My knitting is slow as cold molasses!

Well, I haven't accomplish a whole lot since my last knitting post. Lately I have been so tired at night that by the time I get to knit, I start making mistakes and spend more time fixing the mistakes rather than actual knitting. I did manage to finish the Mystery KAL for Dishcloth Fun KAL which has moved and changed it's name. (FunKnittingDishclothsKal is the new name.) I think I am going to skip the KAL that starts today. I can wait and do it at another time. I just can't have any more distractions right now. Here is the mystery KAL that I finished earlier in the week. When I say mystery...it really was a mystery. For the longest time I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was.
To make the stocking stand out better I used a crochet hook and some cotton chenille yarn and crocheted a kind of slip stitch chain for the outline. I got the idea for outlining from car54. It's a very small cloth. I really like them a bit bigger and it does not lat flat. I don't believe in blocking a dish/wash cloth but this one really needs it. If I use it as a gift I will have to block, so I think I'll keep it for myself!

I finished my second blue/purple ball band which I tried slipping the first stitch of every row. The edge is a little neater than the original ballband.

A very nice thing happened after I posted the mate to this cloth and this one on the needles. I got an email from Lisa who belongs to the Monthly Dishcloth KAL Yahoo group that I also belong to. She reminded me of her idea of using EZ's applied i-cord technique on the edges of the ballband to make the edges very neat and tidy. The funny thing is that I did remember her post on the Mason-Dixon KAL. I went back and found the post on August 2nd:

"Ballband Tidy Edges Instructions

I cast on four extra stitches so that I can use two stitches each side for the Applied I-cord (not my own technique, it's EZ's, credit where credit is due). For my own dishcloths (Brick/Ballband/Textured-- all the same pattern) I cast on 39 and then the four extra. For every row, knit the first two stitches, then knit in pattern until the last two stitches. When you get to the last two stitches, bring your yarn to the Purl position (front) and slip those stitches as if to Purl. On all RS rows, twist the working yarn and the resting yarn to carry the color. Keep doing this all the way up the cloth and you will see that you will be encasing the edges as you go along. Remember to give the cord a little tug (down) as you begin each row and you will see it forms a little casing. In order to keep the I-cord edge tighter, on all WS rows, you could knit into the back of the first stitch. You could also knit into the back of the first two stitches instead of just the first one."

I tried it on the next two that I made:

Here's how it looks on the reverse side:

I really like this technique! Much neater and it's very easy to do. Thank you Lisa for jogging my memory. For comparison purposes I took a picture of three ballbands with the different edges.
The orange/green is the original ballband with no modifications. The blue/purple is the slip first stitch of every row, and the yellow/blue is the applied i-cord. I think you can see the differences.

Now I have to get going and finish up the rest of my Christmas knitting :)

Happy Knitting :)