Oh my GLOB. It is a Geek-A-Long.

I absolutely adore knitting.  LOVE IT.  My friend got pregnant and I knew I had to knit her SOMETHING.  What it was, I didn't know...then I found this glorious page.

Lattes and Llamas

It was pretty much a dream come true.  My friend is a BIG nerd.  Lover of all things geeky.  They are hosting....a geek-a-long.

Basically, they give you 48 "square" patterns.  One per week.  It takes 24 to make an afghan, 12 for a baby blanket. You can read about the whole process here ----> GEEK-A-LONG facts. 

The process they use is called "double knitting".The piece ends up being thick, like two pieces held together.  Both sides look knitted and are reverse colors.  I pretty much want to only double knit for the rest of my life.

Basically I wanted to show off a few of the pieces I have done. She will get the gift in about a week and a half.  I AM SO EXCITED.  I tell this girl everything about my life.  Having to keep this a secret has pretty much been torture.

So, here are two sneak previews.  If you WANT to see them all you can click on one of these and scroll through my feed. All 11 are posted. I am working on the last one!!!

Pinky and The Brain. One is a genius, the other's insane. #PinkyAndTheBrain #geekalong #knitting #knitsagram

A photo posted by Sarah Dodson (@bumbleflies) on May 19, 2015 at 6:50am PDT

Tenth Square COMPLETE!! Two to go. 😊 #geekalong #StarTrek #JadziaDax #DoubleKnitting #knitting #knitsagram #BabyGift #SheBetterLoveIt #science

A photo posted by Sarah Dodson (@bumbleflies) on Jul 2, 2015 at 7:53am PDT

Aren't they awesome? I LOVE this process.  I need to give my arms a break for a bit after this, but I REALLY want to make a blanket to keep. It is going to hurt giving this up.

Be on the look out for the final blanket after the shower! I CAN'T WAIT!!! 

Dishcloth Knitting Tutorial aka What in the world is "Mercerized Cotton" and what do I do with it.

Back last fall my friend sent me a message that read "I have huge bags of yarn and other crafty things.  Want them?"  To which I replied "DUH."I have a serious yarn habit.

I can home one day to THREE TRASH BAGS FULL of yarn and stuff on my front porch.  I literally squealed.  I went through and separated everything into piles and ended up with some stuff called "mercerized cotton".  It looks like embroidery floss, but thicker if that makes sense and was on all these little spools.  So, I got to googling.

According to WiseGeek.com :    Mercerized cotton is cotton which has been treated with sodium hydroxide to bring out certain properties first discovered by John Mercer in 1851.

Ok. So I know WHAT it is, but not what to do.   I threw it back in my plastic tub and flash forward to last week, I decide to do something with it.  I knew I didn't have enough to make clothing from, plus it is an odd feeling.  The slippery is weird.  I decided on dishcloths!

Again, off to google.  I saw TONS of tutorials for "Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth" and decided to go that route.  Most used normal yarn and since mine was so thin, I decided to double up on the threads.  Not really sure WHO to give credit to officially so I thank all knitting Grandma's out there for this one!

With the size of the yarn, I decided to use size 2 needles.  My needle length is 13.5inches. This was my determining factor in the size of the cloth.

Cast on 4
Knit across all four.
Next row Knit 2, yarn over, knit to the end.
Repeat the last row until you get the width you want.  

I ended up going until I had 80 stitches across.  When beginning to knit this you are making a big triangle.  By doing yarn overs you are adding additional width as well as the cute little holes on the sides. Yarn overs are literally just that.  Take the yarn from the back and loop it around the needle. After turning and going back across treat that as a stitch to knit.


Once at the width you want, time to start decreasing.
Knit 1, K2Tog, Yarn over, K2Tog, Knit across.
Repeat that until you are down to 4 stitches left on needle.
Bind off.
Weave in ends.

BOOM. Done.

 So, there you have it.  Super easy pattern to mindlessly knit, kill time, and bust your yarn stash!