Knitted dish cloths and plastic bowls

[vilakins]

I wonder if some Americans can enlighten me. I'm puzzled by how many of you knit dish cloths--and give them away as gifts. There are lots of patterns around for them, many of them wonderfully geekish, but please tell me why they're so popular and how you use them?

Are they used for washing dishes in a sink? For drying them? I can't imagine wool or acrylic working well in either case. And are wash cloths another sort, or used for the face?

Here are two popular patterns.
Here's one pattern.
And a Dalek one

And this is what finally sparked this query.


This is for people from the UK. Why do you wash dishes in a plastic bowl in the sink rather than directly in the sink? Is it to save water, to keep the sink clean, to be able to toss debris over the side, to protect dishes from hard metal, or for some other reason?

Just so people know my dish-washing habits, I rinse dishes to get loose food off and put them in the dishwasher. I wash delicate glassware (only used for dinner parties or special occasions) in the sink with a microfibre cloth, and pots and pans with a brush which goes through the dishwasher when it needs it. I dry any hand-washed dishes with a tea towel, and no, I don't know why it's called that. "Dish towel", as cited by an American, makes more sense.

The only reason I'm asking about dish washing is because of seeing so many knitted dish cloths on a knitting site. It's not normally a subject that exerts any fascination.

Comments

[jaxomsride2]

It is usually with the idea to save water, as the bowls are smaller. It started back in '76 I think.

However now the washing up bowls are getting too small to be really useful we've switched back to washing in the sink.

Though if the dry spells continues I might buy a plastic bowl in order to water the plants.It being easier to transfer the water, than using a jug to bail out the sink.

[vilakins]

Interesting that one draught had such a large effect on people's habits! We had a bad draught a few years back, but people went back to their old habits when it broke; we usually have more than enough water.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

people were doing them at my sewing group. They are for washing up with, instead of a sponge or a bought dish cloth, which I guess you don't have down your way. I've never used them, but my mother does

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I use a brush or a cloth. But I'm still puzzled that people would knit nice ones if they're going in water and rubbing dirty dishes. Surely they don't last long.

[labingi.livejournal.com]

I have never encountered them in my journeys through America. In terms of vocabulary, I think my family says, "dish towel" for something to dry dishes with and "wash cloth" for something you bathe with.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Wash cloths are indeed something else, and used for the face or body (f'rex I use them to apply and rinse off foamy shower gel). I think people knit dish cloths out of string or other kinds of cotton.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

there is special yarn for them, or you can used cotton string for them. Not having used them I can't comment, but I would expect them to last as I am foolish enough to expect all things to last ;0)
As for having nice thing for a nasty job, I quite like that. I have colourful sponges, I bought some back from Belize and was delighted when they started selling them over here too

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I've never seen one. It would be really weird to get one as a gift.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Glad you asked, I've wonder the same thing.

I thought they would be an equivalent to our pot holders, a heavy duty square to protect your hand when grabbing a hot saucepan or kettle handle. I still have a couple knitted in string, plain garter stitch, given to me by an old lady we used to give a lift to church.

I wouldn't want to wash dishes with a knitted cloth, it feels unhygienic. I use one of the synthetic non-woven cloths that are easy to rinse clean in hot water. But I'm in the UK.

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

I am a sponge person myself (they don't get smelly and you can throw them away when they do) but my mother has always chrocheted her own dish cloths. They get put in bleach once a week when she cleans the kitchen.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think so too, yet I've seen plenty of people on Ravelry knitting up lots of them to give away at Christmas. If they look good (and I've seen Daleks and Tardises) then why put them in a sink of dirty dishes?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's interesting. I thought it was an American thing. What does she use? String? Would she give them away as gifts?

[elmey.livejournal.com]

I've seen all the patterns too, but have never actually seen anyone make or use them. When I learned to knit in first grade (don't laugh) we started with a wash cloth for bathing. As far as I know, no one ever actually used those either. Maybe everyone's mother's framed them. Mine turned out a bit lopsided, my motor skills weren't up to par yet :) First and last washcloth I ever did.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I wondered if they were pot holders. They certainly didn't look like cotton in most cases, but wouldn't they call them something other than dish cloths?

I use a brush or microfibre cloth for the few things I was by hand (like pots or fine glasses) and put the brush through the dishwasher when it looks grubby, and of course wash the cloth.

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

She has this strange cotton like stuff (it's thicker than string and softer but still tough) which she uses. She has given them to us daughters, and probably gave them away in the 70s when we were growing up, but she's not the knitted sock person who gives stuff like that away now.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's just so odd that so many knitters make them. Perhaps it's a regional thing. It's a bug country. :-)

Oddly enough, we dry dishes with a tea towel. I have no idea why.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The ones I've seen on Ravelry don't look very cottony and certainly not like string. [checks] OK, they seem to be some cotton, some wool or acrylic (worsted yarns). Cotton seems to make more sense. And so does their use as wash cloths.

[arenee1999]

I've never heard of a knit dish cloth. :/ They sound more like pot holders to me. Dish cloths are usually very thin cotton/linen type material. Dish towels, for drying are also cotton/linen/terrycloth.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

Can you post a picture of what you're talking about? that'd let me better understand what exactly it is and what I'd do with it as a gift. I can say that I've seen a lot of kitchens (and bathrooms) with what I'd basically call a "decorative wash cloth" that might be used to dry wet (clean) hands, but otherwise just hangs on a peg or stove to look ornamental. I've seen some neat embroidered Daleks/TARDISes before that I would use in that way. I don't use a cloth for dishes in any event. I'd use a brush or a sponge (and dishwasher). I might use a cloth to dry them, in which case it wouldn't get ruined. I also sometimes use a cloth spread on the counter to put a large handwashed item that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, or things that need to air dry.

I also know people who use dish clothes to carry hot plates/pots/whatnot, or to use them on the table/surface so that the hot pot doesn't burn through the table. (That might damage the dish cloth, but generally not, and certainly is better than damaging a hardwood table.)

Alternately, if the cloths DO get ruined in a year, well . . . that could explain why they're an annual present? Ruin one knitted cloth and get a new one next Christmas?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Dish cloths seem a lot more popular and are promoted as gifts. It seems so odd to me. Some of them are nice enough to frame or hang up, as people sometimes do with beautiful tea towels (which is what we bizarrely call our drying cloths). Maybe it's like giving scented soaps: they either get put away in a cupboard or passed on. ;-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They're called dish cloths on Ravelry (a knitting site), but they'd certainly make much better pot holders. One pattern recommended giving them away with some special dish soap, so they're obviously meant for washing.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit taken aback. I've never bought or knitted a dish cloth. Any cotton tee shirt, tea towel or sheet that becomes past use is usually used for dishes and any other house hold cleaning chore.

They get used once and then washed with the tea towels until they reach a state where they are literally falling apart. After which, they are earmarked for a really dirty job and then chucked.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I came across them on Ravelry, and recently on my flist. Ravelry unfortunately requires membership, so let's see.

Here's one pattern (http://homespunliving.blogspot.com/2007/11/waffle-knit-dishcloth-pattern.html).
And a Dalek one (http://www.entropyhouse.com/penwiper/who/dalekcloth.html)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you're in the UK! It seems to be a US thing, at least among knitters.

I do use microfibre cloths for wiping down and occasionally hand-washing delicate glassware, and those go in the wash. I use a brush for pots and put it through the dishwasher when it needs it.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

Huh. I honestly have no idea. I can say for myself alone that I'd never use such a thing to clean or dry dishes with.