MOD HUMMINGBIRD KITCHEN TOWEL; Knit

I started this towel yesterday – and finished this morning, along with a matching dishcloth.

I'm pleased with how my kitchen towel design turned out.

I chose a hummingbird grid – drew it freehand … and chose my towel colors based on a pink fuchsia flower 😊

Now, with the tempestuous weather happening outside, is the perfect time to drink coffee and be creative 😉

Freehand Grid; patterns found on Pinterest.

Fuchsia plant.

Normally, I work my patterns in jacquard knit (knitting a pattern directly into the fabric of knit work), but cotton yarn is a lot stiffer than acrylic worsted and jacquard tends to look messy with cotton yarn; so when I use cotton yarn I usually opt to use the duplicate stitch embroidery for design purposes because it stays put when the damp cotton yarn “grows”. Cotton yarn is good for dishtowels because it wicks moisture off hands and dishes (if you handwash/hand dry dishes); but it tends to lose shape when it gets very damp with constant use. Even so – I prefer my handmade cotton towels over the recycled plastic fiber kitchen towels sold in stores that are basically worthless other than the cute designs stamped on them.

I’m not a fan of the duplicate stitch stich … but it seems the best technique to do a broad-span design on cotton yarn projects: it “sets” the pattern to keep it in place.

This pattern combines knit, crochet, and embroidery stitches.

Here’s the pattern –

MOD HUMMINGBIRD KITCHEN TOWEL

1 skein Cotton yarn in Pink, Green & White; small amount of contrasting color throwaway yarn; Worsted yarns in Green and White.

# 9 knitting needles

#I/9 crochet hook

1 resin button for towel topper

1 tapestry needle

1 set of plastic cone-shaped needle point protectors/stoppers

Terms used:

CO = cast on sts

St = stitches

st. st. = stockinette stitch

tog = together

sc = single crochet

dc = double crochet

EO = end off yarn

 

With pink, CO 70 sts & K 1 row.

Work 62 rows in stockinette stitch (knit 1 row = front side of work; purl 1 row = back side of work).

Keep sts on needle, and slip a point stopper on the tip end when row 62 is finished (this will be the purl side of work).

Lower end of kitchen towel finished.

With a small amount of throw away yarn, mark off the center 20 sts needed for the hummingbird embroidery design.

My pattern grid was marked like this: count 20 rows from the bottom – and 25 sts on each end of the center 20 design sts; there should be 23 top-end rows.

Once you have your st counts set up, start the Duplicate St embroidery using the tapestry needle and contrasting yarn colors: this online page describes it (https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/how-to-duplicate-stitch-2116380).

It’s pretty simple to do.

Using Duplicate St ...

Hummingbird finished.

When your design is finished, weave in the loose ends; and start on the towel topper.

Towel Topper – Row 63: With crochet hook, attach green yarn and sc across row as follows – *sc 2, sc 2 tog*, end sc 2. Ch 1, turn.

Repeat row 63 once more.

Next row and every row afterwards: Decrease one st EA end, until there are only six sts remaining to be worked.

Dc for 8 rows.

Button keyhole: Sl st next 3 sts; ch 6 and sl st in same sp; sl at to end. Turn.

Dc x12 in chain loop; EO.

Add a decorative loop edging of your choice (or leave plain).

With tapestry needle, sew button in place and weave in loose ends.

Trim your towel with a pretty edging, if that is something you want to do: I did, because I designed my towel after a frilly flower and a flighty bird. LOL

My towel looks stiff, but both yarns will soften with the first washing.

Knit kitchen towel with crochet topper & trim.

==KNIT DISHCLOTH

I’ve had this dishcloth pattern since the early 1980’s when it had been printed in the local newspaper; it’s easy to work up, and looks good either plain or 2-toned, as I am prone to do 😉

Knit Garter St Dishcloth pattern.

MOD Hummingbird Dishtowel Set completed.

Enjoy!

DAMAGES WITH HEALING PROPRIETIES

It’s raining. The weather forecast says to expect waking up to snow in the morning – snow will start falling around midnight, and continue through 7 PM Monday. Supposedly, it will only amount to about an inch … and be gone with the rainfall that follows.

A friend came by this morning to pick me up and take me to fellowship with her – she didn’t want to go alone, and I didn’t mind accompanying her. It’s a fellowship I was not aware of until recently. As of this morning, I was out of the house for 4 hours; and I did enjoy the fellowship. We’ll see where it goes.

After I got back home, I got to thinking about the snow that will be coming our way, down here on the valley floor, and decided to tear one of my plastic canvas snowflakes apart and make some new ones – the yarn on the ones I have are looking a little dingy with time wear on them; and a few are broken where the plastic wore out, so I want to replace them with fresher looking ones. Last time I was in town, I bought 5 sheets of plastic canvas; so, this afternoon I marked the plastic canvas, cut the pieces out/washed & rinsed them/and set them to air dry ...

  

While the pieces dried, I knitted a dishrag to match the kitchen towel I designed and finished last night. I like doing handcrafts … and I like designing most of what I work up – I find it therapeutic, and crafting has really helped pull me through the hard times of 2019:

MOD Knit Kitchen Towel/Dishrag Set

This plastic canvas snowflake is an old pattern – I am not sure what year I made the first ones (decades ago), but they make up fast and are easy to assemble. Replacing the damaged, time-worn ones, is hand work with healing proprieties …

Old Snowflake. Front side

Old Snowflake. Back side.

Old Snowflake being dissembled.

Old Snowflake; the way it joins together.

Old Snowflake’s 2 pieces.

Sitting here tonight, working on these snowflakes, my mind wanders to this time last year, when my 27th day into the dark and scary widowhood journey was new and raw. I am so thankful that Yeshua wrapped me in His love, and gave me the strength and grace to get through those first weeks without losing my mind … or ending up in prison.

