So what have I been up to?  Best laid plans and all that!  Sure, I’d be able to make loads of posts while my family were visiting, show you all the things we did and the places we went to!  Yeah right!  I think it’s been two weeks since my last post and they’re now both safely back at home and back to work too for my brother.  The weather while they were here was generally pretty bad, at times bordering on atrocious considering the time of year.  That cooler summer that we enjoyed so much has in turn given way to a much cooler Autumn too, didn’t really consider that would be a side effect of it, but it was.  So we had a lot of cooler, showery days with the odd nice one interspersed.  We even went up North for a few days to view the lovely Fall colours only to have it turn quite bitter with lows hovering around freezing point and a few sleet and snow showers!!  We still had a good time though.

One thing I really wanted to do when I had my mum with me was learn to knit, just basic stuff, nothing complicated, I actually had in mind to make a few dishcloths for use in the kitchen.  We buy far too many kitchen supplies, especially paper towels and I’ve really wanted to get away from this for a long time… paper towels, cloths, sponges, scrubbing pads, all the usual stuff and all things I can do without if I’m careful.  The paper towels have been my biggest bug bear, we use them for every tiny thing, including wiping the worktops, picking up little spillages, wiping over the cook top.  It’s waste, and very un-environmental.  So knitted cotton cloths it was going to be, apart from the minor little annoyance that I can’t actually knit!!!  But that’s were my mum came in, she’s been knitting since she was 11 years old, so that’s more than 60 years of knitting experience right there, and under her patient guidance I picked it up really quickly, even the “complicated” bits like casting on and off.

So here are the results of my efforts for the last couple of weeks, the first of my very own, made by me dishcloths!  Not exactly mind blowing I know, and not the very height of fashion either, but they’re really quick to knit up and surprisingly simple too.  I’m happy, I’ve learnt a new skill and I can hopefully get one more little bit of consumerism out of my house and save a few trees in the process…. yes, the dreaded paper towels will soon be banished!  There’s only one little fly in the ointment at the moment, apparently Andrew has deemed them “far too nice” to be used as dreary old dishcloths!!

What do you think?

[This was the first one on the needles, looking a bit wobbly in this photo but I think that’s a combination of  the pattern and the yarn coming out in bands like that, makes it look a bit zig zaggy!]

[This was the second one I did.  Love this pattern and intend doing this one again]

[An artistic shot of them both together!]

[And finally, the new one on the needles.  An interesting pattern made by moving the yarn to the front as if to purl, slipping two stitches and then moving the yarn back again to carry on with the knit stitch.]

Ahem, I think I’ve found a new addiction!  Scarf anyone??  A throw perhaps made up of lots of squares???!!