Washcloths in Bloom

The major theme for the summer turned out to be a set of reverse-bloom flower petal washcloths from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting (great book; I've done several projects from it and lust for the rest). I always had one of these on the needles to alternate with another project. Since my bleeding fingers brand me as somewhat of a blooming washcloth expert, here are a few tips for those contemplating the knitting:

• Treat yourself and use the recommended yarn, Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille. Truly lush stuff; great colors which my sub-artist digital camera skills don't do justice. Crystal Palace doesn't name their colors, so I did it myself: clockwise from the top: lime sherbert, spinach linguine, martini olive, beachglass and grape juice (in the works). Beachglass aside, do we sense a theme of what else I did on my summer vacation?
• Great yarn, but somewhat of a pain to work--zero elasticity. You have to go slow and pull tight to stay even and avoid loopy lumps, especially on the decreases. Also, don't stress about the twisting, it just adds to the nubby texture of the final product.
• Watch out on Round 16--the decrease rate changes rather abruptly.
• You will be initially disappointed in your finished product--it will resemble a washed-up jellyfish with curls and lumps and loose ends. Just darn in the appendages, saturate the sucker, pat it out flat on a towel and let it dry overnight. It will be perfect, just...perfect.