Ridged Ribbon Dishcloth and Biscuit Recipe

I'm sure you all know by now that I love knitting - dishcloths being a favourite subject of my affection. Well, I was reading a knitting book last week and came across a new (to me) pattern that I thought would make up a very nice dishcloth. I worked it over the weekend and have just taken a photo for you.

It has got a fair bit of texture so it will scrub well but the holes make it lighter than the average dishcloth. And the good bit it, it's a good pattern for a beginner. It uses mainly knit rows, with one purl row and one that will introduce two new techniques to you. It's called the Ridged Ribbon Eyelet pattern.

Your two new techniques are K2tog and yo. K2tog means knit two together and it means exactly that. Instead of doing your normal knit stitch you do it exactly as you normally would but you put your needle through two stitches, instead of one. Then knit as you would if you were doing your normal stitch. Watch this video to see how to K2tog.

Yo means yarn over. That's it! It's a way of increasing one stitch (to replace the one you decreased with your k2tog) and will help make a hole. You'll only see the hole properly when you knit on and do another row. To do a yo - simply wind your yarn around your right needle - from back to front, you make a loop instead of a real stitch. Watch this video to see how to yo.

I used size 9 needles and Lions 100% cotton. The blue band is a bamboo and cotton blend. Cast on an uneven number of stitches, I cast on 31 but if you wanted a large cloth, go up to 39 or 41. Then:
Row one: Knit
Row two: Purl
Row three: Knit
Row four: Knit
Row five: *K2tog. yo; repeat from * to last stitch, K1. <- this means knit two together, then yarn over for the entire row, your last stitch is one plain knit stitch.
Row six: Knit

Repeat the sequence until you have the length you want.

When you do the two next rows after your k2tog row, you'll see the pattern forming. This is a really good pattern to introduce you to two new stitches. I hope that if you are one of my new knitters, you'll try this as well. Let me know how you're going with your knitting and if you're enjoying it. If you have a photo of your knitting to send to me, please send it.

Here is Paula's recipe for Cheap and Easy Biscuits from the forum. I misread it - it makes almost 100 biscuits from this one recipe. BTW Paula, I gave this recipe to my friend Meryl yesterday. Meryl is the chief baker and fundraiser at our Centre, she is older than I am and very experienced with fete and stall cooking, she's never heard of this recipe either, but she loves it too. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by paula hewitt on Down to Earth Forum

I bake all our biscuits, cakes and bread, so I am always on the lookout for recipes which are quick and easy. I thought I would share one of my favourite biscuit (cookie) recipes. It is easy, quick, cheap and it makes 7 or 8 dozen biscuits, which keep well. The dough and cooked biscuits keep well in the freezer. I use butter and wholemeal flour, but white flour and margarine can be substituted. I have only ever used tinned sweetened condensed milk in this recipe, but i imagine that Rhonda Jean's homemade condensed milk would work just as well.

makes 7-8 dozen, cook 10 min at 180C

500 grams butter (approx 1.1 lb)
1 can condensed milk (390-400 gram)
1 cup sugar
5 cups wholemeal self raising flour (or plain flour and baking powder)
toppings like choc chips, smarties, jam, cinnamon and sugar

cream butter and sugar, add condensed milk. stir in flour. roll into balls and flatten. top with choc chips etc, or thumbprint and add jam for jam drops.

bake at 180C for approx 10 min until golden brown. cool on racks