Contagious Crochet

Part of the 'problem' with crochet, apart from the relative cheapness and long shelf-life of yarn, is the abundance of free patterns to spark the imagination! I got started crocheting with a free pattern from Caron yarn for a heart motif cap - it's not listed any more, but there are lots of other great projects available. Plus you can always pick up a few new patterns down the yarn aisle of your favorite craft store, with the nice benefit of it being printed in color on handy-sized stock. (I've finally taken the step to organize my patterns and even have a small (5½ x 8½ in.) binder to put them in. Geeky good fun!!)

And of course, the ultimate idea-generator ... seeing things that other people have made and trying to duplicate them! Take, for instance, the crocheted bath pouf. I had seen several on Etsy that really intrigued me, but I couldn't bring myself to: 1) shell out for something that I 'easily' could make myself - ha!; or 2) buy something that I wasn't for sure I would like or not.  Free pattern to the rescue ... again!!  :-)

But I was 85% of the way complete with my very own bath pouf - and it looked spectacular! - when I realized that it was so dense that it would never really DRY between uses.  Since using a pre-dampened bath scrubby is unappealing (and I'm unlikely to actually launder it between every shower), I needed to find a way to un-make my nearly-pouf into something useful.  (Did I mention the other super-fabulous aspect of crochet? It's so easy to rip out and remake!)

So I un-made the pouf ... and created the washcloth/scrubby!  I've seen various patterns and examples of the crocheted dishcloth, but this one is from my very own imagination (not a pattern).  Even so, it turned out to be pretty close to 6" square, yay!  I did an alternating double crochet post pattern that gave some nice texture and scrubby areas, with bands of single crochet to add interest and make it work up a tiny bit faster.  :-)  (You can click to see a larger image.)

I was easily able to get this one made while watching the last two Doctor Who episodes; now that I know what I'm doing (and won't have to rip as many rows!) they should go faster.  And fun!!  :-)

Of course, that pushes all my other projects back down another rung on the to do list ... but that's a subject for another day!