Though I continue to make amigurumi toys for donating (currently working on a hippo), April brings with it a another charity crochet focus – wash cloths, lots and lots of wash cloths. Along with the toys I’m making on my own, I will also be delivering hand-made cotton wash cloths and soap donations. My craft club has been working on learning crochet and also making wash cloths, and I am coordinating the April 2013 donation drive for the Crochetlist Yahoo group as well, who is also going to donate wash cloths.

My craft club collects toiletry items on an on-going basis. For example, when you go on a trip and take those little soaps home but may or may not use them later, we ask staff and faculty to give them to us. Then we organize them in zip lock bags and put the wash cloths we make into the bags as well.

Since I am the one coordinating the wash cloth drive, I am also making them like crazy. Any time I’m in a meeting or sitting with a friend chatting for a few minutes, I pull out the wash cloth and crochet. I’ve actually made at least a half dozen wash cloths just by doing this alone. None of them are fancy. I usually just make about 30 chain stitches and do a mix of single crochet and/or double crochet until I get a square. Then I finish off the edges with single crochet. One wash cloth usually takes about an hour for me to make, and since I’m not following a pattern, I can multitask.