Intelligent Dish Cloth Design

This past Christmas, my family of origin decided, again, to have an “under $10″  name drawing gift exchange, where we were expected to shop second hand stores for presents (or spend less than 10 if we were terrificially lame, which was me this year when I bought iTunes gifts certificates for all three of the young adults on our family’s list).  I have to say, the choices were OUTSTANDING, every one of them thoughtful and well-matched. My sister, Olga, also gave me, my mom and our other sister, Ingrid, two additional homemade gifts: granola in a Mason jar (it was so good it was gone in no time) and round dish cloths.

Now, I wasn’t sure about the dish cloths. I find most of them, whether store-bought or homemade,  pretty whimpy, or they get stained too easily. But these – WOW! If you can be so enthusiastic about such a mundane tool, I am. I want Olga to make a whole bunch of them for me, I love them so much, and here’s why: (a) they fit your hand; (b) all those little pieces of food wash right off under the faucet, instead of sticking like boogers;  and (c) so far no evidence of unraveling that I’ve had with square, crocheted dish cloths.

Let’s be clear – I can’t knit. At all. My sister, however, is quite skilled. (She designs her own sweater designs, and can have complicated conversations while her needles click right along.) But  for those of you so inclined, I found a webpage with directions for making your own. I have tried knitting enough to know it probably can be managed by a beginner, once you figure out what the abbreviations mean. ( http://www.mielkesfarm.com/dishclth.htm)

I am encouraging you to give it a try, or at the very least  talk a friend or relative into it, because they are so good. If you are a beginner, DO NOT go to your local hobby or fabric store and spend a zillion bucks on those colorful and very tempting skeins of yarn. Go to Goodwill or the Salvation Army first, and practice with the fifty cent variety. I am sure some types of yarn work better than others. My dish cloths are absorbent, so I’m guessing they are a cotton/poly blend.

So off you go … Let me know how it works for you, and please send pictures!