Tuesday, August 14, 2007

But What Will the Garden Gnomes Use to Dry Themselves??

The dish cloth situation in our house is dreadful. Despite the three knitted ones I recently added to the collection, we are still perpetually running out of dish cloths. Perhaps if people hung them over the faucet to dry rather than leaving them balled up in a dirty, stinky mess in the bottom of the sink this wouldn't be a problem...but that's another story.

I have several towels that are about the right size to dry a garden gnome. They are also low quality enough that you would be embarassed to hand them to a garden gnome despite the fact that he or she was not in fact alive and therefore unable to notice the aforementioned low quality. Today I finally found a use for these towels that, despite their apparent uselessness, I couldn't bear to part with (you all know the drill...but what if I need a garden gnome sized towel???)

I cut the towel into 8 dish cloth sized sections and then I used my sewing machine to zig zag stitch the edges to prevent fraying. I trimmed the edges and now I have plenty of dish cloths. I don't know what impressed me more, finding a use for the towels or figuring out how to use the zig zag stitch on my sewing machine!

2 comments:

Ruthie said...

LOL you are so cute!!!! :)

Do you actually have garden gnomes? They always remind me of my favorite movie Amelie or the old show David the Gnome. Maybe if I see one at a yard sale or in a free pile I'll have to take him home now..

Oh dear.. I hope you haven't started an obsession on my part.

I can somewhat sympathize with the dishtowel scenario. Luckily for us, when we got married I never registered for much and when people didn't know what to get me I said "Dish towels?" So, for the last three years I've had a milk-crate full! Unfortunately, they're of varying quality and some I like to use as hand towels or napkins. I also freak out about bacteria growth on the thicker ones, especially when someone doesn't rinse them out and they lay in the bottom of the sink and start to smell putrid! I've found a good option is to buy the biodegradable (but reusable) microfiber cloths from the dollar store. I cut them into little squares (a bag comes with 3 cloths and I cut each into quarters) and one lasts me about a month before disentigrating beyond use. I liked these because if they becomes unbelievably disgusting I can toss them without too much guilt.

Good job with the sewing machine. I'm still scared of mine! EEK!

Katie said...

I did have a garden gnome. Our neighbor was a big ceramic nut and she made it for us. Unfortunately, the last time we moved, he didn't survive the trip.

The whole post made me think of Amelie but I wasn't sure if anyone else would. Its good to know you're on my wave length.