Nettle bath mitt

Last year, for my husband for Christmas, I bought a hemp string knitted bath mitt thing to replace an old microplastic shedding thing. The new bath mitt cost a lot, it shed lots of natural fibres that did no harm to the planet, but it all fell apart in no time.

So of course I figured I could make one myself...

I started with the shopping part and bought some jute, some hemp and some nettle. One of those would be perfect, surely. All came from String Harvest.

I thought I'd try the nettle first. Front row on the right in the image above.

I invented my own knitted bath mitt pattern and thought I'd cleverly make notes, but now that I look at my own notes 3 months later I can hardly make any sense of them.

I'll write out the "pattern" at the end of the blogpost, but if it's wrong then don't call me out on it, please! I've held out this long before writing the blog post as I wanted to see how it worked and how it held up to the rigours of being used by Flipper on a daily basis. A cyclist who shaves is a pretty good testing ground for a loofah mitt!

The nettle felt suitably "scrubby" when dry, but actually softens up quite nicely when wet. Your mileage may vary, but my bloke must be tough as he has declared wet nettle to be "not scrubby enough" as a substrate for a bath mitt.

I'm pleased to say it hasn't looked like falling apart at all, so I'm yet to try the hemp or jute as long as this one still looks like new. In the first few days there was quite a bit of flaky, ash type stuff falling off it. Since then it has remained stable with no odour and seems to be the perfect yarn for a bath mitt for the more delicate amongst us!

Nettle Bath Mitt Pattern:

Materials: String Harvest handspun nettle 100g ball

The mitt is made by making two identical pieces and then joining the around the edge with single crochet.

Wind the ball into two 50g balls so the yarn can be held double throughout the following instructions

Using size 4.0 needles and stretchy long tail cast on, CO 21 stitches
Leave a longer tail than needed for the casting on as it will also be used for the hanging loop
knit 8 rows of 1x1 rib for the cuff.
For the body of the mitt change to size 5.0 needles.
The pattern then kind of follows a double moss stitch pattern for a bit of extra texture.
Row 1: knit to end
Row 2: (P1, K1) to end
Row 3: (K1, P1) to end
Row 4: (K1, P1) to end
Row 5: (P1, K1) to end
Repeat rows 2 to 5 another 4 times, finishing on row 21 

then I started reducing to shape the curve at the top of the mitt.

Row 22: P1, SSK, (K1, P1) to last 3 stitches, K2tog, P1
Row 23: K1, P1, P1, (K1, P1) to last 3 stitches, P1, P1, K1
Row 24: Repeat row 23
Row 25: P1, K1, K1 (P1, K1) to last 3 stitches, K1, K1, P1
Row 26: P1, SSK, (P1, K1) to last 3 stitches, K2tog, P1
Row 27: (K1, P1) to end
Row 28: Repeat row 27
Row 29: (P1, K1) to end
Row 30: P1, SSK, (K1, P1) to last 3 stitches, K2tog, P1
Row 31: K1, P1, P1, (K1, P1) to last 3 stitches, P1, P1, K1
Row 32: repeat row 31
Row 33: P1, K1, K1 (P1, K1) to last 3 stitches, K1, K1, P1
Row 34: P1, SSK, (P1, K1) to last 3 stitches, K2tog, P1
Row 35: (K1, P1) to end
Row 36: repeat row 35
Row 37: (P1, K1) to end
Row 38: P1, SSK, (P1, K1) to last 3 stitches, K2tog, P1
Row 39: K1, P1, P1, (K1, P1) to last 3 stitches, P1, P1, K
Row 40: P1, K1, K1 (P1, K1) to last 3 stitches, K1, K1, P1
Row 41: P1, SSK, (P1, K1) to last 3 stitches, K2tog, P1
Row 42: (K1, P1) to end
Row 43: K1, SSK, P1, K1, P1, K2tog, P1
Row 44: P1, K1, K1, P1, K1, K1, P1
Row 45: cast off

Make a second side identical to the first. On this one there's no need for the longer cast on tail.

Put the two pieces wrong sides together and using a size 4 crochet hook and still using two strands of the nettle, join the pieces with single crochet stitches all around the edges. Start on the side without the long tail from the cast on. At the finish on the side with the long tail, join those two yarn threads with the two yarn threads being used for the joining crochet and then crochet a chain using all four nettle threads. This will be the hanging loop.

I'm hopeful that if and when this nettle version fall apart the hemp twine can be used in teh same way. that's if my instructions make any sense. the Hemp is much thicker and will need a full redesign. Or maybe I'll just make a shopping bag instead!