I feel I have gone through a bit of a crochet drought recently, then (like buses) two new projects come along at once..
They are both made with a single ball of Ricorumi Spin Spin dk in blue (010). The dishcloth has a starting chain of 33 and is made using a half treble cluster stitch that I found on The Crochet Swirl blog. Mine is made on a 4.5 mm hook, weighs 32g and measures 20cm square.
The remaining 18g of yarn was just enough to make an octopus using a 4mm hook. (The original pattern is here if you are interested, though I have modified mine a bit!)
I do have a recipient in mind for these, but Shhhhh… It’s a secret!
At this time of year a lot of my crochet time is spent making small items for sale. This has a risk of becoming boring, but one item I never tire of making is dishcloths! This pattern is for an aran weight dishcloth in a lovely textured stitch called Even Berry stitch.
You will need 1 x 50g ball of aran weight cotton yarn. I use Rico creative cotton (aran) or Scheepjes Cahlista, both of which are 85m long. The pattern will use a whole ball, and if your yarn has less yardage than this I would suggest decreasing the stitch and row numbers by two to allow for this. The pattern is written in UK crochet terms. I used a 5mm crcohet hook, which gave me a tension of approximatesly 16 stitches and 16 rows for 10cm.
ch = chain dc = double crochet (sc/us) YO = yarn over
Start with a chain of 30, then dc 29 stitches for the first row.
Row 2. 1 dc 1 berry stitch to end of row. You should end on a dc. Don’t worry at this stage that your berries don’t ‘pop’ out. It is actually the next row that pushes them into place.
Row 3 and all odd rows: dc across
Row 4 and all even rows: 1 dc 1 berry stitch to end of row, ending in a dc.
You should have a cloth that is 14 berries wide, so continue until it is 14 berries long, ending with a row of dc.
Now start the border: dc approximately 30 stitches along each side and end of the dishcloth, with 2 dc in the corner stitches. Repeat so you have 2 rows of dc as a border.
Fasten off and sew in the ends and that’s it!
I am sure you will enjoy making it. I think it could be used equally well as a face cloth, and I would be delighted to hear how you get on, and what you choose to use it for.
This little parcel of goodies is on its way to a friend, who commissioned them as a baby gift.
Elephant in Scheepjes stonewash XL ‘coral’ (856), Top knot baby hat in Stylecraft Batik elements ‘magnesium’ (1940) and wash cloth in even berry stitch in Rico creative cotton aran ‘corn’ (25).
I love the non-traditional baby colours, and I think they look quite spring-like.
Continuing with my theme of making dishcloths in seasonal colours here is my February collection (with a nod to Valentine’s day!)
From top to bottom these are: ‘Even moss stitch’ in Rico creative cotton aran Cherry (65); ‘Even berry stitch’ by Daisy Farm Crafts in Rico creative cotton aran Smokey pink (06) and a different ‘Even berry stitch’ which is Sarah Hazell’s stitch no 26, in Rico creative cotton aran Fuchsia (13).
Interestingly the two ‘Even berry’ stitches differed significantly in their ease of production and overall effect. The Sarah Hazell stitch is alternating rows of slip stitch and (UK) double crochet, with slip stitch and berry clusters above it. To get the proper placement of the berries they have to be made into the slip stitch of the previous row, which is fiddly to say the least. In addition Sarah Hazell’s berries end with a chain, which alters your stitch count every other row.
The Daisy Farm Crafts Even berry stitch is alternating rows of (UK) double crochet with double crochet and berry stitches above it. This means you are always working into a double crochet to make a berry stitch, and, as there is no chain to end this version of the berry, your stitch count remains the same every row. You will be able to tell by this description which one I preferred!
This is not a reference to my current mood, but to the co-incidence that I have spent part of January practising new crochet stitches and turning them into blue dishcloths!
The top and bottom dishcloths are in a stitch called ‘Urchin’ published as a free pattern by Bendigo Woollen mills which I have to thank StitchNSew for introducing me to. You create a simple loop of (UK) dc, ch2, dc into alternate chains of the starting chain, and then repeat this, working into the loops of the row below. It creates a very elastic fabric, which seems well suited to its intended role! I modified the pattern slightly by ending each row with a (UK) dc, which straightened the edges out a bit, and I made a final row of dc into the ch2 stitches to even out the top edge. Mine was made with a 5mm hook for the starting chain and 4.5mm hook for the remainder. The stretchiness of the stitch definitely needs a looser starting chain, or you could do a chainless starting row. The yarn is Rico creative cotton aran in Petrol and Sky blue, and a 28 stitch wide cloth took exactly 1 ball of yarn.
