Rowenta Steam Iron – Steam Kicks it for Blocking!

Just got my hands on this beauty and I couldn’t wait to try it out. Course, being a knitter, I needed something “knitty” to use it on. And this one really came through.

I love the cord reel. Very handy, nix the messy cord tangles. It’s easy to hold, and while a bit heavy, it’s very well balanced, even with my old arthritic hands and arms.

It has multiple temperature settings, as you would expect, but what really rocks is the burst of steam. And this is perfect for blocking. The fine tip point makes smoothing out those lace edges super easy. Of course you don’t want to directly iron your knits, I never do anyway, seems to crush them, but the burst of steam makes it so you don’t have to. There are multiple steam settings also, from a bit of steam to a full blown explosion. Startled me at first but I love that feature.

I didn’t like the 8 minute shut off feature, but I suppose that’s necessary, for safety. Heats up quickly too. We’ll see how fast it cools down. Oh, it has an auto clean feature, important when you run over bits and pieces of interfacing, not speaking from experience or anything….

I’d highly recommend this iron to any crafter or even just for ironing shirts I suppose. And we’re doing a giveaway!

Check it out here: http://craftgossip.com/blog/giveaway-celebrate-national-craft-month-by-winning-the-rowenta-focus/2011/03/22/

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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