50 dishcloths

Today was more proof that I have way too much yarn.

I was working on gathering up some cotton to work on dishcloths this month for Christmas, and I decided to count how many skeins of cotton I have and determine how many dishcloths I could make with it. I have enough to make at least 50 dishcloths (it's a working ballpark sort of number.) That doesn't include the renegade skeins lurking around my house or the giant skein of garish blue cotton my husband purchased years ago to make a blanket or the larger-than-a-grapefruit sized ball of cotton that contains all of the ends of all of the other skeins I've knitted in the past.

I need 28 dishcloths if I want to give my family members four dishcloths each.

I think last year I got around to knitting 14 dishcloths, and that amounted to two each. No one seemed to notice, and I accompanied them with some nice hand soap. If I only knitted two per family again, I wouldn't have to buy cotton for three years. At least.

My husband and I went major shopping this past weekend. He needed shoes and a winter coat and I needed shoes (I injured my ankle running and I didn't want to be tiptoeing around in 4-inch heels.) Plus there was an awesome sale at Banana Republic. We had some pretty big bags. I took the Banana Republic one for my cotton yarn and it wouldn't all fit in there, so I had to switch to one of the giant Aldo bags. It's close to being full with cotton yarn and 3 dishcloths that I've already finished.

I joined a group on Ravelry called "Dishcloth Mania," which will hopefully inspire me and make my dishcloth-knitting process a much better time this year. They post weekly dishcloth patterns for people to make, take pictures, and post. I'm torn as to whether I want to take the time to make fancy, patterned dishcloths, or just make normal dishcloths and have them done in less time.

Updates on other projects: The baby sweater is in pieces, out of frustration. I've been knitting away at my cousin's gray hat. I'll try to finish the baby sweater tomorrow night. I still have a number of projects I want to make for Christmas gifts:
1.) dishcloths, of course
2.) gray hat for my cousin
3.) blue/green hat for my OTHER cousin
4.) tiny hat for my toddler cousin
5.) beer cozies for my aunt/uncle

I guess that doesn't sound like too much. I wanted to knit matching mittens with the hats, but I think I'll stick with hats for now.