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Rios, Cloths and Tawashi

     I've been knitting dishcloths again.  Even though I started Turnstile I seem to reach for the dishcloths.  I made a few new ones to add to some stash ones for my Lab Week basket.  National Laboratory Professionals Week is celebrated the last full week in April each year.  Each laboratory does something a little different.  Samaritan celebrates with lots of food (at least on Day shift) and baskets.  Anyone who wants to fill a basket with something does so and brings it in.  Each of us then gets tickets and a chance to win a basket.  There was some excellent turn out this year.  We wound up with 30 baskets.  Just to name off a few themes; dinner, wine, candles, chocolate, kitchen items, car wash, beach, yard items, a gift cert and eggs from the resident alpaca farmer.  (That last ne was the one I really wanted.)  I made a bundle of dishcloths topped with tawashi.  It seemed to go over pretty well.  Here are the new items I made for it. 

The pattern is Tricolour Dishcloth.  I've made it several times before.  It uses fairly small amounts of three different yarns.  The pattern is just four rows with an alternation of yarn colors every two rows.  The effect is very different depending on the yarns used.  I like to use two solids and one variegated.  A self striping works the best, but I'm plum out of that right now.  I'll have to try three solids sometime and see what that looks like.  The only crappy part of this pattern is weaving in all the ends.  I also made two tawashi for the bundle.
I made two more Wishy Washy Fishy Tawashi.  I made the orange and black one first.  I was going for a Nemo look but I couldn't access my white at the time.  I think they turned out pretty good though.  They are quick and easy once you do one or two.  I left the eyes plain like I did on the first two I did.  I grabbed three other cloths out of stash for the bundle and tied it up nice.  I used a green Tulip Cloth, a Grandmother's Favorite in purple and the blue Leaf Lace cloth I made a while back.  I tried to hit all the colors in the rainbow so at least one would match a kitchen theme.  People straggled in with the last few baskets so the decision was made to wait another week to do the drawing.  So yesterday the winners were picked.  I got the big basket of chocolate.  Hubbs is helping me eat it.  I submitted both these projects to Nerdopolis. 
 
     My good friend Christina's daughter Kylie just turned two.  I was invited to the party.  I used the left over yarn from her Christmas hat to make her a pair of matching mittens.
The pattern is Stay Put Mini Mitts.  The leftover yarn is Madeline Tosh DK in the Hosta Blue colorway.  I made them a bit on the big side so they'll fit this fall.  I also got her the book Llama Llama Red Pajama.  These were also submitted to Nerdopolis as my team unity project.
 
     I was going to submit one more project but I didn't finish it and I couldn't find the partial completion thread.  It was sort of an experiment anyway.  I used the fishy tawashi pattern to make a fishy soap sack.  I doubled the number of stitches and knit it on DPNs in the round.  I elongated it just a bit as well.  I did an eyelet row so I could string an I-cord through.  I still need to make an eye and weave in all the ends.  Its wonky but considering its my first go at it, I think it turned out okay.  
 
 
     I made another cloth today.  I used a new pattern I've never tried before.  The pattern is Daisy Dishcloth.  It's knit in two separate pieces and then sewn together.  There are lots of fun short rows.  Sewing the two pieces together isn't bad like I thought it would be.  
This one is going in the sale pile.  I think I'll do some more in different colors.  
 
     While I was down in Syracuse for Kylie's birthday party I made a trip to Sheep Thrills for some much needed retail therapy.  Here is what I picked up:
Malabrigo Rios seems to be the yarn I turn to when I need superwash with great colors, so I picked up two skeins of Vaa and two of English Rose.  
 
     That's all that's been happening here.  The toddler mitts were my 200th project!  This blog post is my 99th which means the next one will be 100.  I should probably do something special.  The annual Knit Crochet Blog Week starts on the 11th of this month.  The topics have been announced and they look really good this year.  More on that later and if you want more info it can be found here:  Linky.  I'm also planning on going to the annual shearing festival at Springside Farm down in Fabius.  Good stuff to come.  Until later.  Happy Crafting!
-Q

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