Making-the napkin efforts

You may remember that over the years, I've knitted a fair number of napkins.  There's been Wipe, Waves & Stars, and even, simply, the knitted napkins.  All of these work, and they are washable, and some of the bright colors even appeal to my kids.  You can also get some of these patterns here on Loveknitting.com.

However, there's worry about them.  The Professor thinks he will ruin them in the wash (he hasn't) and that he can't dry them. (he can.)  Since they aren't dried in a dryer, they are rough, and that can hurt when cleaning up faces covered in jam, ice cream, or yogurt.  (Ouch, according to a survey of two twins.)

So, I looked at the leftover remnants I'd chosen for knitted tunic pockets, a while back.  I ripped the remnant into 6 napkins.  Two full size, and four cocktail/luncheon size, if you're curious.  And, I eyeballed the hems, folded the fabric over twice, and went to town on my ancient Kenmore sewing machine.  Today?  The table has new, bright, shiny napkins on it.  If my Professor reads this:

Yes, you can wash them.

Yes, you can dry them in the dryer.

Please use them, instead of the tattered old ones. :) 

Here, Sadie demonstrates what the napkins are for.  Note location of napkin, it is good at catching drooling while one dozes off.

After I removed the napkins, Sadie was awake and somewhat put out...but I finally got a great photo of her.  I did have a bigger image of her all stretched out.  She is one long tall drink of water!  However, that photo showed how dusty the area all around my Canadian Production Spinning Wheel is.  Ahem.  This is why one crops photos...and chooses the one with the least dust showing...Guess I need to, uh, dust, and spin on it again someday soon!

Wipe: fun reusable napkins for cleaning up

 (You may have heard...we've got two busy six year olds.  We get very messy around here!)

In an effort to tame the spills without adding more trash to the environment, we use cloth napkins.  Mostly linen and cotton ones, and you'd be surprised how solemn and grown up linen napkin colors can be.  Since we wash a set of napkins nearly every day, I thought it would be fun to design some hemp knitted ones. 

 Wipe is now live and available on Ravelry,  (and soon will be available on LoveKnitting.com, too) and it's a quick, fun knit.  I used dk weight hemp for these samples, but any washable, absorbent natural fibre is a good bet.  

It uses about 200 yards/183 meters of yarn, and if you want two napkins in two colors, that would be about 100 yards of each color.


In other news, we've had 5 routine medical appointments in our family this week (five!) --we're all fine-- AND, we're having some electrical work done in our house, so it's been a busy week.

So instead, I'd like to focus on sunshine, picnics, and fun knitting projects.
Wipe, my newest design,  is a US$4 download from Ravelry.com.  Please check it out!