Dishes or snuggles?

Look at you clever little knitters! On my post about my cotton blankie, several of you noted the similarities between it and a cotton dishcloth's construction. Yep - it's pretty much the same... In fact, on my Rav project page, I called it the Dishcloth Blankie.

But it wasn't until I started making one in cotton that I made the connection. You see the very first one I made looked like this...

It was a mix of high-end novelty yarns, Julie, at The Needle Emporium, had put together kits and written up a pattern that included the colour sequence and number of rows for each colour.  I instantly fell in love with it and had to have it. I had just started knitting and it was well within my skill level. (we won't point out the fact that that bottom corner is super wonky because apparently increasing evenly was apparently beyond me a that point.)

I absolutely loved it, right until I finished it and attempted to snuggle with it for the first time.

You see all that lovely green yarn.... yeah... that's all mohair. Super, super itchy mohair!!! SO ITCHY!!! The blanket it totally warm and cozy if you can stand it against your skin for more than five minutes. Maybe if I was in the arctic, and already wearing a snowsuit....

But after all that work, and money spent, I didn't have the heart to throw it out. So it's spent most of its life tucked away inside the blanket box at the end of my bed (after all - what else are blanket boxes for?) But now that I've brought it out again, it may see new life ON the blanket box. It will work with the colours I want when I get around to redecorating the bedroom. There's current a cat bed on the blanket box, but I'm sure they'd appreciate a nice warm, mohair blankie!

After that debacle, I still wanted an afghan though, so I set out to make one from softer, cheaper novelty yarns.

 As you can see this one has gotten a lot more wear. And those holes aren't the result of said wear...

But dropped stitches. It's a major issue when using novelty yarns... you can't see dropped stitches, and sometimes they hold on just tight enough to hang on until you wash it a few times. This one is currently living out its days as a cat blanket. In fact, it was one of Tux's favorites.

The cotton one will have no itch, and still be nice and warm. And I shouldn't have to worry about any dropped stitches. (And I can totally make dishcloths out of any left over yarn!)