Knitting Cotton Handtowels

[HomekeepingGran]

Mason-Dixon Knitting introduced me to the idea of knitting my own handtowels but they used very expensive linen yarns. The woman who writes this blog took their ideas and has made some lovely towels with kitchen cotton. Take a look.

[mamaoso]

Thanks for the link I might have to try that...

[econ-nerd]

Silly question here Has anyone made cotton towels and are they actually useable or are they for show? Can they be used to dry hands and dishes?? Curious minds want to know (before I try making some for myself)

[HomekeepingGran]

I guess you could choose to use them either way, but I think the gal whose blog I linked planned to use them for real work.

[Angeleyz14]

I have been knitting and crocheting dish towels, wash cloths & hands towels pretty much since I started. All of the ones that stay in this house get used and those I have given away get used. My friend makes and receives but she also like to lie them on the counters to put their coffee cups on to dry, for pots, etc. I buy regular old kitchen cotton (peaches'n'cream & sugar'n'cream are my mainstays and I occasionally splurge on red heart eco cotton and lion brand).

From mason-dixon I use their baby genius burp cloth pattern often. I have about half a dozen I made for Harmony and she loves her little cotton clothes to chew on and snuggle with.

[morehotcoffee]

I knitted the kitchen towels that hang off the oven with buttons. I have noticed that the more I have washed them, the more absorbent they have become. They are wonderful for cleaning your windows. They do what I need them to do so I would rather save the money I would spend to upgrade to linin w/cotton blend and make something else. They don't absorb as quickly as the store bought towels but are fine for hand drying.

 

Carla, don't forget to post a pic of the towels if you make them! They are on my todo list.

[HomekeepingGran]

Oh, they're not even on my radar at the moment since I am concentrating on learning to knit lace and it's taking most of my limited brain function. I guess I could choose a simple towel pattern, though, to carry around for doc's offices and the like. I do keep the old diagonal, garter stitch washcloths going most of the time and have quite a few I need to give away. The Mason-Dixon/Elmore-Pisgah "warshcloth" looks great but it's too thick for my taste. Hmmmm... wonder how it might do as a towel? Or maybe just a few rows of that slip-stitch pattern at the bottom for embellishment? That might look good in some great colors.

[Angeleyz14]

there are several great lace patterns that you can make with dishcloths.

Can't remember the site name (or locate it at the moment) but they have lots of free patterns and a bunch are lace. It's an easy relatively quick way to learn/practice lace patterns.

I'm also on the 'cloth of the week-knit' group on yahoo, which I am loving.

[MaryPat]

Thank you for posting the blog. This is one of those instances where crochet would be a better choice. I did like the back view of her knitted towel at all. I loved the quilt-look of the towel and I think it could be replicated in crochet pretty well.

 

I've crocheted a couple of dish rags from the popular worsted cotton, but I really didn't like how they seemed to stretch once they're wet. I much prefer a thinner fingering weight cotton for these items.

[HomekeepingGran]

Mary Pat, you're right that crochet would definitely be faster. I think it may depend upon whether you want a thick towel (crocheted) or a slimmer one (knitted), plus the designs you hope to achieve. I have several crocheted dishrags which I do not like at the kitchen sink and use for cleaning bathrooms. By the same token I don't like the knitted ballband dishcloth which Mason-Dixon loves because it is too thick to me; instead I use a plain, knitted garter stitch dishcloth. But then, since you choose fingering cotton for your crocheted ones, they automatically are thinner. (Where do you get that cotton, by the way?)

 

It all depends on your individual tastes, I think.