Knitting updates: Two colorful hand towels

I'm designing my own patterns for hand towels, for use by guests, using my stash of mercerized cotton crochet thread in myriad colors.

My main design goals were to produce well-done small and pretty hand towels in lively colors.



I decided to go for slip-stitch patterns which produce a dense fabric. Slip-stitch knitting requires using slightly larger needles than usual, for example, for the variegated Linen Stitch hand towel, I'm using a US Size 7 (4.0mm) and for the two-color combo of yellow and green, I'm using US Size 4 or 3.5 mm. Usually for knitting with one strand of crochet thread, a US Size 2 or 3 (2.75 mm or 3mm) is enough.

I'm loving my slip-stitch knitting, even if they do not produce reversible cloths. I like the density and the texture.

For this yellow and green venture, I found the slip-stitch pattern online, simply called "slip-stitch pattern" and uses two colors. Yup, I have some errors, but otherwise, I love how it's turning out. The pattern can be memorized easily.



Linen stitch, another slip-stitch pattern, had been a bane for me, when I tried it before with my tencel yarn. For some reason I would dislike the growing output and would end the project.

But with this variegated crochet thread, despite the challenge of knitting cotton even with metal circulars, I loved how the colors were turning out, as shown in this 'right side".



But I also like how the "wrong side" is turning out, below.




Linen stitch is like knitting "seed/moss stitch" but stitches are slipped every other stitch, instead of knitting/purling accordingly.

I also had another hand-towel project in yellow and violet, using Barbara Walker's Tanbark pattern. However it wasn't turning out nicely so it's now frogged. I'll probably need to use maybe bigger needles or something next time I try Tanbark.

I'm halfway through these two hand-towels, and that's another thing I love about my current knitting focus. Hand towels in slip-stitch knit fast, and maybe if all I did was knit all day, I'd probably finish one a day.

Some more Tanbark shots

Happy as I am that one of my Tanbark shots, a close-up, is being used for Ravelry, I still wish I can decent shots. Well, all I have is a cellphone camera with no tripod. Anyway, here are more shots I took of my Tanbark Towel, already done and awaiting to be gifted to the beloved recipient.

Left, the "right side" which looks like an exaggerated or embossed Moss/Seed stitch.

Right, the "wrong side" which is the loopy one and just as attractive.

Thick, dense fabric with slight curl, probably needs more selvedge. Since it's a towel, I didn't bother blocking it... maybe if I use this stitch for a scarf. I'll probably use seed stitch selvedge.

Latest dreams on the needles

These days I have more energy for my knitting projects in general than for my bread-and-butter telecommute job. In fact, I've sort of set aside the purple square I was knitting, for charity, but I'm gonna get back to it when the Tanbark towel's done.

But will also finish my purple square for the Many Colors knit-along at knittinghelp.com, and knit another square, maybe also in Tanbark.

Done!

Since I have 4 skeins of Pakucho organic cotton from Peru (via elann.com), I can make four face towels, since one skein is good enough for an 8 x 10 inch towel.

Face towel no. 1 is patterned after the Chinese Waves dishcloth pattern but I renamed it "Wavy Pakucho Towel" since I think the waves in China are not really little (the reason for the name).

Here are some pics I took today of the finished object (FO), right after bind off, hiding the ends that I still need to weave in, and in some of its "poses", placing the FO on top of the next skein of Pakucho that I'm using for Towel no. 2 (Barbara Walker's Tanbark pattern. Can you believe it, Ravelry's asked me to submit a pic of my knitting for this pattern... I feel honored... I'm such a knitting geek...)


Rolled up











Folded








Half-folded