Microplastic ban

If you have been paying any attention to the news, you should know that there is a huge environmental problem resulting from plastic. This problem has two different sides to it, which are related to each other. One is plastic that is not properly taken care off and ends up everywhere, but specially at sea. These plastic pieces that range all sizes and shapes, originate from everything we use, toys, plastic bags, bottles, coffee cups, drinking straws... You name it, you'll find it floating in our oceans and slowly replacing the sand in our beaches. These plastic pieces cause all kinds of problems to our environment and scientists constantly find animals that are killed by either mistakenly ingesting or getting trapped in plastic.

The other problem are microplastics. These are tiny pieces of plastic that are so small they are invisible to the naked eye and they are everywhere: in the water we drink, the air we breathe and even inside our bodies. Scientists believe that the tiniest of these particles can even enter our cells. What kind of damage that could cause is still unknown. Microplastics originate from bigger pieces of plastic breaking and eroding into smaller and smaller pieces. A huge source of these are the tiny plastic fibres that are shed from our clothing. This is just another one of the ugly sides of the modern fashion industry and consumerism.

What can you do about it? Avoid buying clothes made of synthetic fibres such as acrylic, polyester and nylon. Rayon, viscose, modal and lyocell are all made of cellulose, not plastic, and are OK. If you do buy them, buy good quality clothes, because these shed a lot less.

Personally, I have long started to avoid clothes made of plastic fibres for the simple reason of my own personal comfort. Sincerely, I just do not like their look and feel (and yes, I can tell the difference!). Most of the clothes I own that have these fibres are gifts from family, not bought by myself. In today's world, it's so difficult to find clothes made of natural fibres (I know from experience!) that I do not feel it's OK to demand anyone to find them for me. So I accept the presents I'm offered with due grace.

One of the reasons I love knitting is that it allows me simple access to 100% wool clothes. These are almost impossible to find in the shops in the small town I live.

To end this long rant. A while ago I realized that the only significant source of plastic fibres in my life is dishcloths and sponges. These guys are cheap, but they shed like crazy. Just compare the size and texture of a new one with an old used one ready to be replaced. That is when I decided to buy a bunch of 100% cotton yarn and start knitting dishcloths. A small gesture and a micro contribution to save our planet and ourselves.

Microplastic ban dishcloths

About this pattern:

This a version of Grandmother's favorite, the most popular dishcloth pattern on Ravelry (so many people cannot be wrong!). The changes I made are to improve the pattern, making the final object more symmetric. Note, however, these are dishcloths!!!, any effort made in perfecting them is ridiculous perfectionism.

The pattern

Cast-on 3 st.
Set-up row: k1, kfb, k1.
Increase row: k2, yo, knit to end.
Repeat increase row until you have the desired size (or 45 st on needles).
Decrease row: k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, knit to end.
Repeat decrease row until you have 5 stitches on needles.
Final row: k2, k2tog, k1.
Bind off: k1, k2tog, pass 1st over 2nd, k1, pass 1st st over 2nd again and pull yarn through.
Weave in the ends.

Modifications

The problem most people have with this pattern is that the decrease section does not look as good as the increase one. In particular the 'k2tog, yo, k2tog' creates larger eyelets than the simple yo in the increase section. There are several different attempts at fixing this by changing this 3 stitch combination:

• k2tog, yo, ssk (I've tried this and saw no improvement).
• ssk, yo, k2tog (I've tried this and saw no improvement).
• same as above, but in the ssk st, slip first stitch knitwise and the second purlwise (this I've not tried yet).

I have found my own solution to neat up the eyelets on the second half. It is only a bit more work than the simple above pattern. Do the following:
Decrease row: k1, k2tog, k2tog, knit to last 2 sts, Lk, k2.
Knit above row until there are 5 sts left.
Row 1: k1, k2tog, yo, Lk2tog, k1.
Row 2: k2, k2tog, k1.
Bind-off as above.

Lk: create a yo by lifting strand between previous and next st and knit it.
Lk2tog: lift strand to create yo and k2tog with next st.

This lifted stitch is exactly the same as a normal yo done in the previous round except that it uses less yarn and thus creates a smaller hole.

Final note: I like the garter stitch edge, but a lot of people prefer to neat up the edges by knitting a selvage stitch at the beginning of every row: slip first stitch purlwise with yarn in front.