(https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/01/grief-hurts.html)

I never prayed so hard in my entire life! I had to see my husband’s killer every day – and he tormented me every day: he was the next door neighbor; and he would trespass across our front yard every day. One day he even walked up our sidewalk 6 feet before looking me full in the face as he cut across. And Park Management refused to curtail his blatant activity. I was eternally grateful Elohim took mercy on me, and a ‘for sale’ sign was posted next door.

This time last year was not a good place for me to be.

In the months that followed, I had many painful moments where I wanted Bob here to give me a hug and some encouragement. But the reality is that I had to go through it alone: Bob will never be here, with me again: he will never hug me again – he will never speak words of encouragement to me again. I can draw on his past encouragements … but the hugs are gone forever. MAN! I miss my man! With the advent of the 1 year ‘anniversary’ (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/12/1-year-since-bobs-been-absent-from-my.html), the grief was not so raw – was not so overwhelming. But the pain of missing my husband never leaves me. I still have moments where I just cry because I want him here.

And that’s okay. I’ve made peace with that heart wound that will never fully scar over. There is a liberation of sorts that comes with the knowing that I’ll be crying because I miss him for the rest of my life. Not heart-rending crying like this time, last year – but a quiet missingness that sometimes runs down my face in the form of tears. Tears like I felt this morning during fellowship while singing about Heaven and those who await us there, beyond the clouds, with Yeshua.

Damages with healing proprieties.

It is liberating to know that I am free to miss my husband for all of my days … without apologies. Yeshua understands the injury done to my heart. Yeshua understands the damages done to my life with cruelly added insult to injury; and the strengthened growth to my new life that resulted despite the cutting damages. Yeshua’s healing grace has turned my grieving process into a blessing, on every level; so that enlarging my journey to include rebuilding new life, there is a space in time along the way, to enjoy the view of my old life on occasion.

As I work on these snowflakes tonight, I am thankful that Bob now wears a robe of white – and because Yeshua, with his blood, washed me whiter than snow – I will someday join my husband in our home beyond the clouds.

RH Pompadour Baby Yarn – Bob found this yarn for me at an estate sale 5 years ago. The fingering yarn has shiny thread wound throughout the strands. It was part of a big bag of fingering baby yarns not available anymore: his find was a direct answer to prayer as I had been saying that I wish the yarn was still being made … Bob spotted it, and I bought the whole lot :-D I’ve been hoarding it for years hoping for great-grandchildren to make layettes for; but the granddaughters have made it clear that there will be no babies from them, and I doubt I will live long enough to see Azariah’s children, if he decides to catapult Bob’s DNA into the future.

New Snowflake all finished. 4 hours yarn work. I have 5 sheets of plastic canvas, and I can mark 15 snowflake pieces on each sheet. I should be able to make enough flakes to hang in each of my home's windows next December ... and have a couple to sell at bazaars too ;-)

When I am not remembering Bob as I knew him in the flesh ... this is how I see him in my mind's eye now: wearing a brilliant white robe - he always looked GOOD in white - and wearing a Crown of Life.

MOD KNIT AUTUMN KITCHEN TOWEL SET

I started this set way back in July, and I finally finished it up :-D

It took a while to finish because I got bored with it, and working on it kinda dragged along until I tied the last knot. I like to complete a project within a week’s time … if it takes longer than that, I get bored and put it off when I move onto something else. That is what happened with this set – I DO LIKE the way it turned out, but the designing of it and the working of it up took more time that I anticipated.

When I started the set, I didn’t know what I would design: I just knew I wanted a fall themed towel set. I wanted to knit it myself because the towels to buy in the stores seem made out of plastic materials that do not wick up moistures at all; they just smear water on surfaces (including hands), without actually doing what a towel is supposed to do. So, I thought I would design my own kitchen towel sets that WILL wick up wetness.

I browsed Pinterest for some Fall themed graphs; and finally found one I liked, and think will work with the variegated cotton yarn I would be using for the background – then I drew it out scaled, on paper I had ‘graphed’:

Autumn kitchen towel colored graph chart.

Then, I thumbed through my pattern books ‘til I was happy a detailed hemline pattern I thought would fit with the towel …

Autumn kitchen towel hemline detail. Knit.

I used a size 9 needle & cotton yarn: 1 skien MC, scraps for leaves, and a skien for contrast hemline and crochet topper.

I worked my towel to graph demensions; it is larger than a regular kitchen towel ... and that is what I want.

And it started coming together as I knitted along ;-)

Knit Autumn Kitchen Towel hemline detail.

Branch detail; Duplicate Stitch used.

Leaves & Lettering detail: Duplicate Stitch embellishment; same towel - different lighting.

Ready for the crochet topper to be added.

ALL THAT was done a while ago – but I was picky about the button to use: I wanted something “woodsy” to go with the pattern. One day, last week, I was cleaning my crafting area … AND FOUND IT! To be honestly truthful, I had forgotten I even had the button I stumbled across. LOL

But as soon as I saw it, I KNEW it was THE button for my completed towel ;-)

And I made a dishcloth to match:

  

Finished! I am happy with the way it turned out.

On laundry day, when the towels are washed and dried, I will put the summer towels in storage until next summer – and bring the Fall towels sets out for use this year; I made several new kitchen towel sets last fall while Bob was in the hospital (I knitted them up while he slept) – and now I have 2 new ones to add to those this year.

When I worked on last year's patterned towels, I was hoping Bob would be coming home, and I couldn't wait to show them to him: he always liked my designs. But, Bob didn't come back to our home - instead, he was called Home.

But, I believe he can still see me ... and likes these designs too ;-)