The typical green scouring pads are what we used to use for cleaning the dishes. In the new attempt to remove disposable items from our house, specifically plastic ones, these green pads are gone. In their place are the new green scrubbers in our life.

These little knitted numbers are 100% cotton making them incredibly durable and incredibly absorbent. They work just as well as the old ones and don't scratch up all the pans. The best part is that at a price of $1.79 for 120 yards you can knit up three compared to spending over a dollar a piece on Scotch Brite. I've also found that they last longer than the plastic ones because they don't wear down to a smooth green blob like the others tend to.

The pattern is incredibly simple and even a beginning knitter can handle creating these scouring pads. As long as you can knit and purl, you're set! I use Lily's Sugar 'n' Cream yarn, but any 100 percent cotton will due. Ours are Lily 'n' Cream Lime (now known as Hot Green).

The pattern for our scouring pads was derived from one posted at Little House in the Suburbs. However, there's is a bit more on the pretty side, whereas I wanted ours to be significantly more durable. So there has been a bit of tweeking, a few more added scrubbers, some size altering, etc.

You will need 1 skein of 100% cotton yarn. 2 size 5 knitting needles and 1 double pointed size 6 needle.

At first, I was a bit nervous about the mention of a cabling needle. Cabling is significantly above my skill level and quite a bit intimidating. Not only that, I didn't even own a cabling needle. So, some testing out of options and a bit of trial and error led me to using one double pointed size 6 needle instead. However, you can use any object that is long and skinny like a knitting needle - pencil, pen, marker, hair pin, piece of doweling - but seems to work best if the object is about six inches long. All you basically need is something to hold the stitches for a bit.


The instructions on making a scrubber are below the pattern.

Cast on 29 stitches.
Knit a complete row
Purl a complete row
Knit 5 stitches, create a scrubber, knit 5 more stitches, create scrubber...continue till the end of the row.
Purl a row.
Knit 1 stitch, create a scrubber, knit 5 more stitches, create scrubber, knit 5 more, scrubber....till the end (you should be left with a one stitch remaining after the last scrubber.)
Purl a row.
Knit 5 stitches, create scrubber, knit 5 more stitches, create scrubber....continue till the end.
Purl a Row.
Knit 1 stitch, create scrubber, knit 5 more stitches, create scrubber, knit 5 more, scrubber...till the end.
Purl a row.

The pattern basically entails knitting one row, purling one row, knitting, purling, etc. On the knitted rows you alternate between knitting in five stitches before starting to make scrubbers and knitting in 1 stitch. There are always five knitted stitches between each scrubber. You should never be making scrubbers on a purled row.

Making a scrubber:

The scrubbers are places where yarn has been wrapped around three stitches and then the stitches are knitted, leaving sort of a bubble of yarn over the top.

This effect is created by transferring three stitches onto the double pointed needle. You don't need to knit them, just slide them over onto the double pointed needle.

Next wrap the yarn around the double pointed needle (and the three stitches) counter clockwise somewhere around five to seven times. Wrap the yarn so that it fits nice and snuggly, but don't try to strangle the stitches.

Now, knit the three stitches off of the double pointed needle one by one. Continue knitting five more stitches and repeat the process.



What you should have when you are done are nice rows of scrubbers alternating across your scouring pad.

Being cotton you can re-wash them over and over in the laundry whenever they begin to get ooky or smelly, and they store well in the drawer along with all the other dishcloths. Voila! Homemade scouring pads, without the plastic or the landfill!

...Yes, I realize my excitement makes me a nerd...

Many people seem so amazed when I knit. Granted, the entire process is a bit amazing. You turn one long string of yarn into a square of cloth and then a garment or blanket. However, the process of actually knitting is one of the effortless and most soothing I have come across in my dealings with Simplicity.

When I was pregnant with The Spicy Barracuda, I wasn't gaining enough weight the first five months. So I was told I didn't get to do much other than lay around and eat. This might sound like a really great referendum to come from the doctor, but it drove me a bit crazy. I was very into exercise before the Barracuda and didn't like the idea of stopping. Eating massive amounts of spaghetti and hot dogs while watching cable TV became my daily routine. It lasted about two weeks. (However, I did become addicted to Judging Amy and Dawson's Creek on cable syndication. Now you all know one of my most embarrassing guilty pleasures!)

When I couldn't take television anymore, I began to look into other outlets and stumbled upon knitting. A friend's mother owned a yarn shop where ladies of all ages sat, talked and knit. It was the perfect solace for my non-exercise frustrations: I could sit and yet still be productively doing something! Moreover, I could talk about motherhood, marriage, relationships, children, and all sorts of other female topics which had begun to bother my emotional, pregnant nerves. The ladies taught me the basics: how to cast on, how to finish off, how to knit, how to purl, and how to combine those two stitches to do ribbing, a stockinette, or garter stitch.

This experience spun a love of knitting and a new found stress relief. I now make it a point to knit regularly and almost every day. Rather than watch a movie at the end of the night or mindlessly turn on the television, I now knit. It helps to sooth my nerves and ad a form of directly productive meditation to my life. From the basics of knit and purl you can do most anything you could want. It takes a bit of patience with yourself and some time to practice, but you are mainly doing the same thing over and over and over.

Knitting also gives me a bit of one on one time with Bell Bell. She adores my knitting. From playing in the yarn to snuggling up on just about any knitted item left by itself she comes hopping (she only has three legs) from the corners of the house to either nuzzle in close or leap out ferociously showing the yarn just how scared it should be.

The place for knitting in our Simplicity hasn't really shown itself quite yet. So much of this last year has been devoted to food knowledge. The growth, storage, and acquisition of our families meals has taken so much time there hasn't been room for much else. But, these last few months both Jules and I have noticed an definite turning point in our food storage as purchasing has gone down and stockpiling gone up. August is nearing its end and canning season is winding down. As such knitting is becoming a much more prevalent aspect of my day to day routine.

This next year, it is my hope to complete a knitted blanket for Jule's and my bed, replace our dish scrubbers with dishtowels, replace our dish-drying towels, and create not only hand towels but also washcloths for the bathroom. We will see if that is even remotely reasonable.

I'm not venturing into clothing yet, just nice square things which don't require turning, or knitting two together, or increasing and decreasing stitches. But, who knows, by the end of this year I might be whipping out socks in a frenzy of stitches!