A dear friend in my Quilt Guild has been knitting up these wash cloths for years. She says they are great therapy and help you unwind after work. She is right... I don't work outside the home much but I do work here.... Quite a bit. And knitting while I am watching a movie with the kids, waiting on an appointment, etc. does help me de-stress. I also don't sit still very well and it is nice to have something "to show" for your down time.
Now, I am not very good at knitting. I have been mostly self taught... meaning... I didn't learn as a little girl like all my big sisters did. I didn't pick up needles until I had at least three little kids and was dieing to make something lovely and yarn-y for my kids. Well that was a disaster. After a couple more years, I decided to give it a try again. By then Harry Potter was a huge interest in my Son's life and I decided to make him a scarf. As it turns out, that is a great place to start. I learned how to knit in the round which just so happens to knit and purl itself as you go round and round for dozens of rows. What it taught me was how to loosen up my stitches (I tend to put too much tension into my work) AND it helped to learn to see what the stitches were supposed to look like. I learned how to count rows and such. I learned what it looked like if I got things backwards. I also found a book and a couple of DVDs along the way at our local library that really helped me "wrap" my head around the whole knitting concept.
Knitting for Dummies is my favorite beginner book. The picture instructions are amazingly detailed so it is easy to follow right along as you turn the pages. The DVDs I found were, The Art of Knitting and I Can't Believe I'm Knitting! In Motion: Beginner, and my favorite (demonstrated by an amazing 6 year old boy) The Art of Knitting 4 Kids. I watched these over and over and finally got the hang of what I was doing, I even managed to teach my oldest daughter how to knit without needing my help. That was great.
So.... Here is the pattern for making these wash cloths. After working on scarves this is pretty easy and the pattern isn't hard to keep in your head. I love the mindlessness of simple knitting. The rhythm is very soothing.
I am going to link to different tutorials all along the way so you can watch someone else do the stitches, and so you can see several other people knit and get to know their sites. The Internet is such a wealth of information, posted there by very generous people.
For this tutorial you will need to know how to
Cast On
Knit
Yarn Over
Knit 2 Together
Bind Off
Simple Knit Wash Cloth
Supplies:
Cotton Yarn - Peaches and Cream seems to be a leading brand. ( I used white yarn that I hand dyed.)
Size 6 to 8 knitting needles
Cast on 4 stitches
Row 1 : Knit 4 (this link includes an additional way to cast on)
Row 2: Knit 2, Yarn Over (YO), Knit across the row.
Repeat row 2 until you have 44 stitches on your needle.
Now you will decrease.
Row 3: Knit 1, Knit 2 together, Yarn Over, Knit 2 together, knit to the end of the row.
Repeat this until you have 4 stitches left on the needle.
Bind off the last 4 stitches leaving about a 6 inch tail.
Take a yarn needle or a crochet hook and weave the loose ends into the washcloth and trim the ends.
