Grandmother’s Favorite
Oops. Sorry, not that Grandmother’s Favorite.
Here we go- Grandmother’s Favorite dishcloths. A quick and easy knit. Some of the dishcloths I made last summer were getting a little threadbare so it was time to replenish the stash. I spent Memorial Day relaxing in the sun, sipping lemonade and knitting dishcloths. Not a bad way to spend a Monday afternoon.
I’ve found that for my purposes garter stitch dishcloths work best. We use hand knit dishcloths almost exclusively in our kitchen. They wipe counters. They scrub dishes. They clean sticky toddler fingers and occasionally clean up cat barf. I can’t have a wimpy dishcloth! It has to be sturdy enough to hold up to my abuse.
The Grandmother’s Favorite pattern makes a very sturdy cloth and it’s great for using up all of the leftover bits of cotton I have laying around from other projects. I’ve got a 3rd cloth on the needles right now. I’ve got to fortify my dishcloth stash! I can’t go back to sponges. I’m addicted. My only modification to the pattern is that I like to increase to 56 stitches. They shrink a lot the first couple of times you wash them. This way it shrinks down to the perfect size.
I don’t think I’ve ever talked about Kitchen Cloth here before. I might as well since I’m already talking about dishcloths. We stopped using disposable cleaning/hygiene items when I was pregnant. It seemed so wasteful to me, not to mention the expense. It really adds up! Now, uh, I draw the line at toilet paper. Wiping my kid’s butt with a cloth wipe is one thing. Wiping my own butt with one… nope. I can’t. Anyway, we don’t use paper towels, sponges, or anything like that in the kitchen. I found cotton flour sack towels at Target and bought a whole bunch. I keep them in a drawer in my kitchen. We use them for napkins, spills, cleaning, dusting, everything. I love it. It adds maybe one extra load of laundry a week. No big deal. It makes me feel good to use kitchen cloth, like I’m making an effort to make the world a nicer place for our kids. If you’re reading this I hope I’ve convinced you to try it :).
Annika wrote:
Sponges are the last thing I have to get rid of in the kitchen (and I use 100% biodegradable ones). We’ve used cloth napkins forever and stopped buying paper towels about two years ago. But I really do need to knit up some dishcloths. I also don’t use any cleansers except dish soap - I clean everything with baking soda or vinegar. But we use toilet paper too.
Posted on 28-May-09 at 3:10 pm | Permalink
Holly wrote:
I tried to stop using paper products in our house a little over a year ago, but I have fallen back off the wagon hard. I’m trying to get back to it though, starting with sewing up some cloth napkins. Maybe I will knit up a dishcloth or two as well… yours are very pretty!
Posted on 28-May-09 at 3:14 pm | Permalink
Cathy wrote:
We have a bunch of paisley hankies in a rainbow of colors that we use for napkins and such. And I make cotton dishcloths too, but I use 3 different patterns. Grandmother’s Favorite (we call it Oma’s), the Ballband Dishcloth and the MN Wild Dishcloth (because I knit them during hockey season).
Posted on 28-May-09 at 3:33 pm | Permalink
Kathy wrote:
I stopped using paper napkins and paper towels over the winter. I am a very messy eater and the number of napkins I was plowing through on a weekly basis was alarming.
I also bought my cotton towels/napkins at Target. Since I live alone, I only have to do a load every couple of weeks.
My late grandmother left me a lifetime stash of hand knit dishcloths and I use those for dishes and all purpose cleaning. Grandma died in 2000 and the dishcloths are going strong. They last forever!
Posted on 28-May-09 at 3:52 pm | Permalink
Johanna wrote:
We don’t use any paper products at all here. …including toilet paper! We started using cloth wipes when Kaya was an infant, just for her, and then switched over to using them for everyone. Seriously, try it out some time and I doubt you’ll go back!
Now that Kaya is out of diapers, I sometimes get behind on the wipes/bibs/dischcloths laundry and I hate using the toilet paper. It’s so yucky and moist and rips and …yuck! Seriously, try it out.
Posted on 28-May-09 at 4:13 pm | Permalink
Jadielady wrote:
I love hand-knit washcloths as well. I knew when my fiance proposed that I wanted to do something for wedding favors, that people would actually use and could serve a good purpose (and not just end up in the trash). So! I decided to knit them for wedding favors. 59 down and 18 to go by June 13! Woohoo!
Posted on 28-May-09 at 4:54 pm | Permalink
Lorajean wrote:
thanks for the reminder!! This is great for all the cotton I have left over from making bibs!
Posted on 28-May-09 at 5:47 pm | Permalink
Abbey wrote:
We’ve been on cloth napkins for years. In fact when my brother and I got married (to other people of course), my mom made us two sets of everyday napkins and then one set for each holiday. Perfect.
Posted on 28-May-09 at 6:45 pm | Permalink
Allegra wrote:
my DH uses a lot of paper towels. ugh. i am trying to use cloth towels exclusively–you’ve inspired me to get better! H looks so much like you in that first pic! his eyes!
Posted on 28-May-09 at 10:28 pm | Permalink
Anna wrote:
I also love knit dishcloths. I can’t use anything else–they just don’t stand up to such heavy use!
After cloth diapering for so long, it seemed silly to have all sorts of receiving blankets we were never going to use, so we turned them into wipes. Now we wash pretty much all of our diapering goods!
After that revelation, I hit up the local Goodwill for some cloth napkins, and we’re using so much less that’s disposable in this household. It feels good.
Posted on 29-May-09 at 6:49 am | Permalink
Trish wrote:
We keep a roll of paper towels on hand but it takes me months to go through one roll and we always buy the rolls that are made of 100% recycled paper. I generally use bar mops for the kitchen spills and drying hands, dishes, etc. Same goes for TP…if it’s not 100% recycled paper it doesn’t get bought. My favorite dishcloth pattern is also grandmas favorite. I sew my own napkins. All the ones you can buy are way to big for my kiddos to use so I purchases some cotton cloth in fun kiddy characters to make napkins that are around the same size as the paper lunch napkins. We’ve done quite a bit to make our world a little more greener.
Posted on 29-May-09 at 1:05 pm | Permalink
thursday wrote:
I’ve got the heebie jeebies just thinking about cleaning up cat barf with those.
I just got some cloth napkins (just basic white cloth, really) to try out. Unfortunately, I rather hate doing laundry. And I’m terrible at getting the stains out.
Posted on 29-May-09 at 10:44 pm | Permalink
Laurie wrote:
Thanks for the tips on taking care of Mother Earth. The dishcloths are beautiful!
Posted on 31-May-09 at 10:45 am | Permalink
k wrote:
well, no, you haven’t convinced me, but that’s only because i was already converted! i dislike how everything is disposable these days, and i love hearing about others who are doing the same!
Posted on 31-May-09 at 10:52 am | Permalink