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

[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.

[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.