Road Trip Dishcloths

For the recent girls only road trip I went on, I wanted a super simple project to work on. Preferably knit (so I don't lose the crochet hook somewhere in the truck), one colour, and no pattern or even measuring. I was browsing Michaels for yarn for something else, and saw a big ball of Handicrafter yarn in pretty tropical colours, very similar to the slippers I was making for everyone. I instantly thought of dishcloths. I needed new ones. I wouldn't need to actually measure anything, only the start and end of the yarn to weave in, no grafting or assembly, no pattern, I could still do it in the dark. Perfect.

I started very soon after we left my sister-in-law's house. We had planned to leave at 4:30am but instead we got out at 5:50am. Ooops. Not my fault LOL. It was still dark, but no problem. I got started and by the end of the first day, had 2 1/2 dishcloths done. Once we got to our condo I wove in the tails (I think I had five done), put it away and worked on the blanket. I picked up the dishcloths as soon as we hit the road back. At one point I couldn't find my clippers and my mom's scissors went missing so once I got to the last stitch, I didn't cut the yarn. I just pulled the ball through, then left a length, then did another slip knot and started the next one. Yes, it got a little tangly, but it was fine.

I ran out of yarn before we ran out of road. I ended up with 9 1/3 dishcloths. The ombre balls are a bit smaller than the solids, so with a solid ball you might get 10. I wouldn't have wanted these much smaller just to get a 10th cloth. Even if I did them each two rows smaller, that wouldn't have been enough to get the 10th cloth.

One tip when knitting dishcloths, especially in garter stitch, or crocheting them, is to knit them loosely. Wash them in hot water. This will shrink the yarn enough so they are still flexible, and not too dense. Making them tighter, and then having them shrink with the wash--they come out dense and this encourages mold growth since they don't dry as quickly.

This shows the difference in size and tightness between washed and unwashed.
I shared the cloths with the other ladies. I'd rather have three now and make some more in a few months, then fill my basket with 10 and get them all grungy now LOL.
I can't find the receipt. The Yarnspiration site says it's $17.49 but every colour is out of stock. The Mary Maxim site says it's $9.97 and the Michael's site doesn't even list it. So I'm going with $10. Whatev. Still brings me in at under $50 in yarn for the entire year. We won't take a look at what I spent on fabric this year, will we? LOL.


I have a couple more things to blog about from 2018:
2 girls' shorts
turquoise cardi
snowflake shirt
road trip slippers
pink/purple/white charity blanket
green/white charity blanket

Yarn In:  1161gr + 340gr= 1501gr

Yarn Out: 340gr + 3136gr = 3476gr

Balance: 1975gr out

Costs: $31.39 + $10 = $41.39/365 days = $0.11 per day.

A quick glance at my averages from the past 6 years and I bought/used/spent about 1/10 of what I normally do.