Tuesday, April 3, 2012

A Dishcloth - The Washcloth Doll Part 3

For the body of the doll, I used a Red Heart Soft Yarn Solid Blue with size 6 needles. This was essentially the same of yarn and gauge as the two washclothes.


Because I didn't find a pattern that I liked, I made up my own:
Cast on 32 stitches.
Row 1: P6, K20, P6
Row 2: K6, P20, K6

Repeat Row 1 and Row 2 'lots'. (Yes, that is what is says in my notes.) I counted the rows and it worked out to 160 rows, so Rows 1 + 2 were repeated 80 times.
Then bind off.

I like the look of stockinette, which this is. I dislike how it curls to the purled side, making it essentially a long tube. The 6 stitches on either side were meant to prevent that. I have read that if you knit in garter stitch a few stitches at the beginning and end of each row, you can prevent this from happening.

I have not found this to be true. The ends, which were in reverse stockinette, curled toward their purled sides and then that entire section curled to the purled side of the whole thing.




I don't know why I keep thinking 'this time, I can get stockinette to behave'. It never works.

Regardless, it suits my purposes for the body of the washcloth doll. Now I need to put everything together.

2 comments:

  1. 2 notes:
    1. I've seen knitting patterns written where they put a length instead of a row count (13" vs. 200 rows, for example). Especially helpful on things where you just repeat something forever. Just a consideration for you.
    2. I find that the best way to tame stockinette is to cast on 2 extra stitches, and slip the first stitch of every row, front and back. It's also handy for when you're sewing two edges together, because you've got a nice, easy to work with border.
    Curious to see how this turns out! :)

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    1. Interesting! For the record, this thing comes in at about 2 feet. I had a stitch counter going, so it was easy to keep track of row numbers.

      Thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to try that in the future.

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