One of the nice things about a knitted dishcloth pattern is its gauge usually doesn’t matter.

Which is a blessing for me, because I’ve been known to rewrite patterns to match my gauge.

Yes, really!  I knit loosely, and use the pick or Continental method.  When I use the throw or English/American method, the gauge is much closer.  And my knitting is much tighter.  So I think most patterns are written by knitters using the throw method.

Personally I find the pick method much easier, faster and smoother.  If you like a different method GREAT!

What else makes knitted dishcloth patterns good projects for many knitters?

* They’re small projects…
* They’re usually portable projects…
* They’re often in simple stitches and simple patterns, nice for beginners or experts who want a simple project.

They’re small projects, which are great if your knitting may be interrupted. 

Ever been frustrated when you sit down to knit and get interrupted in the middle of a row?

If you’re a caregiver – including a mother – you just know that’s going to happen.  And a complicated pattern like fancy lace needs your concentration not interruptions every few minutes.

Because they’re smaller projects, they can be tucked into a purse or bag easily.  They’re easily whipped out when waiting like at a doctor’s appointment, and if you’re traveling on a plane don’t take up a lot of space on your lap or in your bag. 

Garter stitch is all knit stitches.  It makes a GREAT scrubbing dishcloth.  And there are simple variations of garter stitch that make up nicely into dishcloths.

Traditionally dishcloths are made of cotton worsted weight yarn, easier to work with than wool in the summer.  You can also substitute acrylic yarn which makes a great scrubbing cloth for dishes or cleaning.  Never for skin though as it’s too harsh.

Sometimes you want a small project that’s simple yet looks fancy.  One pattern is my Ripple Kitchen Set available at www.TheKnittingYarn.com/KitchenOffer.

Garter ripple kitchen set

And knitting new dishcloths and even dish towels can quickly brighten up your kitchen – or someone else’s!

Keep knitting to your heart’s delight – or someone else’s,

Dr. Ina

Ina Gilmore M.D. (ret.)

The Knitting Dr

Ambassador of Elder Care, www.HowToLiveOnPurpose.com

Founder, www.CaregivingWithPurpose.com and www.TheKnittingYarn.com

Disclosure

Disclaimer:

The information on this website is for educational purposes only. It does not replace information or recommendations from your own physician or other health care provider. This site does not advocate medical or other health-related self-care, and encourages you to obtain advice from your own personal physician or other health care provider.

This web site is not intended to replace medical, financial, legal, or any other professional advice. Please use your own good judgment and consult with your own professionals before applying any ideas found within this website.

I’m a fan of hand knit dishcloths. Every time I use one, I’m amazed at how long they last.  And how much better they are at scrubbing than manufactured dishcloths.

Although they can be fancy with embossed-looking images, they don’t have to be.  A knitted dishcloth pattern can be as simple as garter stitch. I just finished knitting one in about three hours.

Grandma's Favorite Knitted Dishcloth

I used a dishcloth pattern that’s been around for years. It’s called Grandma’s or Grandmother’s Favorite Dishcloth.

Its name suits. It’s a quick and easy knit. All you need to know is how to: cast on, knit, yarn over, decrease, and cast off.  That’s it.

It can be customized if you get tired of the basic knitting pattern, as explained later in this post.

Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloth

Materials: Approximately 1 ounce of cotton worsted weight yarn and 1 pair of knitting needles in appropriate size.

So what’s an appropriate needle size? Whatever size you want to make the knitting as tight or as loose as you want. I knit loosely, and usually use size 5 or 6 needles. Many knitters use size 8.

Instructions:

Row 1: Cast on 4 stitches.

Row 2: Knit 2 stitches, yarn over, knit to end of row.  Turn.

Repeat Row 2 until you have 44 stitches on your needle.

Next Row (Decrease Row): Knit 1 stitch, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit to end of row. Turn.

Repeat this row until you have 4 stitches left. Cast off.  Break yarn, and pull it through last stitch to knot. Weave in yarn ends.

