Some 2016 Yarn-Related Goals

I posted some de-stash goals in a Ravelry group earlier this year.  I'd been thinking about it more recently as I've been making progress on dishcloths.  I have other yarn related goals as well so I figured I'd share my list with you all here. :)

• Two major commitments at a time should be my limit this year:
• 1) the MKAL I’m running [still in progress]
• 2) my pet ferret'€™s health [done!]
• 3) Working on next pattern
• Write at least 2 more patterns
• To try to use some of my current lovely yarns for my new pattern designs
• Spin enough of my stash to knit myself Awilda B.’s In Time and Space [starting combing]
• To start to sew together larger hexagons out of my itty bitty hexis for my the beekeeper’s quilt
• Continue to use up the excessive amount of acrylic yarn in my stash
• Make a stash of dishcloths out of my existing stash of dishcloth cotton [Current count is 4]

Dishcloth Roses

I've finally finished up the gifts for my son's teachers and school staff.  My son has ADHD and was having lots of difficulty in his 1st grade general education classroom.  Many people have helped him to succeed and he is now placed in a classroom where he has more support.  I want to thank the many staff that put in many hours to help him.

So I made dishcloths.  Dishcloths are great to keep on hand for emergency gifts.  I happened to not have replenished my stash the last time I gifted dishcloths so I've been working on them on and off for the last several weeks.  I now I have ten cloths to play with.  Now, a single dishcloth isn't that huge of a thank you gift so I've dressed them up!  I found a tutorial and rolled them up into roses.  I did mine very similar to this except I wrapped it around the eraser end of a pencil.  I tweaked my fold and roll a little bit to accommodate the thickness of the dishcloth.

Before I wrapped the rose, I wrapped the pencil up with crape paper at a diagonal so it would roll right up the pencil.  I then ripped off a length of crape paper about 8" and folded it in half.  At the folded side, I pushed in the corner, folding a triangle inside.  I repeated that on the other side to make a point.  Then on the ripped side I folded the edges in paper-airplane style so I now have a leaf-like shape.  The ripped side I laid on top of the eraser end of the pencil then I proceeded to roll up the dishcloth rose.

Prepared pencil, leaf and wrapping.

Next I folded a piece of tissue paper into an offset triangle then made a tri-fold along the bottom followed by another tri-fold.  I then inserted the rose into the pocket with the leaf sticking out of the gap and did one last tri-fold around the stem.  I grabbed a piece of scrap ribbon (I keep a bunch on hand from gifts, store packaging, etc) and tied it around.  Lastly I tucked a thank you note into the tissue paper behind the rose.

And there we go!  A simple gift with a nice presentation makes a very satisfactory thank-you gift!