post on knitting I wanted to write about something simple but still useful. This week I have been posting about useful items in the kitchen, and the one item you probably use every day is a dish cloth or rag of some sort. Knitting a dish cloth is very simple and knit dish cloths are very durable and will last a long time. It’s also a great way to practice your stitches.

You will need the following supplies:

One ball of worsted weight cotton yarn, any color – Sugar N’ Cream brand works well and is relatively inexpensive

Size 8 knitting needles

Yarn needle

Directions:
Cast on 32 stitches

Knit 72 rows of garter stitch

Bind off

Using your yarn needle, weave in all loose ends into the edges of the cloth and trim

So is it worth it? Dish cloths are relatively cheap to purchase so I’m not sure if making your own saves you any money. You can probably knit a dishcloth for around $1 not counting the cost of the knitting needles.

I like to knit as a way to relieve stress and unwind, and making these dish cloths are nice because they do not require a lot of thought. So the answer depends on your motive. If you make them because you like to knit and you need a project then the answer is yes. This is a nice quick project and you have something useful when you are finished. If you want to knit a dishcloth only to save money then I don’t think it is worth it.

You can also give these dish cloths as gifts. I gave three dish cloths to my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day along with some nice Bath & Body Works hand soap for her kitchen. I have also given these as gifts, but as face cloths. I made them a bit bigger and paired them with a locally made soap as a small gift for a friend. As gifts I think knitting these dishcloths or face cloths is worth it because it does not take much time or money and usually people appreciate something hand made.

Once you master the basic dish cloth you can venture out into patterns and start experimenting with different stitches.

Good Luck!