FRUGALITY AND SWIFFER

I will admit I have a Swiffer mop and two dusters.  Yes I have two, the original one didn't have an extension handle on it and I desperately need an extension being only 5'4" and shall we say vertically challenged at times.  I love certain aspects of the Swiffer products, but I absolutely hate the cost of buying all the pad refills and then throwing them away.  It just goes against that strong frugal streak I have.  Recently I started looking into re-usable options and there are surprisingly quite a few.  You can sew, knit, or crochet replacements depending on your area of interest or ability.  I will mention here that I do have reusable covers that I have bought for other models of mops but the cost to purchase more was stretching my frugality too far.  I have been known to break down and use old washcloths in a pinch.

I found several crocheted and knitted patterns on Ralvery and decided to make a crocheted version.  I bought supplies almost two months ago for this project and just got to it Saturday.  The cotton yarn was leftover from a dishcloth yarn buying spree and the terry/chenille was a new purchase.  While Matt was working Saturday morning I decided to watch a couple chic flicks on Netflix and crochet a Swiffer cover.  The pattern I chose can be used either as a dust mop or as a mop.  It ended up pretty thick so the next time I will use only one skein of yarn instead of two.  I used a cotton Peaches and Cream and a terry/chenille type yarn.  I believe I worked this with a size 8 hook.  The pattern I loosely followed was called Reversible Swiffer Sock.  It took me a total of about four hours to work, so I got to watch two chic flicks.  In my defense I will state I was also doing laundry so I wasn't being total lazy.  I had figured one skein of each should be plenty, but of course I was wrong and ran out of both.  I did have a partial skein of the cotton but ended up changing the terry/chenille to another yarn and color.  The resulting cover isn't necessarily pretty but it is quite functional. 

Now my next project will be re-usable covers for the dusters!  Hopefully Matt will have a couple Saturdays he'll be working so I can knock those out along with a chic flick or two.