# knitting Dopers - help with dishcloth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knitting-dopers-help-with-dishcloth/540653>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 25, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knitting-dopers-help-with-dishcloth/540653 "2010-05-25T01:49:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knitting-dopers-help-with-dishcloth/540653/1 "2010-05-25T01:49:49Z")

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So I’ve just recently started knitting and I feel like dishclothes would be both easy and practical for a beginner. The problem is that all the patterns I find require cotton yarn, 10 ply. I can’t find this kind of yarn around here for some reason - all the cotton yarn I find seems a lot thinner than 10 ply. The closest I can find is a linen/cotton blend.

Would it better to just make do with the thinner cotton yarn, or should I try another material?

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**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knitting-dopers-help-with-dishcloth/540653/2 "2010-05-25T02:05:29Z")

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Try double or triple-stranding the cotton yarn, see if that helps?

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knitting-dopers-help-with-dishcloth/540653/3 "2010-05-25T02:08:08Z")

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I use synthetics for dish cloths. And for nothing else. Cotton yarn is too expensive, and too mold/mildewy. And synthetics–especially really, really cheap yarn–has a higher scrub factor.

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**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knitting-dopers-help-with-dishcloth/540653/4 "2010-05-25T02:35:47Z")

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Maybe I could double-strand the cotton yarn for the drying dishclothes and use a polyester blend for washing?

Although if I want to double strand the yarn that means I have to find both ends, right?

What would happen if I just used the thinner cotton strand as is? Would I just end up with a smaller dishcloth?

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**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knitting-dopers-help-with-dishcloth/540653/5 "2010-05-25T03:15:11Z")

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> [@HazelNutCoffee](#):
>
> Maybe I could double-strand the cotton yarn for the drying dishclothes and use a polyester blend for washing?
> 
> Although if I want to double strand the yarn that means I have to find both ends, right?
> 
> What would happen if I just used the thinner cotton strand as is? Would I just end up with a smaller dishcloth?

To double-strand, you could also buy two skeins of the same type (even different colors) and pull off of both.

Yep, it’d make a smaller dishcloth to knit it single strand - knit it double-size and see if that helps? Or to be sure, knit a swatch and see what that does to your gauge.