Now you see it...

...and now you don't...

....frogged! My failure :(

I really gave it a good try, but I really did not enjoy this double knitted cow cloth. This is perhaps the most tedious knitted item that I have tried. The technique is not hard, but very slow going. Hard to tink back and fix mistakes as well. I have done double knitting before using Elizabeth Zimmerman's instructions for a pot holder found in her Knitter's Almanac. This was a couple of years ago before I had my blog.
What's challenging about knitting the cow pattern is the fact the picture is on both sides. If I was doing the same thing to both sides or had the back side be a solid color I think I could do that. Since I did not enjoy it I decided it was in my best interest to just move on. I rarely give up on a project. Now I'm not saying I'll never try it again....

Here's a picture of my Argosy Plain Jane dishcloth: This is the square version of the cloth. I love this cloth. It's a very easy pattern and I think it's great for variegated yarn. There is also another version which I haven't tried yet, but is an argosy cloth done on the diagonal just like the scarf and blanket.

I finally have a few more babies to knit for....there are 3 that I know so far. I thought I would try the cute petal bib that I've seen on so many blogs recently. The pattern comes from the One Skein book. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow it from my library.
Now I didn't follow the instructions exactly. The pattern calls for sport weight cotton. I used my AC Moore mill end yellow cotton which is definitely a worsted weight. The bib part is fine, but the i-cord ties are a bit thick. I think if I make another one I'd probably do something differently with the ties.

In the One Skein book there is a pattern for a spiral rib drawstring bag that I really liked, but this pattern calls for a chunky weight bulk yarn. Now I probably could have doubled up on the peaches and cream, but decided against it. Instead I made up my own pattern (totally different construction) but I borrowed the spiral rib pattern from the book. Here's the bag:

This is going to be a birthday present for someone I won't name just yet...in case she checks out my blog. I'm filling the bag with a bunch of my cloths. Most of them are chenille or part chenille. I thought she might like the soft cloths.


I threw in 2 large Dove chocolate bars and a bar of natural strawberry soap. Hopefully she'll like the drawstring bag fill with the goodies.

The last thing I wanted to tell you about is the Sakura Cherry Blossom shawl. I was really disappointed that it went for the minimum bid ($25.00) in my church's silent auction. That is what I paid for the yarn and all that time (over two weeks of pretty steady work) it took to knit although it was very enjoyable. It is really sad that people (general public) do not value a hand knitted item. I doubt that I would ever do that again. :( The only saving grace of the whole thing is that I found a very pretty inexpensive yarn, a beautiful pattern that I really enjoyed working with and so many nice compliments of my work from people (mostly knitters) inside and outside (knitting blog world) my church!

Happy Knitting everyone :)