A little less slow

As I’ve said before, knitting is slow.  But some knitting is slower than other.  And some times it is personal. Like for instance, I find that it takes me longer to knit a square of garter stitch than stockinette stitch.  It takes 10 rows of garter stitch to equal 7 rows of stockinette stitch.  My friend who is a very very fast knitter but a slow purler finds that she can knit 10 rows of garter much faster than 7 rows of stockinette.  So for her, stockinette is slower than garter.

Seed stitch and ribbing are also slow for me. The extra time to move the yarn from back to front and front to back in between the knits and purls just eats up time.  But I’m predominately an English style knitter.  I can knit continental, and I am slightly faster at ribbing and seed stitch when I knit continental. But I’m not comfortable knitting continental style.  I can’t watch a subtitled foreign movie when I knit continental, but I can when I knit English.

I decided the other day that I’d really like to have a few more hand knitted wash clothes in my kitchen.  I have one that a friend gifted to me years ago.  It is the most effective cleaning tool I have in my kitchen.  It picks up dirt better than any store bought disposal wipe or kitchen towel.  So I set aside some time to knit washcloths. 

Some people love to knit washcloths and will spend most of their knitting time knitting washcloths.  That ain’t me.  So while there are lots of other prettier washcloth patterns out there I opted for the fastest one I could find.

It is a pattern called “Chinese Waves”.  I have no idea why it is called “Chinese Waves”.  There is absolutely nothing Chinese about it.  It is slightly wavey looking. 

Another shopper at Yarn Love suggested the pattern to me.  He said it was his favorite because it knit up thick and cushy.  It is now my favorite because it knits up thick, cushy and fast.

Here is the pattern:

Cast on an odd number of stitches (I cast on 33).

Row 1 and 3: Knit

Row 2: *Knit1, Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in back, repeat from * and end Knit 1

Row 4: Knit 1,  *Knit1, Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in back, repeat from * and end Knit 2.

That’s it. I think the slipping is what makes it go fast.  Plus no reasons to move the yarn from front to back or back to front.

I used good ol’ Peach and Cream cotton, although I’d like to try it with some hemp or linen just to see if they are better or worse at cleaning.

I also tried it using different sized needles from size 5 to 8.  It all works.  

The green one was knitted on a size 5 and the purply blue one was knitted on a size 8. 

Will I knit more washcloths?  Maybe, maybe not.  I have enough for now. 

Funny how life changes.  I’m at the stage in life where having a set of handmade by me useful washcloths makes me happy.  Two years ago I wasn’t there.   Now if I can just find some orange Peaches and Cream to complete my rainbow of washcloths I’d be really happy.