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Dear Ann,

My vacation is over, but I hereby officially announce that Vacation Knitting Mode will continue through Labor Day. Arrange your queue accordingly.

For me, Vacation Knitting Mode has a shape, and the shape is a square.

It’s a great time to replenish the dishrag drawer with a couple or 30 Ballband Dishcloths. (One summer, I knit at least 30 of them. Good times, or maybe the most epic displacement/procrastination knitting streak of all time.) Make it extra vacation-y by avoiding the trip to the Big Box Dishcloth Cotton Mart and just using 20-year-old scraps and cones and other remnants of dishcloth-eligible cotton, linen, or hemp yarns. (If you have a Log Cabin Cloths Kit or Rowan Handknit Cotton lying around, you’re already bound for glory.)

Color coordination is not even a thing with dishcloth knitting. Mix colors up every which way, or do a mono-cloth, all in the only color you have on hand. Your dishes don’t care.  If you’re knitting at the beach, a little sand in the cloth is not a problem either. Helps with the scouring, honestly. Adjust your dial to: Vacation Knitting Mode. Get fresh dishcloths as your reward.

For me, this year’s Vacation Knitting Mode focus has turned out to be squares for the MDK Team Blankets that are all the rage over in the Lounge. I can’t stand to miss out on all the fun they’re having. And my Savage Heart Cardigan left me with a lovely little stash of Elemental Affects Cormo Worsted. Three skeins and change of Oyster, the perfect neutral background shade for a Mitered Crosses Blanket square, and a single skein of a beautiful shade called Doppio, which sometimes looks taupe-ish and sometimes is downright aubergine.

Square the First is done.

square the first has not been blocked. Remember: vacation knitting mode. Pattern: Mitered Crosses Blanket.

I can’t remember what the teal/turquoise (tealquoise) yarn is, but it’s something yummy and worsted weight.

This one is for Team Blanket 2: For Survivors of a House Fire. Team Blanket 2 is actually several blankets, all being shepherded in the most jolly, hearfelt way by Karen Tumelty.

Square the Second is on the needles, roaring along.

I’m gradually getting the hang (again) of not leaving a big hole in the middle of the square where the four corners meet.

This one is for Team Blanket No. 1: For Carrie Swanson,led by Sarah Inskeep, the intrepid knitter who stepped up to be the first Team Blanket leader.

I promise that Vacation Knitting Mode notwithstanding, I will weave in all the ends and block these babies before mailing.

Now that you’ve sailed through your incredible Sail Away Shawl, what’s your Vacation Knitting Mode knitting?

Love,

Kay

P.S. If knitting something square does not appeal to you (what? that’s crazy but OK), there’s another great summer knitting bandwagon to jump on. I’m calling it the Wimple-along, a knitalong led by designer extraordinaire, Annie Modesitt. If you’ve been keeping up with Annie lately, you know she’s carrying a heavy load right now. Since I can’t drop by to see her in St. Paul, I figured knitting along with her was the next best thing. Now to paw through the odds and ends of my stash to find a yarn that will work well for the lovely Split Cable Wimple.

14 Comments

  • I’m on the granny square thing. Last year I made a top out of two giant ones and I love it. I’ve just been slowly, slowly crocheting around on a new one. For this years giant granny top I’m considering a two color version with the front and back different colors. Too wild? Too much thought? Maybe. I’m coming up on the end of square one so a difficult decision lies ahead.

  • Kay, I have been working on my mitered crosses Square for Karen’s group. Tell me, what should I have done to avoid the hole in the center?! (Sorry Karen).

    Also I’ve been home sick and have had the chance to work a little bit on two projects for which I’m currently taking classes. I think maybe maybe maybe I have finally conquered my difficulty with brioche ( two color brioche, at that). Keeping my hopes High. Also, putting some work in on my magic loop two at a time toe up socks. I have never made socks from the toe up and I’m really skeptical about this process. However, I keep telling myself “it’s two at a time I’ll be finished with Both of them when I’m finished”, and “it’s Kiogu yarn (purple) you love Koigu, you love purple”, and, “you’re gifting them– someone will be happy!”. Yet it is a weird, sort of counterintuitive process. There are some baby projects too, but I don’t really want to work on them until my cold is finished.

    Maybe there will be time to work in some nice dishcloths to round the whole thing out. The main thing is working on balancing work time and down time. That would really be a summer accomplishment for me.

    • I don’t have a real answer for avoiding the hole in the middle but my pickups in that spot have gotten tidier.

      • Ahhh! Nothing like experience!

  • No vacation for me this year, but I am having a relaxing time knitting away on the Picket Fence blanket. Just they kind of low-intensity knitting I need this year as my husband continues recovering from severe injuries sustained in a fall, and I begin a new high-intensity job. Thanks for the new field guide!

  • Thanks so much for alerting us to Annie’s illness. As I’ve for some reason had wimples on the mind recently, as a continuation of cowls, her crowdfund pattern is just what I want.
    I’ll also share the info with my fiber arts group, Twisted Threads, out of Raleigh, and see if a sudden fashion for wimples pops up in NC this winter!

  • Kay, I also encountered The Hole when I turned the corner to add the fourth miter. I had been picking up only the front leg of each stitch to get a neat edge when joining the second and third miter. Now, with the center becoming complete, that didn’t work to close it up. I had to go back and pick up both legs on the two middle stitches. That worked! It did pull the alignment of squares off a tad but I think it’ll block out. Very fun knit; thank you!

  • I’m making dishcloths, too — color coordinated to my daughters’ kitchens in the hope that they will come over to the dark side and throw out their sponges. We see each other next week and I want to give each daughter at least three of them. Here’s a trick for ends if you’re using a plant-based fiber: split the 4″ or so of yarn that’s left over into 2 strands, put one strand on a sharp needle and draw it under one stitch on the back. Then tie the 2 strands tightly together in a square knot. The knot will disappear into the fabric and no will know that you knotted your yarn! (Shudder.) Besides, it’s a dishcloth. What the hell…

  • I am just coming to the end of Summer Knitting, myself, which is pretty much All Cotton, All the time. I do love cotton, and square things, though this summer’s big feature was triangle knitting, in the form of bunting. (Mostly Tin Can Knits’ Swatchtastic, in Lion Brand 24/7.) However, while I have greatly enjoyed the cotton, it’s now time for me to move on to my own personal category of Halloween Costume Knitting. That generally takes all my knitting time from now until the end of October. First up, a felted hat from Mary Scott Huff’s Fun and Fantastical Hats to Knit!

  • I wimpling along as soon as my daughter finishes her orientation at the new hospital she is nursing in. Very hard to wimple witha baby on board. Not complaining – but now I know why there were so few women artists.

    • Wimpling too. Might try a worsted weight. Have always found Annie’s techniques useful, smart, and utterly unique. You’re not too shabby either, Martha.

  • This inspired me to go to the Big Box Dishcloth Cotton Mart (alas, I left my phone with the 50%-off coupon home and had to pay a whole $2.09 for a ball). I proceeded to knit three dishcloths in a day. I’m in the middle of an endlessly long work project. This isn’t procrastination: it’s reminding myself that I can finish _something_.

  • hey, how long will your beach knitting last? do i have time to come join you for a day or two?

  • I am usually quite ruthless in my scrubby-usage of handknit dishrags, and it’s amazing how long they hold up. But I also have a couple that I made to test stitch patterns which turned out so nicely (one remains my favorite stitch pattern for socks) that I’m still using the “dishrags” only as coasters about 8 years later 🙂

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