Sandie @ crazy’boutquilts – A Crochet Summer
This post is part of the A Season by Hand series. Find the schedule here.
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Our guest today is Sandy of crazy’boutquilts. Sandie shares a bunch of fun quilts and bags on her blog. I’m also excited that she’s sharing some crochet for this post, as I love a little yarn! I still don’t know how to crochet yet, but I think this would be a great project to start on! And Sandie is just really fun to chat with and read! Enjoy.
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Hi everyone! I am Sandie and I blog at crazy’boutquilts. My blog name describes me pretty well. I love quilts, quilting and everything in between! But in the summer, I seem to have less time to spend behind my sewing machine. This is the season when I turn to my hooks and needles. 😉 I learned to crochet from my paternal grandmother and she had quite the task teaching me! I am a lefty, and no one else in our family was left-handed. LOL It made for some interesting teaching sessions. I did end up crocheting right handed, but i do it my way. LOL
This summer I am working on dish cloths and scrubbies. Both are really easy to do, and very portable!
I found the pattern for my dish cloths on the back of the paper that circles the yarn. The yarn in the photo was made specifically for the pattern and it makes the strips in the dish cloth without any switching of yarn or anything~ I love that!! I use the Lily Sugar ‘n Cream yarn for dish cloths. It’s cotton and oh so soft! If you google ‘dish cloth patterns’ there are lots of free patterns on the web to choose from. but if you want stripes~ this yarn is the one! And it has both crochet and knitting directions on the label. 😉
I used an ‘I’ hook for both the dish clothes and the scrubbies.
The scrubbies are made from nylon net. Again, I just googled ‘nylon net scrubbies ‘ and found lots of patterns. There is even a U-tube video. 🙂 I cut my nylon net into 2 inch strips and I used my ‘I’ hook for these too. It is so much easier as a take-and-go project when you only need to take one hook along.
Besides using the scrubbies for dishes, I also keep one on my cutting table~ they make a great rotary mat cleaner. When I cut flannel, or batting or anything that has a nap on my mat, I always run the scrubby over it~ it gets all the fluff from between the mat cuts and helps keep the self-healing mats working.
Thanks so much to Jennie and Clara for inviting me to be a Season By Hand guest! I never used to like doing handwork~ I even went so far as to say I was allergic to it! But over the years, I have learned to love it!
I hope my ideas inspire you to make something fun this summer!
My mom makes dishcloths and scrubbies… they are the BEST! 🙂
I love handmade dishcloths. It seems the only project I can crochet and finish! Those scrubbies are awesome. I’ve never made them but have been given some. Clever idea to keep one for the cutting mat.
Thanks, I love your scrubbers but where do you get the nylon net from?? or can you use nylon net curtain fabric? Thanks again for the idea.
Lizzi, since I don’t have an email address for you, I hope you come back and see my answer here. I got my netting from JoAnn’s. Wal-Mart has it too. Are you in the US? Thanks so much for stopping by!
Hi Sandie, Thank you for your reply, I live in Australia and I’m not sure where to look for nylon here. I’m also wondering if there is an alternative that you could suggest. I will be making the dish cloths as I have some cotton thread that would be perfect. Thanks again.
I do not crochet, but I have been knitting this summer. A great way to use my hands when sitting and watching TV.
Awesome idea.
Thanks for the tip about cleaning off the mat! Never thought of that.
I love crocheting! I tried doing the scrubbies once, but it just didn’t turn out… I will have to give washcloths a try soon, though!
What a great idea!
I really like the scrubbies!
I am learning to crochet and I have made some of the dishcloths which I love using in my kitchen.
Ooh, thanks for the tip about using a scrubby on my cutting mat! I’m going to scrounge one up and clean my mat! 🙂
I didn’t know there are yarns catering specifically for dishcloths… Thanks for sharing!:)
Hey, that is what I am doing this summer too! But I only know how to knit. I love the scrubbies, I so need to make those! Thanks for a great post.
Oh, I love that the scrubbies can be used for the mats. I’ve often thought about buying one of the cleaners from a company but I like your idea much better. I’ll be keeping my eyes open when I go to the next craft show. Thanks.
I need to learn how to knit washcloths. I love the knitted ones.
I’ve been knitting washcloths waiting for babyboy to be born for the last 4 weeks as well! So easy and so much nicer than the store bought ones. 🙂
What a great post! I started knitting about two and a half years ago and I am really enjoying it. I have knit several dish cloths as I find they do a great job on the dishes. Maybe I should learn some crochet. I really like your striped dish cloth and the scrubbies.
Knitting and crocheting dishcloths is also a wonderful beginning knitting project. Take extra needles and yarn on vacation…you never know who in your family might want to learn to do this while watching you. Thanks for sharing.
Those are just fabulous and so useful too.
Love the stripes! Also, how great to use the scrubbies for a cutting mat. Mine is starting to look a little rough…
I love crocheting! Thanks for sharing the tips of cleaning the cutting mat… this is useful:)
One day I will learn to crochet!
Great idea for making the scrubbies (and using them to clean your mat). I never thought of crocheting with net. Thanks for the inspiration!
Great idea using the scrubbies on the mat! My cutting mat is brand shiny new, but I will remember that once I get to use it a bit more!
I love the embroidery idea – there’s a nonpublic school where I work and the students all learn to embroider this way – its so much fun to see them work!
How fun! My friend has crocheted a few dish cloths for me but I can’t bear to use them for the dishes. Instead I use them as candle mats, placed under my Yankee Candle jars.
I love to use Sugar and Cream yarn also. I never thought to use a yarn scrubbie on my cutting mat. Thanks for the great tip.
Dishcloths are the perfect quick project for when you just burn to make *something*. The Sugar n’ Cream yarn is great – especially their super-sized skeins. I love KnitPicks’ Dishie cotton yarn too for knitting dishcloths.
I’m not the knitter, but my mom uses the Sugar and Creme cotton yarn as well. I love the dish cloths she makes me.
In Tawashi Town, I heard about special yarn for scrubbies that was super-scratchy acrylic (good for scrubbing), and treated with special silver ions to make it antibacterial. I found a link to some on Etsy , and last night, when we got home from the bus stop, it was on our stoop. Selma was more impressed with the Japanese newspaper that the package was wrapped with than the yarn.
Love these! I have a circular pattern I use for my dish scrubbies, and instead of using cotton yarn scraps I prefer using super cheapo scratchy acrylic yarn. I find it works much better for scrubbies.