Hey Gorgeous! Today I wanted to show you, that cleaning can be stylish, too!
Many years ago the wife of my brother gave me a self made dish cloth. It was very pretty and I used it a lot. All of these years it has served me well, but last month I had to admit that it had come to it's end. I also happened to find a skein of bamboo blend yarn. So I decided to knit myself a new one. And I also wanted to share it with you, too!
The idea of this dish cloth is to be a more ecological choice than the plastic disposable ones. It is a better choice, but please also pay attention to the ecological values of the yarn you choose to use.
Bamboo is a wonderful material, also for this dish cloth. It grows fast, and it does not require fertilisation, pesticides or extra watering. So compared to e.g. cotton it is very ecological. As a fibre and it's antibacterial, it absorbs moisture and works perfectly in cleaning. But the processing of the bamboo fibre is not always very ecological and that makes this material a bit problematic. Most of Bamboo yarns are bamboo viscose, and the process on bamboo viscose is like with any other viscose. Which means the fiber is treated with many chemicals, such as lye, which are not environmentally friendly.
There are however two ways to produce fibre yarns from hard bamboo raw material. The other one is chemical, like I mentioned above, and the other one is mechanical. The mechanical way is more ecological, it's like processing hemp or flax fibres. So when you choose your yarn, please pay attention to this.
The yarn I used I believe was produced in the chemical way. I don't remember how old that yarn was, I think I've had it for like over 20 years already, if possible. So in my case I think it's more ecological just to knit it and use it for something good. But if you're buying a new yarn for this, you can make a better choice and but a truly ecological yarn.
The ecological value in this dish cloth is still in the fact that you can use is for years. So while you're doing it, you may at the same time knit a couple of them, maybe even from different colors, and when one is in loudry you can use another one. And after the use it is decomposable. So it's a zero plastic choice, which we always love!
To get your free pattern, all you need to do is:
1) Write your email to the field below and press the "Submit" button,
2) You will be forwarded to the download page where you can easily download the PDF pattern.
You can print it or save it in your device. When you sign up, you will also be added to my VIP list. I will send you a notification to your email every time I publish something that I think will interest you, like a new pattern or a blog post. And don't worry, I'm not a spammer and I only send valuable information and as long as you want to receive it.
Let me know how you like the pattern and if you have for example tips for a good ecological yarn to use here, please share us the information!
With love,
Heidi
