Ballband Inside Out

or, Monthly Dishcloth mid-August KAL Redux



This is a variation on the dishcloth we did in the Monthly Dishcloth group in mid-August. The original pattern used the contrast color for 2 rows of the repeat. Because it was only two rows, the cloth needed two colors with strong contrast. Several people, including me, started the KAL using a solid and a variegated that matched the solid. The pattern just didn't work well; the variegated was lost in too many areas. I suspected that if the cloth were done using the variegated in 4 rows instead of only 2 that the colors would pop more, like the Mason Dixon ballband. It worked, but I like both versions.




Original in white with orange, pink, yellow variegated.

Revised with blue and daisy ombre.

This cloth is the opposite of a Mason Dixon ballband. Instead of "bricks," it has "windows." The bricks in the ballband are garter stitch and the mortar is stockinette. This cloth has stockinette windows with garter stitch frames.

September Dishcloth KAL

Finished the September KAL for the Monthly Dishcloth group last week.



Used size 8s and S'nC soft taupe.

Worked the bind-off in pattern and really like how it looks - much better than my normal bind-off.

Leftovers & Log Cabin on Labor Day

Someone on the Monthly Dishcloth KAL asked what people did with their leftover yarn after making a dishcloth - those remainders that are too small to make another cloth. I remembered seeing some very pretty cloths made with leftovers, so this inspired me to get out my bag of scraps. This one was made using the Petal pattern.



The yarns are all Sugar 'n Cream and Peaches & Creme. You change colors on row 7. There were sooo many ends to weave in. I thought I might be able to carry yarns since the color changes were in the middle, so I left the ends attached to the balls after I changed colors. BIG MISTAKE! The yarns became so tangled. So on the second half of the cloth, I cut the yarns after making the color change. I also wove in the ends of the 1st half before I started the second half.

One of my daughters wants me to make a Modern Log Cabin blanket from the Mason Dixon Knitting book. So I made another scrap dishcloth using the log cabin technique.



You can see I need a lot more practice with log cabin. There are some who advocate leaving the stitches "live" on a stitch holder instead of binding off at the end of a log. I tried both ways and thought, for me, it was much neater to bind off. I used a crochet hook to pick up the stitches. I also tried to make the stitch pick up easier on the selvage ends by slipping the first stitch of each row as if to purl. That did make it easier, but my edges were so loosey-goosey that the first row of the new log with these picked up stitches was loose. Overall, I am not happy at all with my log cabin and am hesitant to start a large blanket using this. Any suggestions for improvement? All will be greatly appreciated.

Hope you all have a nice Labor Day holiday, and sorry to all the college kids who have to go to class today!