I picked up a booklet of knit and crochet dishcloth patterns. As I am trying to learn as many stitches as possible while wasting as little yarn as possible, these patterns looked like good exercise.
The first one I attempted was the basketweave pattern (#7). It looked like a great challenge for changing colors in the middle of the row.
I started by using some left over Lion Brand pound yarn #4 and Caron pound #4. After a few rows, the Lion Brand yarn seemed to want to separate into its individual threads and was a bit fuzzy. The Caron yarn was more stiff. This difference caused quite a bit of slipping and bunching while knitting. It also negatively affected the gauge. So lesson one, use the same type of yarn for both colors!
After sifting through my yarn pile, I found a pound of white Caron. Although these two yarns worked great together, my color changing skill needed practice! So three tries later - success, kind of.
(Side note: Regarding yarn piles - I hear via the Facebook groups these types of piles happen frequently :)).
Something I noticed about myself while making this dishcloth. It appears I 'zone out and start thinking of stuff I need to do' once in a while and lose track of my place. During these times, I usually find myself thinking of mundane things like grocery list items or bills that need to be paid. So I have to go back and count my stitches - sometimes rip some out to restore the pattern. I have also developed muscle memory for the knit stitch. Whenever I look back at these errant spots, I see all knit instead of whatever the pattern says. Does this happen to anyone else?
The piece looked a bit better after blocking it. It appears my white stitches aren't as tight as the blue ones and one of the borders is too wide. It is OK - my dishes won't mind 🙂
I'll get it right next time!
Update 6/13/2020:
My first attempt wasn't great. Eventually I switched to 100% cotton. That worked much better! I like the multi-colored yarns but have found the patterns show much better with solid colors. One thing I've noticed with 100% cotton - my hands dry out when I spend many hours making these.
 
|
 
|
 
|
 
|