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Spinning Recycled Denim Fibers….

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While at the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wood Festival this past weekend I wandered into (technically this is correct, as in true tourist fashion I was bumping into all kinds of things and people – just ga ga over all of the yummies all around me!) anyway, I bumped into a gal who was spinning with recycled denim fibers.

Determined to figure out more about this, as soon as I got back to the computer, Googled it. Couldn’t find anything in Google, YouTube or EHow. So, last night at our spinning group, I asked. Seems these “recycled” denim fibers are leftovers from the “makin’ o’ the blue jeans” at the mills.

Clever! The spun fiber was white with a bit of the blue specks in, but just the idea of spinning recycled blue jeans has me thinking. You know those frayed edges when you get a tear in your knees, or when you cut off your jeans because you’re too short to wear a regular size (no, I’m not over it, I’m short!) ? Never mind, it would probably be pretty time intensive, so rather than ravel out my jeans at the meeting, we just concentrated on spinning the usual stuff, you know, like wool, cotton and dog hair!

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Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

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.