Utilitarian knitting

How many of us knit something knowing that it is going to be plain, useful and probably scoffed at if talked about? Most of the time we see pics of projects they are made of lovely soft alpaca or warm wool. Friends oooh and ahhh over lacy shawls and complicated mittens, sweet baby sweaters and cabled hats. But whip out a ordinary garter stitched dish cloth (or dish rag as I fondly remember Grandma talking about) and they ask why you would waste your time.

I am proud to have grandmas that taught me to recycle and re-purpose items that I already have to save money. They also taught me that homemade items were better and lasted longer than store bought.

A few weeks ago my hubby was complaining that the sponges we were using to wash dishes with were stinky. Again. He was right. In the summer humidity, sponges get gross in a day or so. I’ve read that the amount of germs found in them is an unimaginable number. I’m normally not too worried about “germ reports” but it does stand to reason with sponges.

So I decided to make a few dish rags for everyday use. I got some great yarn – Tatamy Tweed – from Stitches Midwest last week. It is 45% cotton/55% acrylic and feels really good to work with. Within 3 hrs today I made a very plain, useful dish rag that is hanging under my sink right now waiting for me to do dishes.

You may think this was a waste of 3 hrs. I was watching a movie with my son and husband the entire time I worked on it. We chatted, I knitted and the morning was quite enjoyable. Washing dishes isn’t my favorite thing to do, but I’ll be a bit happier thinking that I enjoyed making this simple piece of utilitarian knitting while spending a Saturday morning with my family. Thanks Grandma and Grammie for instilling useful skills and values in me so very long ago 🙂