Made More . . . .

Stripey Towel with Solid Potholder 

Kitchen towels, that is.  In brighter and bolder colours.  Lovin' them . . . . !

More Bright and Cheery Kitchen Towels

Hopefully, I now have enough (although when I get the chance, I'll pick up a few more towels and potholders to make more).  Right now with five, I can keep one for a day or two before throwing it in the wash.  ;)

Kitchen Towel

Yup I've been crafting, but not knitting. Sewing. Made a few kitchen towels with potholder toppers.  Very easy and--most important--absorbent.  I've seen kits to make knitted or crocheted kitchen toppers, but the thin towels get drenched quickly.  Also, with the hard water from our well, light coloured fabrics get stained. My goal was to create an absorbent kitchen item in dark colours.

Kit from Mary Maxim

I made kitchen towels using matching potholders and hand towels (ones for the bathroom) purchased at dollar stores and large chains (bought mine at Walmart and 5 to a Dollar).

Step 1:  Fold towel in thirds, ensuring that the folded width matches the width of the pot holder. Pin into place.  With "wrong side" facing (that is, with the folds visible), sew across the middle, width-wise. This will ensure that the towel will never unfold.

Checking folded width of towel with potholder

Sewing folds of towel down middle, width-wise

Step 2: Flip over the towel to right side.  Place potholder in middle of towel, with"wrong side" of potholder showing.  Pin potholder to middle of towel.  Sew down the middle of potholder, width-wise.

Sewing potholder to folded towel down middle, width-wise

Step 3: Fold potholder so that towel hangs from it.  Attach button to potholder so that loop acts as buttonhole.

When attached potholder folded in half, towel "hangs"

Button sewn into place

Step 4: Hang finished towel from any convenient handle (preferably near a sink)

Sadly this great craft idea is not mine.  My MIL found something similar in a flea market in Florida.  So many thanks to the clever anonymous crafter who came up with the original idea.  I just improved upon it. ;)

Yahoo!

Towels with Buttons

I'm finished!  All of it is done: the knitting, the crocheting and all the finishing!

Kitchen Towels

Just lovin' the pretty kitchen towels with their buttons sewn on (I gotta make some for my own kitchen once I figure out which colours I'd like to use).  In my quest for free patterns, I did find a few others that I printed off, but never used.  More items to add to my Ravelry queue.

The place mats turned out lovely too (if I do say so--heck, I'm allowed to brag a little).  I really like the border.  And I'm glad I changed the striping.  This pattern was very easy to modify to one's own taste: add or remove stripes and colours to your own taste.

Four Finished Place Mats

And of course, I added a few extra dishcloths--very simple, easy pattern.  Again, this would be easy enough to modify too.

Dishcloths

I've got three dishcloths in total, plus the coordinating dish soap apron.  And dear hubby picked up a cute basket too.

Items in Gift Basket

Funny story: dear hubby explained to gift store owner about needing a basket to hold place mats I had made.  Store owner wondered if I'd be interested in making some place mats for him to sell in the store.  Very flattering, but I think not--at least not right now.  With pending toy requests from the boys and Bernat blog projects on the go, there's a lot on my plate.  Besides, crafting is for fun and I'm not sure if I'd enjoy it as much if it was work.  Something to consider for the future perhaps.

Have a great weekend :D

Not Quite Done

Yarny Bits

But almost there.  I'm working on it whilst surrounded by yarny bits from woven-in ends.  More yarny bits next to the scissors and threaded through my favorite blunt metal needle.  My diskman plays the tunes to keep my energy high and my attention focused.  Almost there.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (and my heavens, it's been a long tunnel!).

Even found some matching buttons for the kitchen towels.  They match exactly, even if slightly darker.  Not easy to find the exact same shade and I wasn't too keen on making my own button covers (too much work).  I think it'll be a good match.  What do you think?  

Matching Buttons?

