| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| sally_in_wales |
How many dischcloths is enough?My small current adjustment to Life As We Know It in the sally-household is to move away from habitually buying the odd packet of sponge scrubby things for the dishes and go completely over to knitted dischcloths. For about a year now its been 50:50, the odd sponge scourer still appears but mostly its dishcloths.Anyway, I'm planning on refreshing my stack of cloths and maybe making some complete sets for friends for midwinter prezzies this year- so, how many dishcloths is enough? I'm currently thinking about 7 is good, one a day and assuming I do laundry at least once a week we shouldnt run out, which leads me to suspect full and luridly coloured rainbow sets of cloths may feature highly in our gifting this year. Those of you who are entirely on dishcloths now, how many is about right? I know its so easy to keep making new designs, but I'm thinking functional here more than anything. |
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| Fee |
Have you got a recipe for them? 
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
Goes and peers in to dishcloth (and t-cosy) drawer and does a quick count. There are 5 + one with a ladder in it which will probably get composted shortly + 1 in the sink. And I've 2 in the knitting basket I just need to sew ends in to. | ||||
| sally_in_wales |
um, cast on about 30ish stitches, knit garter stitch til its square, cast off. There are beautiful ones out there but I like plain for scrubbing dishes and surfaces |
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
I'm wondering whether to make some slightly larger ones for bathroom cleaning (and keep them separate of course) | ||||
| alice |
I am toying with knitting black or navy ones for bathroom cleaning - easy to distinguish between.
I knit colourful ones for dishwashing - I have dozens but stupidly find myself keeping the nicest ones 'for best' 
I have knitted them for 'gifts'. The recipients fall into two distinct categories, some love them and ask for more as they wear out, the rest think I have too much time on my hands ( I wish...) I gave my sister some jolly striped 'strawberries and cream' coloured ones and she had to bleach them before she used them because she couldn't get past the 'white is clean' thing  So she won't be getting any more!
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| happytechie |
buy ball of string buy new needles for it cast on 30 stitches or so knit 4 rows leave lying around in the lounge for 3 or 4 years |
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| n |
type "dishcloth" into the ravelry pattern finder! or try this this or this or my favourite... this or you have to knit this one, as a downsizer/vegetabley person !!! n |
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| wellington womble |
Attempt to knit something ambitious.
Get very bored/lost in the pattern/fed up cast off present sink with new dishcloth (and poke HappieTecchie with the knitting needle!) |
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| wellington womble |
That reminds me, I've got a very clever pan scraper - its really just a rounded bit of plastic, but it lasts much better that those scrubby sponge things, and would complement sustainable dishcloths nicely. I also knitted pan scrubs out of sisal string, for the complete sustainable washing up experience...... | ||||
| Cathryn |
 Well if you will keep buying her gin what do you expect?
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| Sarah D |
I have 26 or so, but I go through a few in a day. My bathroom cloths are all made of the same darkish blue cotton, so stay in the bathroom, rather than the kitchen. I knit 2 or 3 a month, so have a good turn over; I like all sorts of patterns, stripey ones, etc, the round ones on 4 or 5 needles being the current favourite. | ||||
| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
I've tried to always knit mine in a cotton DK type yarn so they compost when holey but do some of you use other yarn? | ||||
| marigold |
I must be an awful slut, I only have two dishcloths in the kitchen and they get washed with the tea towels once a fortnight or so  . I do use sponge scourers for washing up though. Spose I really ought to crochet some scrunchy things to replace them...
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| Sarah D |
Always 100% cotton, or they won't compost properly; also better performance as dishcloths. | ||||
| caty_anne |
i always go with pink for sink and blue for loo that way everyone in the house can remember what each cloth is for and you dont get nasty mixups | ||||
| goldy1 |
After over 12 years in cleaning jobs for NHS and council Nurseries the colour codes have become second nature.
Red for danger Ie Loo bathroom and floors. Blue general cleaning and dusting. Green food areas. Yellow contaminated waste. http://www.suttonandmerton.nhs.uk/ec/files/docuploads/National%20Colour%20Coding%20Scheme%20in%20PDF.pdf I have at least 4 for each area. A great site for pattern links. http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/dishcloths.php |
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| lottie |
You are all very industrious I just use cut up cloths from old cotton t-shirts for smooth cloths and my husbands cut up cotton polos for rougher ones and throw them in the compost when they get holey---not pretty , but free. 
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| cinders |
I use cut up old socks
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| Helen M |
cut up old terry nappies. the boil and last and have a second life now the wee ones dont use them! | ||||
| lottie |
I've still a couple left I'm using and my youngests 20
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| Helen M |
see nothing last as well as a terry nappy. and i don't know about yours but mine are still soft! |
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| ariana |
They sure do! My son is approaching nineteen and I'm still using his! I did hem them though, so they haven't frayed. A few have made it to the bin, but only after having done the rounds of dirtier jobs like cleaning brass/wiping up paint spills/black leading the woodburner. |
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| dottyspots |
I still have some terry squares, they've been through 3 children, although some are a little worse for wear now. I tend to use shaped nappies with no.4. but a stock of squares are handy for when we run out of shaped, but also cloths in the kitchen 
I don't really 'get' the dishcloth knitting thing. I made a pretty cotton one with Nin to use (and she does love it and rather than use it as a face cloth, which was its original purpose, she uses it in her kitchen), but aside from that I haven't made any more. 
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| Soapnutter |
I adore my knitted dishcloth, and my crocheted one (no, I didn't make them) and there's just no such thing as too many surely? | ||||
| gil |
That's more what I was thinking of - do you reckon garden twine would work (the brown stuff) ? Any other kinds of string ? And do you have a pattern/ shape - round or square ? |
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| KrisWW |
Garden twine would be excellent for scrubbies, and cotton yarn for dishcloths for wiping etc.
A good, basic free pattern is here: http://tankhouse.knitability.com/freepatterns/DishClothDuo.pdf Just as an aside, would anyone go as far as using organic cotton, or is that a tad too much? Just asking as I'm wanting to stock some cotton for dishcloth making, as it's a very eco-friendly, sustainable thing to do, but do I have to go with the more expensive stuff or will the fact it's reusable, compostable and home-made make up for the fact it's not organic? |
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| sally_in_wales |
What about recycled cotton? we've got some coming in the bulk buy from Texere, so we can let you know what its like to work with |
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| KrisWW |
Ooh, Texere - now there's a website I don't let myself look at too often! I hadn't spotted their recycled cotton last time I looked though - is that on bulk cones I could wind into skeins, or in 50g or 100g balls?
Trying to avoid going and looking myself..... |
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| sally_in_wales |
cones, page 6 of the cotton section
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| KrisWW |
Hmm - not sure if that might be a little too thick. Ideal dishcloth stuff is aran weight. I've made good dishcloths by using two strands of DK cotton together.
Of course, I'm going to have to get some to test now, aren't I?
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| sally_in_wales |
I'm planning on thick quick knit floorcloths with my cone of this stuff so thicker is good in this instance. I usually use dk or aran weight. will report back on how it knits up |