Knitter’s Tip: If the dishcloth doesn’t look quite square, try gently pulling it into shape. It’s not unusual for the first and second halves to look different when the dishcloth first comes off the needles.

So what are some easy variations?

• Crocheting a Hanging Loop
  You can add a look by not breaking yarn when you get to the last stitch. Using a crochet hook, chain 8, attaching the chain to the last stitch or corner or next to the last stitch. Break yarn and weave in ends as above.
• Adding a Slipped Stitch Edging
  You can make a lovely slipped stitch edging by slipping the first stitch of each row as if to purl.  My video gives you the slipped stitch edging knitting instructions.
• Knitting in Reverse Garter Stitch
  If you want practice purling or just like to purl more than knit, you can knit the entire dishcloth in reverse garter stitch instead of garter stitch.

  To knit Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloth, the basic instructions become:
  Row 1: Cast on 4 stitches.
  Row 2: Purl 2 stitches, yarn over, purl to end of row.  Turn.
  Repeat Row 2 until you have 44 stitches on your needle.
  Next Row (Decrease Row): Purl 1 stitch, purl 2 together, yarn over, purl 2 together, purl to end of row. Turn.
  Repeat this row until you have 4 stitches left. Cast off.  Break yarn, and pull it through last stitch to knot. Weave in yarn ends.
  This post gives you more detailed reverse garter knitting instructions.

• Changing the size
  Want a larger or smaller dishcloth? Then increase to 46 or 42—or whatever sizes you want—before decreasing.
  You can even make square dishtowel by enlarging the pattern. You may however need more than one ball of yarn.
  Knitters tip: Hand knit dishtowels seem to absorb water better than store-bought ones.
• Using your imagination to customize—
  If you want to knit in colors, you can knit stripes. You may either find you have a lot of ends to weave in, or if you carry the yarn from row to row you may want to crochet a border of single crochet or knit an I-cord border to cover the yarn loops.
  If you change colors after either 2 or 4 rows the yarn carried will be short lengths. You can also make wider stripes of more rows, breaking the yarn between stripes.

So now you have the basic instructions and five easy variations.

Another variation of the garter stitch is my Garter Ripple Kitchen Set, based on an easy lace knitting stitch called “Feather and Fan.”

Garter ripple kitchen set

It’s a great way to brighten up your kitchen or to practice lace knitting on a small project.  Buy now!

Keep knitting to your heart’s delight — or someone else’s,

The Knitting Yarn

Disclosure:

I may have a marketing connection to a brand, topic or product listed on the website. Through the use of affiliate links contained herein, I may collect fees from purchases made.

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One of my earliest Christmas memories is my sister and I receiving identical knit hats from my Aunt Gerry.  They were red, with a face on the back, lovingly hand embroidered for children. Even to the google eyes. Hey, we were toddlers and thought them very cool!

Christmas is a great time to relive happy memories—and to create some new ones.

Yes, it’s great to be able to make a scarf, mittens, or even a sweater for a loved one. Especially if they actually like it!

Sometimes, though, other problems challenges crowd out the knitting time.  And even the fastest knitter needs more than an hour or two to hand knit a sweater.

This year is one of those times for me.  Even decorating is challenging.  My tree is up, and the lights are on.  And you know, for the first time in many years, it’s enough.  I’m enjoying the lights even without any ornaments.

My Christmas tree with lights

Still, I like to add hand knit items to my Christmas—and that of those I love.

So, how can you easily create a hand-knit Christmas?

