Stash busting: dishcloths

I have a fairly insubstantial stash (compared to most knitters). It's probably only about 3 garbage bags full of yarn. The trouble with my stash is that it's mostly odds & ends from projects I finished years ago. Much of the yarn is lower quality than I want these days (left over from when I first started) and most of it is in colors that I find less than fabulous.

Even though I don't have a huge amount of yarn, the fact that it's there bothers me. I don't like a lot of clutter. And, little odds & ends of yarn is clutter. I wouldn't mind a stash with sweater's worth of yarn just waiting to be knit. What I mind is a bunch of stuff I don't really want to knit with sitting in my basement.

Enter the dishcloth! I found this pattern from Maggie's Rags and really liked it. It's much more substantial than most knit dishcloths and it doesn't stretch the way they do when they are knit on the bias. It's very thick and a little nubby so it scrubs dishes really well.

My only mods were to cast on fewer stitches (I cast on 35). And for the red cloth I thought I'd try to eliminate a wrong side. (The yellow cloth has garter stitch on the back.) To switch the right and wrong sides I simply knit for about 1.5 inches and then knit two rows before starting back into the pattern. By doing that, I alternated from garter stitch to chinese waves and back again.

Dishcloths are great for stash busting. They are also very portable. And, honestly, they are dishcloths and I felt no need to correct my mistakes. Perfect projects for a car ride or visiting with friends and family!