For a couple of weeks, I have had the pleasure of borrowing
Mason Dixon Knitting in order to knit a sample for
Compatto. I made up the chevron hand towel in Blue Sky Alpaca skinny cotton and organic cotton, using about one and a half skeins of each. The outcome was certainly pretty, creating an almost lacy effect, but for me the jury is still out on whether or not it looks kind of tacky to have a knit hand towel in your powder room. It was also an easy project, using simple increases and decreases, and was something that I could finish over a few lazy days of excessive TV watching.
This brings me to the more important bit. I came across the first pattern in the book, which was for a "warshrag." I am on a constant quest to use up my collection of leftover yarns from various projects. This seemed perfect. So I went through my collection and gathered all of my cotton tidbits (which were for some annoying reason only in blue and green) in order to embark on a dishcloth extravaganza. Animal fiber obviously would felt under kitchen pressures, and synthetics have a tendency to melt. Had I any linen or other plant fibers, I would have included those.
After making two washrags in the slip stitch horizontal rib pattern and using up less yarn than I hoped, I checked out their second washrag pattern. This one, knit in the round from the outside in creates a hexagonal pattern with bobbles on the edge. Cute, but I found that it doesn't lie flat but rather flops around as the outside is too big for the inside. This makes it a dubious option for a potholder, as I don't like things dangling around when I want to take a kettle off the stove. I think that decreasing in four spots instead of six would solve this problem, or increasing the number of plain rows between decreases.
The moral of this story? I like Mason Dixon Knitting. I also think that the dishcloth/washrag is a great idea to use up your old cotton. I think that any stitch that provides texture, such as a waffle, ribs, slip stitch patterns, even cable would be a good option. While it doesn't use up loads of yarn, making up a set of three washcloths could possibly take at least a single ball, which is better than none at all! And in terms of tacky factor, I don't leave my counter wiping rags and such out, so really who cares? It's always nice to use something you've made, even if nobody has to see it (and if it's not exactly couture).
Oh, and I also plan on perhaps embarking on a Mason Dixon inspired bath mat knit in garter out of either strung together cotton, linen, or rag strips, of which for some reason I have many balls.
