Tuesday, January 20, 2009

towel, ma'am?

You know when you move into a new place, you start noticing things you never saw on any of your previous inspections of the house. Sometimes quite annoying things, like not having any type of handtowel holder in the toilet. There's a sink for handwashing, but no towel rail.

So we've bought a new towel rail. Of course, that's the easy part. The hard part is husby finding the time and inclination to actually screw it to the wall.

Fortunately, we do have a door handle which can double as a towel holder. So in the meantime, I've made this:
Details:
Pattern: Mitred Hanging Towel, from Mason-Dixon, Between the Lines. A great simple pattern that is quick to whip up when you need a break from (in my case) the Christmas knitting.

Yarn: 1 x 50g balls Peaches 'n' Cream Ombres in Newport, about 20g of Peaches 'n' Cream Solids in Delft Blue. The ones in the M-D book are made with the solid PnC, which I think looks better, but when I first started buying the PnC cottons, I went mad for the ombres, so I need to use them up! It doesn't look too bad, although if I was making these for gifts, I'd use the solid colours (unless the giftee was mad for the ombres too!). At least that makes this project a stashbuster!
Here's the towel in situ:
Sticks: 4.5mm KnitPicks Harmony Options
Time: 23 - 24 December 2008 (my last FO for 2008!). Isn't it typical that when a knitter is trying to finish the Christmas gifts (or any deadline knit), all she wants to do is start something new for herself. Or is that just me?
(I'm most pleased with the button!)
What I learnt: It's darn hard to knit PnC held double with 4.5mm sticks!! The pattern has you do this for the handle part of the towel. I can see why - I think it is to ensure the handle doesn't sag or stretch. But geez it's hard to do. I think if I made this again, I'd just hold the yarn single and go down maybe two stick sizes (eg to a 3.75mm stick) or I'd crochet the handle part.

15 comments:

Bells said...

Oh so cool! I've been eyeing that one off. Perfect since I'm on a handtowel fixation at the moment.

I know what you mean about the ombres. I have heaps of them and keep thinking I need more solids.

Michele said...

you clever girl!

Olivia said...

Oh boy, I know what you mean about noticing things. When we finally got the keys to our new place and went in without that blasted real estate agent hanging around keeping up a stream of nice conversation (arrrgh!), we could finally see many more little faults. No horrible or big surprises, luckily.

Would striping an ombre with a matching solid work and make things less chaotic? Having said that, I like it the way it is!

amy said...

I find that yarn hard on the hands in the best of circumstances. I actually knit it on 3.25 mm needles for one project. Ouch.

I think it's an extremely cheery hand towel!

MadMad said...

Oh, so cute! I bought myself the book for Christmas! ('Cuz, you know. Sometimes you have to take these things into your own hands...) Anyway. It's top of my list. Love your colorful one!

Lea said...

my you are resourceful - like a knitter should be!

Sarah said...

There is something in a deadline to put you off the project you're supposed to be finishing for sure. You still get lots of brownie points though as your Christmas knitting distraction knit was so practical :o)

kgirlknits said...

that looks fabulous! crochet handle sounds like a good idea for the next one, though ;)

oh, funny story about sinks in WC's - I had been bitchin' about mine not having a towel holder/rail thingy, until I finally went and put a hook in the plaster. One (rare) day I was down cleaning the tiles and looked up underneath the sink and lo, a hidden rail!!!!!!

why would you HIDE the towel rail????

go check yours and let me know!

Em said...

We have a bathroom that seems to have been carved out of some of the bedrooms; it's got a folding closet door on it, and the lightswitch is in the hall. Gotta love old houses...

Between you and Bells, I'm tempted to make some hand towels for the kitchen to match the dish cloths. Yours looks so lovely and festive.

lilypotter said...

Is it me, or does everything mitred look cool? Great towel- almost too nice to actually use!

sweetp said...

Great stuff. LoL at the - get my knitting needles out instead of the screwdriver heh, right prioritesc

Lynne said...

One of the joys of being 'crafty' is the practical solution!

Geek Knitter said...

Doubled cotton? Makes my hands hurt just thinking of it! It's lovely, 'specially the button. :)

Alwen said...

We bought a house with one closet!

Anonymous said...

Very cute! When we bought our house I found myself getting annoyed with all sorts of things at first. I think (for me, anyway) it was something to do with feeling that I really owned it and wanted to make it mine, not someone else's.