OK, I’ve been telling myself this bad pun all day, (as well as to James and the kids), and it still makes me giggle, so I’m sorry for subjecting you to it. Tawashi is Japanese for “dish scrubbie.” (No, that’s not a literal translation, it’s just what I’ve been told at Tawashi Town [ravelry link], my new favorite group on Ravelry.)
I grew up in a household of folks who used dishrags cloths to wash the dishes and wipe up the counters [ETA: my mom wrote and suggested I need to note that we actually distinguished between dish cloths which are special cloths just for dishes and countertops and “rags” which are old worn out cloths that are used for yuckier jobs like wiping floors and cleaning dirtier messes].
James, on the other hand, likes sponges and scrubbies… I wasn’t convinced until I discovered cute ones you can crochet. Recently, there’s been a big surge in tawashi popularity, and now there are lots of patterns online (in Japanese) showing how to make them. You don’t have to read Japanese because the patterns are all done with charts and diagrams.
In Tawashi Town, I heard about special yarn for scrubbies that was super-scratchy acrylic (good for scrubbing), and treated with special silver ions to make it antibacterial. I found a link to some on Etsy, and last night, when we got home from the bus stop, it was on our stoop. Selma was more impressed with the Japanese newspaper that the package was wrapped with than the yarn.
This morning, I used the tawashi as a creative warm-up to get my brain and fingers going before starting work on a sweater. Here’s the result getting some sun near a patch of chives in the yard.
Hopefully, when her break’s over she’ll get to work because I could use some help with the dishes!