The middle dishcloth is in a stitch called ‘Even moss stitch’. There are some good videos on Youtube for this stitch, notably by Daisy Farm crafts and Bella Coco. This stitch alternates (UK) htr stitches with slip stitches, repeating the pattern each row to create a ‘stack’ of half trebles on top of each other. The raised diagonals of the pattern are the third strand of the half treble stitch left behind on each row. Mine was made with a 5mm hook. The yarn is Rico creative cotton aran in Turquoise, and a 32 stitch wide cloth took exactly 1 ball of yarn.
For both dishcloths I stopped crocheting once the cloth was square and finished off with a border of (UK) dc until I ran out of yarn.
What do crabs, spiders and dishcloths have in common?
Well they are all selling faster than I can make them, so it has been necessary for me to have a short break from making charity blankets in order to re-stock the shelves.
Some of our dish cloths have been looking a little the worse for wear and I felt it was time to make new ones:
My favourite stitch for dishcloths is crossed trebles (see here) and my favourite yarn is whatever is sitting in my stash at the time! These are in a mixture of Pegasus craft cotton dk, Sirdar Simply Recycled dk, Rowan purelife organic 4 ply and Drops Love you 6 4 ply.
These should keep us going for a while
We are back from London, and what a lovely time we had catching up with family and friends.
One other pleasure was being able to take with us some hand made gifts, some mine:
And some by other folk:
I rather like the owl, it just seems to have the right balance of colours for me, and I think it was appreciated by the recipient!
I admit it. I have been playing with dishcloth cotton again instead of getting on with bigger and better things.
I may have made the stitch up actually – it is based on one called ‘Iris’ from Sarah Hazell’s book ‘200 crochet stitches’ but I added an extra chain in between the V shapes to open the stitch up a bit. I think it works quite well as a dish cloth pattern.
Now, time to settle down to something more substantial….
The Grange Range – who asked for a ‘fishing net’ pattern dishcloth. If you leave a comment with your snail mail address I will be delighted to post it to you. And may I wish you many happy hours of dish washing!
I never imagined when I made my first crochet item in 2013 that I would find myself here, 100 blog posts later, getting so much out of learning this amazing craft. My site stats say that my first post was on 16th February 2013. So this will be a double anniversary – 100 posts and 2 years of happy hooking!
To celebrate I thought I might offer my first ever give-away. So here what is on offer:
One of my cotton dishcloths in the stitch of your choice. They are about 25cm square, made in 100% cotton, and the stitches are ‘Fishing net’
‘Fan and V stitch’
and ‘Crossed trebles’
All you have to do is:
1. Be a follower of this blog, and have a UK postal address
2. Leave a comment to say which stitch you would like, and possibly why
3. Wait until the 1st March to hear who has won!
If you live abroad and are desperate to enter you may do so a long as you are prepared to pay the postage costs. I think that just about covers things – if you have any questions please ask, and good luck!
Another dishcloth. This time in ‘crossed treble’ another rather lovely stitch from Sarah Hazell’s ‘200 crochet stitches’ book.
Made in dy choice Ecru craft cotton using a 5mm hook. It is my favourite of the stitches I have tried so far, and I am working on a rather softer version in Rowan ‘purelife’ cotton for a baby blanket.
I know that dishcloths aren’t the most memorable of objects, but this one is also a pattern swatch.
The stitch is called ‘Fan and V’ and it is from Sarah Hazell’s lovely book ‘200 crochet stitches’ which has photo’s, written instructions and charts to guide you through each stitch.
It is made in Sirdar ‘simply recycled’ dk ‘Greenhouse’ (discontinued) on a 5mm hook, and I think I cast on 42 stitches. The final cloth measures 24 x 24cm, and took about 35g of yarn.
So the good news is I have a new dishcloth, and one less ball of yarn in my stash. I am too embarrassed to tell you how many balls there are still to go….
Simply hooked 