Hey there, my friends!  I have been sooooo busy lately.  How busy, you ask?  As my Pops would say, I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest, LOL!  I tell you, I’ve got LOADS of humorous redneck tidbits and analogies from my years as his daughter, so it’s going to be fun incorporating them in my posts, LOL!!  You can’t say I didn’t warn ya 🙂

Anyway, most of you already know that we recently bought and moved into our new home in July.  And since I move alot slower these days (thank you, RA), there are still boxes and junk littered all over the place.  Thankfully, my daughter lives close and can come help me unpack.  Can you guess which room we started in?  Hehehe… yep, my sewing room!  I mean, after all, as long as I have a bed to sleep in, clean undies, and my craft stuff – what else do I REALLY need?  Right?  Right?  Am I right?

Eventually though, I’m going to have to buck up and get to the grubby jobs of deep cleaning things.  A kind of Spring Cleaning in the Fall, if you will.  Normally I don’t mind cleaning, provided I have the good supplies on hand.  Let’s face it, y’all…  those nasty grimy sponges are not in the “good supplies” column.  I mean, they’re not bad right out of the package when they’re fresh, but after you use them once, they’re forever gross no matter how many times you try to rinse them.  Plus, they’re just not that pretty to look at.

So I sat down with my trusty 5.5mm I hook, some cotton yarn, and some tulle and whipped up a really fun double-sided scrubbie to use instead!  Not only are they really pretty, they work up lightning fast, and you can toss them in the washing machine 🙂 These scrubbies are versatile – on one side is the cotton yarn for washing and wiping, and the other side has tulle mixed with the yarn for the scrubbing.

And because y’all are thebombdotcom, I’m going to share this awesomeness with you!

 

Yarn:  100% Cotton (I used Lily Sugar & Cream)
Hook:  I (5.5mm), although gauge isn’t important, so you can use whatever hook you want
Tulle

You’ll be making 2 separate circles, the wash side & scrubbie side, and then joining them together with a pretty frilly border.  We’ll start with the softer side  using just the cotton yarn 🙂

Small Circles
Rnd 1          with magic circle, ch3 (counts as dc), work 13 dc in magic circle , slst in top of beg ch3 to join  (14)

Rnd 2          ch1, 2sc in same st and in each st around, slst in top of 1st sc to join (28)

Rnd 3          ch3 (counts as dc), dc in same st, dc in next st, **2dc in next st, dc in next st, rep from ** around, slst in top of beg ch3 to join (42)  Fasten off.

 

Now it’s onto the scrubbie side!  It’s pretty simple – all you need to do work the yarn and tulle together in the same way you’d work with 2 strands of yarn.

The wider your tulle, the scrubbier it will be.  On my 1st one, I started with 6″ wide tulle and cut it into 2″ strips.  It wasn’t as abrasive as I wanted for dishes, so I went up to 3″ wide strips.  And if you really want some scrubbing power, use the entire 6″ width either with cotton yarn, or even make the entire circle strictly out of the tulle.

 

After playing around with the textures, I decided I would use 2″ wide tulle for face/body scrubbies, 3″ for dishes, and 6″ for the grubbiest of the grubbie jobs!  **This is my fine print…. Even though I’ve been in healthcare for years and I even went to nursing school, I am not a dermatologist and have no medical basis for suggesting to use tulle scrubbies for your face.  Scrub a dub your face/body with these bad boys at your own risk!  (if your skin falls off like a walker and my other husband Daryl Dixon squares off on you with the crossbow, don’t sue me!)

When joining the strips, there’s no need to worry about any fancy connections either – just go right ahead and tie those  suckers in knots!

Once you have your tulle put together, hold it in your hand along with the yarn like you’re holding 2 strands of yarn.  You can try to wrap the tulle around the yarn if you want, but hey – ain’t nobody got time for that!  I just hold it alongside the yarn and let nature take its course.  I kind of think the inconsistency and randomness adds to the texture, and if we’re being real here, it’s all about that texture, ’bout that texture, not smoothness 🙂  (ok, so Meghan Trainor I’m not, LOL)

Work another small circle with the tulle & yarn together.  Once you complete both circles, lay the softer one on top of the scrubbie one so that they can be joined together.

Using the yarn only (no tulle here), insert your hook through the top of any dc of both circles and join the yarn.  Be sure to work the entire Rnd 1 through both circles all the way around.

Joining Border
Rnd 1          ch1, 2sc in same st, sc in next 2 sts, **2sc in next st, sc in next 2sts, rep from ** around, slst in top of 1st sc to join (56)

Rnd 2          ch3 (counts as dc), 4dc in same st, sk next 3 st, **5dc in next st, sk next 3 st, rep from ** around, slst in top of beg ch3 to join, fasten off and weave in ends (14 5dc shells)

VOILA!  You’ve now made a really fun and inexpensive reusible scrubbie that you can sanitize in the washing machine!  Way better that those icky sponges or expensive exfoliating brushes!  (but remember my fine print above about me not being a dermatologist 🙂 )