FO Friday -- Joe Cool Edition

Just flew back from KC, where I had a pretty decent day and a half.  I'd have called it good until I inadvertently poured my diet coke into my work bag (with my knitting) on the plane on the way home.  Sigh.  Some of my notes are looking a little less than pristine at the moment, but I was able to rescue both yarn and sock chunk without any damage.  Phew! 

And, as it happens, I've arrived just in time to participate in FO Friday (that's 3 in a row for me - a personal best!).  It turns out that there are lots of pluses to knitting dish cloths.  In no particular order...

They're super functional.
They're a quick and satisfying knit.
I get to play along with FO Friday more often when I knit small stuff.
Oh, and they're pretty stinkin' cute...

Pretty awesome.  In my fantasy world, I'll knit enough of these to keep in the kitchen so we'll cut our paper towel usage by something like 80 or 90%.  I'd say completely, but let's face it -- I'm not going to pick up dog barf with a hand-knit washcloth, nor am I going to use it to drain bacon.  I'm sure there are more things that are classified as paper-towel-only jobs in my brain, but those are the two that pop to mind right off.  We'll see how that goal plays out over the next few months.

I'm also a little bit in awe of the amazing designs that are out there.  My personal favorite dish cloth designer is Faerwear (who's also on Ravelry).  I could totally knit a blanket out of those squares.  But really, somewhere out there, there's a dish cloth design for just about anything.  Must explore more.

Thus ends the dish cloth treatise.  Are you a believer?

Happy Weekend, y'all!

ps. The Snoopy Dish cloth pattern is free here, and I knitted it up with Sugar and Cream cotton yarn, in case that's the sort of stuff that keeps you awake at night.

Work In Progress Wednesday v.37

And now for something completely different... (can anyone name the obscure tv show reference?)

It's Wednesday!  And I don't have much knitting *gasp* on the needles.  I know.  I'm as shocked as you are.  The vest needs to be seamed and have the trim added.  Not much going on there at the moment.  The Super Secret Citron blocked beautifully, and is patiently awaiting its moment in the sun on Friday.  I can't decide on yarn for the next project (which will be a KnitPicks order). 

And so where does that leave me?  It leaves me doing some serious stash diving, and coming up with part of a skein of Sugar and Cream cotton and a fistful of Snoopy Dishcloth Pattern (Ravelry link, but the pattern's free!).  And when they came together, it looked something like this:

It's just over half done, and Snoopy's all there, except for his noggin.  Turns out he's got a pretty big dome on him.  This is fun, fast, and really cute.  Who doesn't love Snoopy?  I will say that after knitting with that super fine (Filatura di Crosa Nirvana, in case you were wondering) laceweight, that this cotton feels a bit like I'm knitting with bailing wire.  My hands get pretty red after half an hour or so.  I know -- sissy.  What can I say?  I'm a delicate little flower.

Anyway, we have house guests this week -- safely stashed at Mr. Right's house, but still keeping the both of us extra busy.  So I'll make this quick.  I promise to choose some yarn in the next day or two so we can get on with Super Secret Project #2.  And when I have a few minutes, I'll head over to check out everyone else's progress over at Tami's.  See you there!

Oh.  And also?  GO SHARKS!!!!!