Knitted Swiffer Cover

It's finished! Ravelry project page.

It was a fun knit, and it even fits. My only concern is that it pulls in towards the middle, and I think that it might roll up in the center when I'm sweeping and not be very effective. I'll put it to the functionality test soon and let you all know how it works.

I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off for the swiffer cover (if you're interested in giving it a try, it's included in this bind-off tutorial from Knitty). I really enjoy this alternative to the traditional bind off. It creates an elastic edge that looks very similar to the cast-on. I also used it on the Ballband Washcloth I made for my cousin (Rav project link; free pattern link).

Today's bonus is this charming song:

should knitting be as important as eating?

I've been thinking about what I wrote yesterday, mostly because I'm bothered by what I said about going through "phases." I say I have "cooking phases," but I never go a day without food. I want to make knitting like that, that I don't go a day without it. I suppose there are enough knitted items and balls of yarn lying around my room and living area that it would be impossible for me to go through a day without at least thinking about knitting, but I think I could do a lot better in terms of daily knitting. And daily exercise. And picking my laundry up off my floor daily. The path to self-improvement is slow, and kind of blocked by my laziness (haha).

Speaking of laziness, I'm having a calm holiday weekend, taking care of my Grandmother, knitting, and yardening. I had plenty of fun last weekend, during our family camping trip (my dad has 9 siblings, which means I have 26 cousins on that side, and all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends go up to South Higgins Lake State Park for a week of family togetherness and shenanigans). Speaking of my dad's family, they are where I learned to say "warshrag" instead of "washcloth" or "dishcloth." There are a lot of things I love about the rural lexicon I absorbed growing up, especially "warshrag."

And that provides me with another segue: my use of "warshrag" cotton continues. Now I'm knitting a swiffer cover. Swiffer sheets are great, but I'm out of them and they're kind of expensive (not to mention that they go into a landfill). I saw the Swifty pattern in the Mason-Dixon book, but I was thinking that the buttons were a bit unnecessary. I picked up a freebie pattern at Michael's for a Knit Duster Cover, and as I was thinking of how to combine what I liked about both patterns, I stumbled upon a pattern created by Noelle (free pattern link). I really love the ballband dishcloth pattern:Happy Birthday, America!

Mitered Hanging Towel

All it took was a dish towel to get my knitting groove back.

After my trip out east, I got really sick, and then I just wasn't into knitting for a while. But one day, as my mom was making the Mitered Hanging Towel from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines (free pattern link), I decided to knit one, too. I keep it on the refrigerator:I've washed it at least three times and am happy to report that it is a pleasure to use.

And then I knit another Mitered Hanging Towel, this time for my cousin's bridal shower gift, with a coordinating dishcloth, from the first Mason-Dixon book (free pattern link):
Today, I finished up another, in nifty holiday colors:
My piece of advice for anyone wanting to knit their own Mitered Hanging Towel: use a stitch marker to mark the center of the row (as it says to in the pattern). I tried one without the stitch marker, figuring I would just be able to see where I was supposed to decrease, but that didn't work for the garter ridges. If you're tempted to single-strand the top, don't. Double stranding the yarn at the top means that it doesn't stretch out at the top when you hang it. I've given mine a lot of abuse, and it still looks good. My (minor) modifications to the pattern are given on my Ravelry project pages.

I often go through phases (knitting phases, no-knitting phases, reading phases, baking phases, gardening phases, etc), and I'm pretty happy that this dish towel brought me back into a knitting phase. (Maybe I should note that the dish towel phase was greatly helped by Michael's putting Sugar n Cream on sale for $1.) I'll be posting regularly from now on, I have a lot of other stuff to share! And now I'm off to go watch fireworks... Happy 4th!

a change of plans

The wedding garter was not to be...
I did decide on a pattern, and made excellent progress... and then I found out that one of the brides-to-be already had a special garter given to her by her grandma. I also realized that I didn't actually have enough time to finish the garter in time for either wedding. So I abandoned the plan. Hopefully I'll still finish it at some point and give it to another bride.

I haven't been blogging or knitting much at all--I was in Chicago for Memorial Day weekend. I flew to New Jersey on Friday, barely. My 2pm flight was delayed 3 hours, and right after we took off, we had to turn around and go back b/c the plane was leaking fuel. That flight was canceled, and my re-booked flight was delayed until 10pm. But I made it. Though if I had just driven to NJ instead of driving to the airport, I would have arrived 1/2 hour before my plane did. That's life, I guess. I'm in NYC for the rest of the week, until I head to Connecticut for a wedding next weekend. I think I'll make a field trip to a couple of NYC yarn stores and museums... and hopefully find some inspiration for a new knitting project!

Knit your own Snuggie!

http://www.bernat.com/newsletters/may2009web2.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=webversion&utm_campaign=bernatmay092

There are no words.

p.s. You can also crochet one: