Yes, yes I am back so soon. I’m planning a couple rounds of posts on Christmas gifts, partially because there are a lot of them, and partially because, well, I’m still starting some. I’m a classy gift giver like that. But to be fair, some of the people I give Christmas presents to are fellow grad students and they are away over break, so what do they care when I start knitting. That’s what I’ll keep telling myself anyway.

This first post will be on the stocking stuffers I made for my parents and Peto – they’re cute little packages of knit washcloths and handmade soap. Washcloths- thrilling, I know. But actually, they kind of were thrilling. I’d just come down from a long stint of crocheting, and I was really ready for some knitting. I keep jumping back and forth between these two crafts in such a weirdly manic fashion, when really, I don’t have to be such a nut about it. At least for now it’s working. Nothing feels better than getting back to a craft you’ve neglected for a few weeks/days/hours.

The first washcloth you see here went to my dad. It’s so satisfyingly sturdy and squishy that I think I’ll have to make more for my own household. I bet this baby feels great pressed up into your face. The pattern is called Circle Cloth

Next up was a simple pattern, and I decided to give this one to my mom since it seemed like a shade of green that she would really love. This pattern came from the Purl Bee – Wedding Washcloths. That page pictures both seed stitch and seed stitch-bordered washcloths, and as much as I would love a nubby seed stitch cloth I just didn’t have it in me to knit that much of it. Sad, I know, when we’re only talking about a freaking washcloth. That’s how much I hate knitting seed stitch.

And this last one has what may be the most bizarre name for a washcloth I have ever seen: it’s called the DW Darrell Waltrip Cloth. I absolutely love the texture of those floats over the fronts of the slipped stitches.

In case anyone is curious, I did queue up a few other washcloth patterns that looked nice, so here are some links. Some of these are knit; some are crocheted; some are intended as dish/washcloths; some are not:

knit:
lion brand dish cloth
the squidge cloth
waffle knit dish cloth
grrr – I mean come ON, we all know I need this. Trouble is my family members don’t really need it, so it didn’t make the cut for stocking stuffers.
and the always classic ballband dishcloth

crochet:
crazy cloth dish cloth
wool eater blanket – *yes I realize this is a blanket pattern, but I was so in love with Julia Vesper’s wool eater potholders that this might be a good opportunity to try out the pattern in a new way. Just look at her use of color! Fantastic.
waffle weave dishcloth -*I love the look/feel of crocheted waffle stitch, but I just finished a stealth crochet project involving a LOT of it and I would have gone bat shit crazy if I’d crocheted a single other post stitch.
crochet dishcloths
easy crocheted dishcloth
granny dishcloth c
crochet dandy dishcloths – the name of these completely freaks me out, but I am such a sucker for that color/texture combo on the rav page.
noro catherine wheel scarf – inspired by Adrian of Hello Yarn’s potholder
pretty petals potholder – so frilly! so pretty! it just makes me want to wash my face!