It’s true. I can’t help it. I love dishcloths. I hate sponges. Sponges get smelly and gross really quickly. Dishcloths…don’t. You use them, rinse them, hang them to dry, and can throw them in the wash at any time and grab a fresh one from the pile.
There are people who think this is madness. Heck, they may be right. I suppose a pro-sponge argument can be made, but as far as I can tell, dishcloths do the same job with less chance of smelliness. Need to scrub? Use a dishcloth with nubby bits. Keep a brillo pad for the really serious stuff, but otherwise, I’ve found that a dishcloth suffices in all jobs I’ve had to do. I’ve seriously cut down on sink clutter since switching. I used to have a dish sponge, a counters/surfaces sponge, a sponge for cleaning the bathroom, and a brillo or other heavy-duty scrubber.
Now my sink has a dishcloth draped over the faucet, and a brillo. And dish soap. That’s it. End of sponge clutter. End of smelly-spongitude.
Dishcloths are good for something else, though. They’re an easy way to learn how to knit, and to feel like you are accomplishing something. Dishcloths are actually how I learned to purl. It took me the longest time just to understand how to knit, and when it came time to purl, I had an even harder time. I’m just not very good at reading diagrams. Yeah, I can’t do origami, either, for the same reason.
Knitting opened up to me because after a friend showed me some basics, I found some videos on the net, and better yet, they were in continental, and finally, I grokked it. I just watched those videos over and over again til it made sense. Then I bought a skein of Sugar n’ Cream yarn, downloaded a free dishcloth pattern from the ‘net, and decided to see what I could do.
What I could do was a dishcloth that actually looked like the pattern! Hooray! Sure, I made a few mistakes, but who cares? I can’t even tell where those mistakes are anymore. Meanwhile, my cloth washes my dishes and looks neat, too! If I ever teach anyone to knit again (I’ve shown a couple of people), I might just suggest a dishcloth as their first project, because it is fairly unintimidating and the materials are cheap.
Since that very first cloth (I’ll post a pic of my bright orange pumpkin, eventually), I’ve done about 7 others, most of which have been given away as gifts. I have more patterns queued up that I want to do, both for our own house and for friends and family. My mom, after receiving 2 cloths from me for Christmas, has commissioned me to make some for friends of hers for next Christmas, so I should probably get started on those.
So, when Fred’s scarf is done (hopefully by this Sunday, when the cold snap is coming), I will be settling down with some cotton yarn and some dishcloth patterns and whipping them out. In the meantime, I just placed an order from Peaches ‘N Creme for about 12 balls in the following colors: flair, mardi gras, gold, teal, camel, burgundy, charcoal, emerald, shocking pink, persimmon, deep purple, and hunter.
Oh yes. Dishcloths will happen.
Someone make a support group, I just might need a 12-step program.
No matter one’s age, no one wants to be consigned to using a canvas tote bag unless that’s what you’re into, you know?
