Magic Scrubber Book 9

This is book 9 of the Magic Scrubber Series. I found it at my local Japanese bookseller. This is ISBN978-4-8247-6460-4. I think that if you do a search for it, you use the numbers 4834764604. Searching by ISBN is tricky. I never seem to get it right, but people always ask for the numbers so there they are!



I learned recently that these scrubbers are made from acrylic yarn. I found that out by trial and error, but there was an article and a pattern written about these useful little things in the latest issue of Craft magazine. According to the article, (what I remember.. I read it yesterday at the bookstore) these qualify as eco-crafts because they are effective without the use of soaps or cleaning chemicals. Also, they are durable and reuseable.

Here are the ones I've made recently:


In this book there are about as many knit patterns as crochet:


The ones on the right below appear to have a soft sponge inside. I've been wanting to learn this kind of knitting:


Here are knit houses and funny crocheted dusting girls:




Here are hears and stars:



This book also has a bottle scrubber, some cute animal faces, simple fruits, and a colorful crocheted mitten scrubber and a glove scrubber.

Finally... This is the advertisement at the end of the booklet for the yarn they are using. I can't read any of this, but maybe this is useful to someone! This same ad is in all of my magic scrubber pattern books.




Note: I edited this post from an earlier version where I'd included a photo of one of the patterns. I've since had a crisis of conscience about copyright and have deleted that photo.

Dishcloth Swap

I stayed up really late the last 2 nights. The first night was because I couldn't tear myself away from watching Knocked Up, even though I've already seen it. Last night I stayed up sewing my Katie Jump Rope quilt. This morning my husband got both kids off to school and I slept until 10:00! Lucky Me! The down side is that I have to force myself to get back to a normal sleeping schedule because I am a night person and it is really easy for me to keep vampire hours.

I'm finished with my dishcloth swap on Craftster. My partner, ashestoashes, sent me a gorgeous set of blue and green washcloths for my kitchen. Aren't they nice?

Here's a closeup of her beautiful knitting:


I like knitting and knitting is the craft that got me hooked up to all the online crafting community in the first place. When I was teaching myself about 2.5 years ago, I went online to find some tutorials and simple patterns. I found all the forums and knitting was only the beginning of the inspiration I found online. It turns out, that I don't have the soul of a knitter, I prefer crochet and other needlework. Nothing is really quite like a knit dishcloth, however. I like crochet for the scrubbies and for potholders, but for the actual cloths, the suppleness of knitting is better.

Here's what I made for her. Her bathroom is blue, tan, and brown so I used those colors for this set of towels in the ballband pattern.

Knitting this pattern is surprisingly easy. I memorized it really quickly and now I want to make many more of them. The little scrubbies are crochet. I made a few for us to test drive to see if cotton scrubbers are actually useful or better as decoration. My daughter likes them in the bath.

Today I hope to get my quilt top done. I have to clear out the messy areas because our cleaning service is coming tomorrow. Our house is neat after they do their thing for about one evening and then the stuff migrates back out again. We really need just one more good work area in our house and some better storage.

Craft Critique Review of Show

Over at Craft Critique, Martha posted about our craft show experience. Check it out HERE. I'd say that after getting your crafts together, the biggest trick about doing a show is pricing your stuff correctly. This is tricky, but I did my research over at etsy and tried not to make things that are really labor intensive (like piles of handstitched felt mascots) because I don't think people want to pay that much for my time...

Our sales companion, Sarah even put out some beads she made ages ago when she was experimenting with polymer clay. We all agreed that these are "vintage craft supplies" and I think she sold some too.

I was knitting this scarf at the craft show. I used some hand spun yarn my Mom gave me last Christmas. (Mom knows just what I like). Unfortunately, the scarf came out shorter than I prefer and needed some oomph so I got the other skein of yarn she gave me that Christmas and crocheted a funky ruffle trim. I love it now! It's just in time for the chilly weather too. The scarf is double seed stitch: 2 knits and 2 purls done in 2x2 grids all the way until you get the length you like. It's a good pattern that lays flat. I won't explain how to do a crochet ruffle. It's easy though! Crochet uses way more yarn than knitting.