I have been a member of RAVELRY for sometime now and, of course, LOVE it! Who doesn’t? I have seen many different types of crochet swaps going on over the years, but had never participated in one.
A couple of months ago, while browsing my RAVELRY GROUPS, I came upon a WINTER TAWASHI swap that looked intriguing! Boy, am I glad that I took the first step and decided to join this swap!
Since it was a holiday swap in a Tawashi group, we had to crochet one winter or Christmas tawashi for our swap person. I was so lucky to have been paired with a WONDERFUL STITCHER from Great Britain! What a thrill!
I had so much fun creating Tawashi things for my swap person! The rules stated that you only had to crochet ONE item, but could send anything you wanted. I chose to crochet some mitten Tawashi for my winter crochet, but couldn’t resist crocheting some very COLORFUL TAWASHI CIRCLES designed by Doni Speigle as well!
I actually used a
MITTEN COASTER CROCHET PATTERN also designed by Doni Speigle for the mitten tawashi. I did leave off the crochet border and the embroidery for this project.
I had so much fun crocheting these tawashi and getting everything ready for mailing! I also included some American candy and a Japanese book of Hello Kitty that I knew Ani would like!
Guess what I got in my swap! Some REALLY, REALLY nice crochet items and ironically, the same type of chocolate candy from Ani, that I had sent to her! I also received some polka dot hair ornaments (I LOVE polka dots!), pretty stitch markers and a really cute chicken potholder! It was just too exciting to open the package!
Thank you to Ani for sending such an incredible Swap package! I will never again hesitate to participate in crochet swap! If any of you have ever participated in a Crochet Swap, we would LOVE to hear all about it!
UPDATE:
I have been asked several times what is Tawashi????
The actual meaning of Tawashi: a Japanese traditional scrubbing brush to wash off dirt. There can be many different types of ‘tawashi’ depending upon the material it is made from. Recently, knitters and crocheters have been making ‘tawashi’ to use as sponges or scrubbies for dishes and other cleaning/scrubbing. In Japan, antibacterial yarn is usually used for Tawashi. I don’t know how long Japanese knitters and crocheters have been making tawashi.
I saw this little entry recently on Ravelry:
“Tawashi? What’s that for?”
“Tawashi!” (to-washy!)
It makes me giggle, because that’s what it’s FOR!”
Cute Crochet 