1. Knit some ornaments. They make a great addition to your tree, and can be a great way to use up leftover yarn, also being economical.  There are lots of free patterns on the Internet.  To get you started, try my free tiny mitten knitting instructions. Ornaments can even do double duty when you —
2. Knit a package decoration or even a package. Angels, stars, tiny stockings and mittens can be very cute on a package.  The recipient can enjoy them before the gift is opened, and afterwards they make a nice addition to their ornaments.  Small stockings can also be knit to fit a candy cane, roll candy, or lip balm.  A nice stocking stuffer or small inexpensive gift that still shows the recipient you took time to personalize it. Knitting Pattern Central is a great place to start looking for knitting instructions.
3. Knit dishcloths or washcloths in Christmas colors. They’re a reminder of the season, and even when not in use can make a kitchen or bath feel more like Christmas. They make a practical project for yourself, and a thoughtful gift for non-knitters.  Adding an I-cord border to some patterns is a quick way to add a second color. Cotton yarn at often less than $2 a ball remains economical, practical and easy.

Christmas dishcloths: Customizing knitting instructions using Christmas colors

Create your own ripple knit dishcloths with my Garter Ripple Kitchen Set.

Disclosure:

I may have a marketing connection to a brand, topic or product listed on the website. Through the use of affiliate links contained herein, I may collect fees from purchases made.

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A couple of days ago, my cotton worsted yarn was calling.

Instead of the usual dishcloths, I decided to knit  washcloths. You know, the kind that are often referred to as spa washcloths. Many patterns for spa washcloths use garter stitch, which makes a good scrubbing surface.

However, it’s not as fancy as I wanted.

I like the two colors of a Ballband dishcloth. And making one the opposite or negative of the other economically uses 2 small balls of cotton yarn almost completely.

In looking closely at some of the dishcloths I’ve made from the Ballband knitting instructions, they looked unfinished. This one is a dish towel adapted from the Ballband knitting instructions.

Dish towel made from ballband dishcloth knitting instructions

The top and bottom have a nice border, but the sides look irregular and unfinished.

The knitting instructions give an option for crocheting a border. Part of me has always wanted to find a satisfactory knitted border option.  Somehow the crocheted border still looks unfinished to me. Or maybe sometimes I just like to make a 100% knitted item. Just because. 

I’ve been reading Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop. And her I-cord instructions seemed just right. She even provides instructions for how to turn an outside corner!

So, I combined the knitting instructions: putting an I-cord border on a Ballband dishcloth.

And the result is a spa washcloth:

Combining knitting instructions of Ballband dishcloth and I-cord: front

Combining knitting instructions of Ballband dishcloth and I-cord: back

While I prefer to let dishes air dry, sometimes I still need to dry them by hand.

The other day, as I used a dish towel, it left the water untouched.

Next I tried a second, then a third.

All of them refused to wipe the dishes dry.

The best drying towel seemed to be one that’s probably at least 15 years old. Unfortunately, it also has a large hole in its center.

Have you noticed most if not all the dish towels lately in the stores are manufactured outside the USA?

The ones I’ve had the most problems with are new. Perhaps it’s the yarn, the dyes, or even the manufacturing process?

After exhausting the available dish towels, I reached for a knitted cotton dishcloth. Surprisingly, it did a nice job of drying the dishes. Perhaps a bit small, but the pattern could be easily enlarged.

Have you noticed there aren’t many knitting patterns for dish towels?

Oh, it’s easy to find dishcloth knitting instructions online.

Knitting Pattern Central has 277 dishcloth patterns, and 1 dish towel pattern. Even Ravelry lists 46 patterns for dish towels, but it appears only 25 or so are actually towels. And they have over 3000 patterns for knitted dishcloths listed!

Some are for dishcloths, just mislabeled as dish towels!

Why? Three possible reasons for the scarcity of dish towel knitting instructions:

• Maybe they’re less popular because they’re a larger project?
• Maybe many folks don’t hand dry many dishes any more?
• Maybe designers just assume knitters enlarge dishcloth patterns themselves to make dish towels?

Making a dishcloth larger makes sense. An all-over pattern is easy to enlarge by simply adding more stitches — by keeping to the pattern repeat — and by adding rows to make a rectangle rather than a square.