So close to finishing, and what do I do?  I cast on a few last minute items-ha!  Procrastinator or perfectionist?  Hmmmm, tough call.  Actually I'm only working on a couple of dishcloths ('cuz one wasn't enough).  Super quick and no stripes (so less ends to work).

Hoping to hit the local farmer's market on Saturday to find something unique to add to the gift basket (oh yeah, need to get a basket too).

Catch ya later  ;)

Finally

There are three!  The last kitchen towel is complete.  Isn't it lovely?

Third Kitchen Towel

Three Towels

Sorry to toot my own horn, but I think the three towels look awesome together.  I'm very pleased with myself.

My next big task: weaving in all those pesky ends . . . ugh, the part I hate most!  How do you motivate yourself to get through the tedious finishing?  :O

I think I need a glass of wine--or two--and some killer tunes (hmmm, think I'll get my greedy little hands on Them Crooked Vultures).  Sadly I am technologically behind the times: no ipod, just an ordinary diskman.

Have a great weekend  :)

And Then There Were . . .

Two!  Finished the second towel and started a third one in yellow.  I'm changing how I work the bottom striping section just to add variety to the set.  The blue towel's reverse stockinette doesn't look bad now that it's finished.  I'm sure with the right button, it'll look even better.

Second Kitchen Towel

Dare I say that it looks handsome?  It'll definitely match nicely in MIL's kitchen.   (I'm soooo making a set for myself, in both everyday colours and in Christmas colours too!).  The two towels look quite lovely together, side by side.

Two Towels

And, I also finished the last place mat.  It just needs a border. 

Now if I could get 'round to working in all the loose ends, I'll be well on my way to finishing MIL's birthday present.

Happy crafting! :)

So . . .

Second Towel

I started a second towel in blue.  I added contrast striping along the bottom.  Not too sure if I like it yet (maybe I'll skip the reverse stockinette section and just use plain stockinette or garter).

Detail of Striping

My third towel is gonna be yellow (with blue and white striping).  When the kitchen towels are done, I must make more dishcloths.  Only have one made thus far (how slack is that?).  I'll just switch out the colours. 

After I finish the gift set, I'm hoping to embark on another crochet adventure: toy construction.  I've already shared the tale of the teddy bears, but I never showed you the toys I made for Bernat in December.  Check out these two cute fellas:

Meet Monster and Eggy

You can read the details about my Bernat toy adventure at the Bernat Blog post on yarnie pals.  These second set of toys were more fun to make (maybe I'm just becoming a better knitter?).  It helped that the instructions were less fiddly (is that even a word?).

So now my boys want more toys--crocheted toys (I gotta stop searching Ravelry with the boys watching, but there are soooo many cute things!).  Up until recently my crochet skills have been rusty, but with a few projects under my belt I feel more comfortable tackling more challenging items.  

Alas, those are plans for July.   For now,  my kitchen items occupy my time (along with my current Bernat project which looks super cool, but is hard on the hands).

Happy crafting :)

My Quandry: Towel or Placemat?

Almost an FO

Yeah, that kitchen towel proved to be a quick knit.  All done except for the weaving in of ends and finding a button (Aren't I good at hiding the ends?  And I apologize for the quality of my photos, but its been raining for three days . . . )

Another View of Kitchen Towel

While many other knitters have made these towels, I was particularly inspired by Crafterella's  version: check out her towels in bright blue, red and white. And I so love the matching buttons too!

(used with permission from Crafterella)

Aren't they just lovely!  Seeing her towels made me think that perhaps I should make more than just one towel (maybe three?).  Wonder if I'd have enough yarn to make another towel, perhaps with more striping? There should be enough yarn as I'm already on my fourth placemat. 

So here's my quandry: more towels or more placemats?  Initially I thought to make only four placemats, but wouldn't six be better than four?  Now you might be thinking to yourself: make it all.  Well, I'd love to, except that there's limited yarn.  Except for the white, I can't find the same colours locally so I have to use what I've got.

Decisions, decisions . . . :S