More Knitting: Pineapple Scrubbie

 A friend asked for help with a pineapple scrubbie she had seen at Hobby Lobby.  It included both knitting and crocheting.  I knew I could help with the knitting end and figured I could also do the crocheting and teach it to her. WELL...the knitting was a simple "berry" stitch...cannot remember the actual name of the stitch but you knit 3 together then KPK in the next stitch or PKP in that next stich.

This is intended to have a cake of soap inserted through the leaves at the top.

The crocheting part had an indecipherable chart.  At least I could not grasp it until I had help and then it was a Duh! moment...so very clear. Oh well.  Now I know.

The pattern I am referencing does not want me to link to it but if you go to Hobby Lobby and look for Pineapple Scrubbie and Scrubology Yarn you will find it.

The crochet part of the pattern is also very simple.  Once you know how to read the pattern.

The crochet pattern was just a chart. I had not done crochet from a chart...so I asked a couple of ladies at church who gave me the word.  I smacked my forehead when the chart reader wrote it out in words. Of COURSE that was what the symbols meant.  Double Duh!!

Because I do not like the way the sewn edge looks, I am trying again and knitting with the Scrubology acrylic yarn again because I like the pineapple part.

  The next one I will use the scrubology cotton for the green leaves since the acrylic (which makes a great scrubbing fabric) makes terrible crocheted leaves.  At least I make terrible leaves with that yarn...

 Also, I could only do one row repeat (Row 1: K1, *K3tog, PKP in next stitch, * to end of row, K1, turn and Row 2: knit back across) at a time since the yarn wreaked a certain amount of havoc with my hands...took a lot of strength.  Well, I don't really know how to describe the situation, but trust me, only one of the 2-row repeats at a time, then a good rest.  Even knitting on the tiny needles for the Crayon Booties was much more comfortable.

Knitting: Tawashi Heart

Winter is a time when I like to knit when my hands allow.  Today I happened onto a pattern called "Tawashi Heart" which is a small kitchen scrubbie cloth.  I tried it out.  I started it, tore it out, started it, tore it out, went out to swim and look for reduced-price chocolate options, and finally came home after 95 minutes of walking around stores who only had junk reduced-price chocolate--which just about finished me off.

First thing I did was sit down in my rocking chair and picked up the Tawashi Heart pattern and Sugar'nCream variegated yarn and started knitting again.  This time something clicked and I was able to knit right through the pattern.

This is what it looks like hanging on a bottle of dish soap, all ready to begin scrubbing!

Really, it was not that hard.  I just was not getting it through my head how it was supposed to be knit.  This is one of the first times I did not read all the way through the pattern first.  (It is a good practice  to read all the way through a recipe before you start to prepare it.  The same can be said for a knitting pattern. In this case it would have helped if I had realized that it was a double-thickness scrubbie.)

If you look on Ravelry.com at the tawashi heart pattern you will find multiple pictures of what other people have made.  To my view, this pattern should be knit in a variegated yarn.