You can see the dishcloth I enlarged by adding additional “bricks” to make a dish towel:

Dish towel made from ballband dishcloth knitting instructions

I found the ballband dishcloth knitting pattern inside the label of the Peaches & Creme blue denim cotton yarn.  Peaches & Creme cotton yarn is made in the USA from American materials.

When you want to hang the dish towel on a handle in the kitchen, you may want to customize the top, making it easy to hang or tie on the handle.

Of course, if you’re adventurous and don’t mind ripping and re-knitting if needed, you could try to make a top without knitting instructions.

Dish towel hanger top made without knitting instructions

You may find knitting dish towels with and without hanging tops easier — and faster — than you think!

When you’re looking for more specific instructions for a dishcloth and towel, check out my Garter Ripple Kitchen Set pattern.  It’s a knitted dishcloth pattern, using a simple lace stitch.

Garter ripple kitchen set

It’s available through Ravelry.  Here’s the link to buy now.

When you’re bored with knitting the same old pattern, maybe it’s time to try something more challenging …

Like Garterlac!

This is my first attempt:

Yes, it’s a work in progress. If you like the challenge of entrelac, but find the stockinette (stocking) version too flat or like both the front and back to look woven, you might like garterlac. Like garter stitch, it’s a nice thickness for dishes.  And dishcloths make a nice practical square to try out a new pattern.

It’s not hard to envision using garterlac for a scarf, an afghan, or a pillow top.

If garterlac is more challenging than you want to attempt your first time out, you might consider this dishcloth:

It’s a smaller version of the baby blanket in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop. I started with 14 stitches. It has a woven seam, which may not suit everyone for a dishcloth.  Still, it’s a good way to try out the pattern, without making an entire blanket.

Still too complex? Well, you could try the Mitered Scrubby, substituting one strand of yarn and casting on 40 stitches, or the number for the size you want.

Most knitters are familiar with the Diagonal Dishcloth Pattern, also often known as Grandma’s Dishcloth, or some variation of that name. It’s actually garter stitch worked on the bias. And very good practice for garter stitch, increases and decreases.

My version is knit on size 7 needles or size for gauge you like.

Cast on 3 stitches
Row 1: Knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, yarn over, knit 1
Row 2: Knit 5
Row 3: Knit 1, yarn over, knit 3, yarn over, knit 1
Row 4: Knit 7

Continue in garter stitch, to increase one stitch each odd row just after first and before last stitch. Knit all stitches in even rows.
When side edges measure desired size (35 stitches on row in the one I knitted) begin decrease rows:

SKP = Slip 1 stitch as if to knit, knit 1 stitch, pass slip stitch over knit stitch

Odd Rows: Knit 1, SKP, Knit to last 3 stitches, knit 2 together, knit 1
Even Rows: Knit all stitches

Bind off when row has 3 stitches.  Finish off, leaving an end long enough to weave in. Weave in ends.

Tip: You can vary where the increases and decreases are placed, such as knit 3 yarn over, knit to last 3 stitches, yarn over, knit last three stitches. Similarly, the decreases would be placed after the first 3 knit stitches and before the last 3. This keeps the edges consistent.

And of course, there’s always easy garter stitch.

The cotton worsted weight yarn is Sugar ‘n Cream Bronze Blue Culinary Colors-3 oz.

Keep knitting to your heart’s delight — or someone else’s,

The Knitting Yarn

P.S. When you’re looking for a simple lace dishcloth set, check out my Ripple Kitchen Set at:
http://theknittingyarn.com/kitchenset

Ever have one of those days?

You know, you search for a clean dishcloth. Only to discover …

Most of them are worn, many beyond repair. Amazing how they all seem to go simultaneously. And no, I don’t think it’s a conspiracy.

More likely, I wait until I need more than one, and then make a bunch at a time.

Dishcloths are interesting. They can be as plain or fancy as you like. Since I’ve recently been working with garter stitch, I thought I’d see how many variations of garter stitch I could make.

This is one of my favorite patterns. I start with how ever many stitches I want, using the size needles I feel like, and basically knit a square … unless I feel like making an oblong.

