100% Cotton Dishcloths
2019 is the year Luiz and I start living sustainably so we have made many small changes; shopping locally, no single-use plastic and trying to buy only ethically sourced/made items (the last one we are still working on).
My next focus will be on keeping the cleaning more environmentally friendly and less toxic to us in general. We are going to start with the dishcloths, in many kitchens today, microfibre cloths are used and they are made out of polyester and nylon. Although not made to be tossed out, made from non-renewable resources and are not biodegradable. I’ve been searching for alternatives to use and have come up with a few; old towels, old clothes cut into rags and knitted cotton cloths.
Many people may ask why knit dishcloths? Why put all that effort into something that you just wash/dry the kitchen with? My answer is this: ask for help knitting from someone who does! My Nanna can knit with her eyes closed and at the speed of lightning so I’ve grown up around knitting, learning and forgetting how to cast on and read patterns. I’m not a bad knitter but at the same time I’m not a terribly amazing one either, so knitting a dishcloth is the best thing. With her help we managed to make it quite a nice family activity, and it got other family members into the knit dishcloth idea! It doesn’t matter how my knitting is when it’s just a dishcloth; plus the cloths have so many benefits.
The benefits of knitted dishcloths:
The texture of the knitted cotton helps scrub the dirt off
At the beginning we knit white cotton (which is easy to bleach) but not the best for cleaning as it gets dirty so quickly so now we knit a white with a second colour
It would be easy to colour code the dishes and, in the future, we can knit a different colour cloth for different rooms and uses
Cleaning the cloths is easy as we just throw it in the washing machine with the towels
Go to my etsy page where the dishcloths will soon be up and selling and share this post!
