A gift I wouldn't mind getting

What can I say about Aunt Jo? Arguably my favorite aunt, she lovingly did my laundry on weekend trips to Little Rock from Fayetteville in college, she feeds me like a queen every time I visit and she has never met a stranger, at least not in the state of Arkansas, because she knows everyone here! Did I mention she is also my middle name sake?

Aunt Jo works at UAMS in Little Rock by day, and by night she is one BA caterer. When I needed help getting the food ready for Brady and Bryan's stock the bar party, I hoped she would help, because then I knew my chili would be better than Allison's taco soup. And in return for the cooking lesson, I thought I would knit Jo some dish cloths. I use my dish cloths every day and they are my favorite things to use to wipe down counters and clean inside small dishes. I sometimes even use mine to wash my face.

I make them from 100 percent cotton, and I used to like Peaches and Cream, but now I prefer to use I Love This Cotton from Hobby Lobby, it is cheaper and somehow it is softer than the 100 percent cotton former. I would definitely venture to say..."I Love This Cotton!" Whenever I make these cloths, I can't seem to just stick with one pattern, and I like to look at them as a blank slate for trying out new patterns and stitches. On this particular set, I have one slanted rib, one double seed stitch, one regular seed stitch and then my personal favorite, a pattern called "ribbons of sunshine". The last one is sure to elicit "tears of joy" when you see it. I hope Aunt Jo likes the green variegated yarn. It matches my stuff, but I am not sure about hers.

One skein of I Love This Cotton rings up for $2.99 if you don't catch it on sale for 30 percent off. Either way, they are inexpensive gifts that whip up in no time. The best part about them is that you can really test yourself and your creativity with them. At my aforementioned Stitch & Bitch, someone described it as my "in between" dish cloth, meaning it was something I was working on in between starting and finishing a bigger project. Although I don't have the bigger project in the works, I was happy that they understood my knitting wasnt just limited to tiny seed stitched sqares someone is probably going to mutilate beyond recognition with eveyday use. Can you tell I was a little self conscious?

When I put the four cloths together they make a lovely set that I think any foodie, clean freak, new homeowner, face washer, or cloth aficionado would love to own. Make your own set and let me know what patterns you come up with!