Then I bind off.

The diagonal knit dishcloth is a favorite with many folks. I see it listed often as “Grandma’s Dishcloth Pattern” or “Old-Fashioned Dishcloth Pattern.” That’s not to say Grandma is always old-fashioned of course.

Waffle Stitch is probably not technically garter stitch. It does use only knit stitches with no purling, so I’m including it. I like the thickness, and it makes a nice scrubbing dishcloth.

Mitered dishcloth is fun. Mostly because I like to start with the long end, and decrease as I go. It’s lovely to work fewer and fewer stitches as the square grows. Sure makes the project seem to be going faster, anyway. The pattern is here, just use one strand of yarn and adjust the number of stitches to make the size you want.

Rippled dishcloth is a stitch I modified. From the ripple afghan stitch, I changed it to a garter stitch ripple. Hey, it’s allowed! After all, it is only knitting!

After eight different patterns, I decided I have enough dishcloths for awhile. And, I still have some yarn left over. At least until I decide to knit some more.

I used my size seven Denise Knitting Needles from Alpaca Direct. I still smile whenever I use them because I enjoy them … like that they’re made in Virginia … and Alpaca Direct’s free shipping for orders over $50 always makes me smile.

The cotton worsted weight yarn is Sugar ‘n Cream Yarn Twists-Rose Twists and Sugar ‘n Cream Bronze Blue Culinary Colors-3 oz.

Keep knitting to your heart’s delight — or someone else’s,

The Knitting Yarn

P.S. The ripple dishcloth is part of my Garter Ripple Kitchen Set and available here.

I enjoy knitting dishcloths.

They’re colorful, fast, and can be as challenging as you like. Their nearly universal usefulness makes them treasures.  An added bonus:  I like them better than the store-bought kind.

When they fade or become a little worn, they still make great cleaning cloths.  My frugal ancestors would have loved them!  And for all I know did …

I like to vary the style, but still like garter stitch best.

I’m intrigued with the mitered ones.  Knitting with 2 yarn strands makes a thicker cloth, better for scrubbing.  Because I knit fairly loosely, I can also use larger needles and still get a tight weave.

I like starting with a longer row, and decreasing to the point.  Here’s a pattern I designed:

Materials:

• Approx. 1-1/2 ounces of cotton knitting worsted yarn (e.g. Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream)
• Size 8 knitting needles or size for gauge or gauge you want

Gauge:

• 14 stitches = 4 inches with 2 strands of yarn
• 27 rows = 4 inches with 2 strands of yarn

Directions:

• Cast on 40 stitches.
• Row 1:  Knit 20 stitches, yarn over 1 stitch, knit 20 stitches. (41 stitches)
  

  Optional Tip: Place a marker before the decrease stitches, moving it each row, to keep track of the decreases. Or, place a marker before the center stitch (the yarn over stitch on Row 1) to mark the center of the row.

• Row 2 and all even rows:  Knit all stitches.
• Row 3: Knit 18 stitches, knit 2 together, knit 1, knit 2 together, knit 18 stitches (39 stitches)
• Row 5:  Knit 17 stitches, knit 2 together, knit 1, knit 2 together, knit 17 stitches (37 stitches)
• Row 7: Knit 16 stitches, knit 2 together, knit 1, knit 2 together, knit 16 stitches (35 stitches)
• Continue decreasing 2 stitches on every odd row until you have 3 stitches left, Row 37.
• Row 38:  Bind off 3 stitches as if to purl.
  

  Optional Tip: If you prefer, bind off as if to knit.  Hey, it’s just a dishcloth!  Feel free to personalize it for your use.

• Break yarn & end.  Weave in ends.

Download a free pdf of this pattern here.

Keep knitting to your heart’s delight — or someone else’s,

The Knitting Yarn

P.S. When you’re looking for an easy dishcloth and dishtowel set, check out my Garter Ripple Set.