The Best Dish Scrubbers You Can Make

UPDATE: I called mine the best, but it's the nylon yarn that makes these scrubbers the best for scrubbing.  I just found another pattern, at Rostitchery, for a nice compact round scrubber.  I am off to make one of these now; it might be better than mine. 

If you don't think that dish scrubbers make a good gift idea, I encourage you to look next to your friends and family members' sinks.  I have been so surprised to see that people who wash their hands, brush their teeth, and vacuum their floors often have a nasty, yucky, gross, old sponge on their sink ledge for washing dishes.  This is disgusting, people!  I care about my friends and family and I want to save them from the billions of germs that live in such sponges, so I think a pair of these makes an excellent gift.  These dish scrubbers can go in the washing machine and dryer, so with one to use and one to wash, your loved ones can always have something fresh and clean for scrubbing dishes.

This was the first design I came up with for the Knifty Knitter long looms.  All you need to make one of these handy dandy little scrubbers is the pink short loom, 2 skeins of nylon yarn, and an hour.

You can make these with one skein of nylon yarn and one ball of cotton, but cotton tends to stay damp longer.  Using nylon yarn gives these scrubbers their scrubbing ability and it dries out fast.

Wrap your loom as directed, using both strands of yarn.  Knit the piece until it has reached 5 inches, and then loom off, leaving tails approximately 7" long.

Then, take the short ends and bring them together.  Use one of your yarn tails to sew these edges together, behind the first row, creating a ridge, which will be your handle.  Then, center the handle in the middle, on the top layer of the scrubber.  Then use your other yarn tails to sew this top layer down to the bottom layer, keeping the handle ridge centered, and closing the open edges.

 
And here is what one looks like when you are done.  These are the best things I have found for scrubbing dishes; they are strong and scrub well.  The handle is handy and being able to wash these makes them sanitary and clean.  A pair of these makes a nice gift, especially when coupled with handmade dish scrubbing soap.  There are various ways to make liquid soap, but the easiest is to start with liquid castile soap.  I use Dr. Bronner's lavender.  Squeeze this into a pretty bottle, add warm water, a little glycerine, and some lavender essential oil, and you're done.

This is my original design; do not make these for sale.  But have fun making these for yourself and as gifts.

UPDATE: Now, after I made and posted this, I have seen another scrubber, designed Rowena at Rostitchery, that looks even neater than mine, as it is round.  I think it is a good bit smaller, though, and haven't tried her way yet.  I am going to make one her way now, but I wanted to post this and apologize to Rowena for proclaiming my scrubber the "best!"  Here again, is the link to the neat round scrubber at Rostitchery.

Update:  I have had a lot of folks asking where to find the nylon yarn for making these.  I like using the "Bonnie" brand the best, and they do carry it at Amazon.  Here are some links
There are other colors available, too.