I wrote a while back about how we were swapping out short-lived sponges and cloths for ten durable cloths that we would wash and reuse. These cloths served us well, but a few years, and one house move (and therefore epic clean) later, and we needed a few replacements. I thought about hopping back on Ethical Superstore to buy some more, but then remembered a crochet pattern for washable cotton wool pads that I had stumbled across a few years ago. Rather than introducing new resources to our home, this would use up ones we already had to hand. I eyed up my knitting basket, and hatched a plan.

On returning to the crochet pattern, it became quickly apparent that, being a relative novice to the world of wool, I would have to actually pay attention to each line of instructions. This was not going to work with simultaneously catching up on the latest Nordic Noir crime drama on Channel 4’s Walter Presents (tangent: if you haven’t discovered Walter Presents yet, you are in for a treat. Dozens of curated award-wining foreign language dramas await your perusal). Following subtitles and a crochet pattern was too much for a brain that was trying to relax as well.

So, same idea, different pattern and tools. I opted to knit squares of cloths. It was as simple as:

1. Cast on the appropriate number of stitches. I did about 15 for cosmetic cloths; 30-35 for household ones.
2. Knit one row, purl the next. Repeat until the cloth was roughly square shaped. I didn’t bother measuring it because frankly, it doesn’t matter if they’re not square.
3. Cast off.

One thing I regretted from our first batch of cloths was that I didn’t differentiate cloths for different purposes, separately for example, those used for oven cleaning versus the washing bowl from the start. Learning from this, I am colour coding my cloths – red for cosmetics, brown for general purpose cleaning…. You could just stick a couple of stitches in one corner for this but I opted to blanket stitch in the appropriate colour around each square. It was a way to extend the enjoyable act of gentle crafting whilst transfixed by great drama (and I didn’t miss a single subtitled word).

Today’s soundtrack: Rag’n’Bone Man // Human