Sustainable Swiffer Sweater

So as I promised, here is the the discussion regarding the knitted swiffer pad that I completed a few weeks ago.

R and I have been working ever since last summer to shed ourselves of the chains of CC debt. We gave ourselves a timeline of two years to get out of about $7,000 in debt. In an effort to be Planny McPlannington, I created a spread sheet that I mistakenly added $100 a month more to the cc payments and figured out that we could be out of debt in actually less than a year and a half. R and I grinned and bore the extra $100, and in doing so we've been really creative on how to spend less on groceries, entertainment and a whole host of other things.

We budgeted $80 a week for all our food, toiletries, cleaning supplies and anything else we can get at the local supermarket. If we were just buying foods than the $80 for two was a breeze. However, throwing in all the cleaning supplies started to take away from the food we could buy.

To make a long story even longer, half way through this process we ran out of disposable swiffer pads. On to the weekly grocery list it went. Once at the store I about choked on the price ($6.99 for 12 pads). I looked at R and said "I bet I could knit something that works just as well."

R doesn't doubt my knitting abilities, if he did he wouldn't get cool things like knitted beanies and fingerless gloves. He wasn't sure though how well a knitted swiffer pad would do compared to the ones we buy in the store. We compromised and I said I'd make one and we'd test it, if it didn't work, we'd shell out the money and find another way to cut somewhere else.

Back pockets for ultimate
swiffer coverage

Off to the local yarn shop near the house I went, purchased two skeins of Lily Sugar and Cream 100% cotton yarn ($3 each). After a bit of research on my favorite knitting website Ravelry, I found this pattern. The pattern calls for only two repeats of the brick pattern, however, that wasn't going to fit over the swiffer head. So I completed 3 full repeats and then bound off. I sewed the sides over to create two pockets and slapped it on the Swiffer.

The Velcro on the swiffer held the pad nicely so it wasn't sliding around during use. Now it was time to try it out.

Compared to the regular disposable swiffer pads, the knitted one gripped the floor a bit more. It didn't glide as easily along the floor. Some might see this as a downside. I, on the other hand, really like this difference. I was still able to push the swiffer around the floor without too much upper body strength. I also felt that with this grip, I had to do less swipes over spills and stains on the floor. With the original pad I had to run over the spill 4 or 5 times before there wasn't a trace of it. With the knitted pad, I was able to wipe it up in two passes.



First two swiffer covers made
with two skeins of
Sugar and Cream cotton yarn



The brick texture to the knitted pad I think helps the scrub feature. Also, I think the cotton is less scratchy on my surfaces. Granted we only have linoleum in the apartment, I'm sure this would do great on all types of flooring.

After one washing of the knitted pad (washed in hot water and dried in the dryer), it did shrink a bit, however, I think the fit is just a bit snugger and better after the wash. Over all, I'm pleased with this switch. For less than the cost of the pads in the store I was able to get two knitted pads from the yarn I bought. These can be used indefinatly and will be great.

My goal is to try and post every couple of days during the work week. I'll take the weekends off to create topics and to come up with ideas. My next post will be about my newest project. Granted I have three total projects on needles right now. However, this particular one just snuck up and ended up on a hook.