FO Friday – baby washcloths

I may only have an almost-4-year-old daughter, but most of our friends have children that are much older – and some are empty nesters.  One of those friends has a daughter who was married last fall and is expecting a child just after the new year!  It’s hard to believe because I’ve known Bonnie since she was Little Chick’s age!

“Grandma” is an excellent crafter and I’m assuming she’ll be making lovely quilts for the new baby.  I did consider still making a knit or crochet blanket, but it turns out it’s a good thing I didn’t.  Another friend is making a nice and warm fleece one.  I finally decided to give what we appreciated most – a gift certificate to Target.  There are always more items to pick up it seems.  My gift package will also include a couple of packages of our favorite baby wipes and some handmade washcloths.

Her sister thought she was having a nautical theme in the baby room so I went with these choices:

The bottom two washcloths are my own design.  The Red/natural stripe is all garter stitch.  The plain one I’m calling a modified seed stitch (I can’t find any names for this stitch).

The star pattern is my new favorite.  I made the red one first and Little Chick kept stealing it so I said I’d make her one.  Of course, pink is her “flavorite” and luckily I had some pink cotton yarn in my stash.

These are quick and easy to make up – just a couple of hours worth of time.  Good thing because I whipped up the navy/natural one on Tuesday night.  I had planned on using a picture cloth, but it didn’t make up very well; I guess I should have used a smaller needle since I tend to have a loose gauge.

1. Starfish washcloths by Dione Read.  Ravelry project pages for red, pink and indigo/natural.
2. Baby starfish cloth (picture cloth) by Elaine Fitzpatrick.  Project page here.
3. Candy striped washcloth – my own design.  Project page here.
4. Modified seed stitch washcloth – my own design.  Project page and instructions here.

Yarns used:  Lily Sugar ‘n Cream in 95 Red, 1114 Indigo; Lion Brand Cotton in 98 Natural and Peaches & Creme in bright pink.

I did a little designing recently too.  The Designer’s Challenge for Oct/Nov was to make boot cuffs.   I’ve never even made boot cuffs before, let alone tried to design some – but that’s never stopped me before.  In fact, that’s how I learned that I loved hats.  I designed one first before I’d ever made one.

Anyway, this is what I came up with.

I think they turned out rather nice.  Next time I’d make them a little longer, but that’s easy to adjust.

Project: ribbed picot boot toppers
Designer: me
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Eco
Colorway: Charcoal Heather 9508
My Ravelry project page
I’ve also been trying to get caught up on my UndergroundCrafter Sampler Mystery afghan squares.  I finished three this month.

They’re quick too – most I can get done in a single night.  She’s released up to pattern# 24.  Just one more to go (next week?) and then it’s finishing time.  These are great for learning new knit techniques.  Many of them I’ve done before but there are a few that have been completely new.  I know the next square (#20) has cables which should be fun.

And last of all, I managed to finish one more weather afghan square.  This is August.

This turned out very similar to July.   I’m about halfway through September too and there’s a good mixture of some mint green and soft blues to break up these warmer colors!

It sure feels like I’ve been making some good headway through my stash … but then I bought some last week (my LYS was having a 20% off sale), bought some this week (a friend picked up the Indigo cotton for me since I couldn’t find any) and then I came home last night to a box full of yarn!  Apparently, I had won a Red Heart contest; I haven’t had time to look through it all but it looks like there is a wide mix of their yarns.  sigh  I guess my stash wins again this month!