Monday 30 March 2015

knitted dishcloths

Nimble-fingered crocheters know that do-it-yourself dishcloths are fun and easy to make. I always fancied making some, but just cannot make it beyond the long chain stage with a crochet hook.

Having noticed how simple they are, I thought about some sturdy, textured knit stitches that could emulate crocheting. I picked moss stitch - it seemed like the best candidate. It's chunky, it's bumpy, and the fabric edges don't roll like other types of knitting. So I sought out suitable cotton yarn on my thrifty rounds - each ball for a few cents - and cast on.

I was aiming to produce something like a swatch square, so I tried out 20 stitches by about 24 rows (then less as I decided to go smaller). The first square in turquoise shows that years spent without knitting a single row made me forget how moss stitch is done... I ended up with a mystery pattern that's like a strange version of garter stitch. Not the kind of texture I was looking for at all.

After I refreshed my memory by looking here, I did knit two squares in moss stitch in white cotton. I find them quite pleasing, especially the smaller one, which I might give to the baby to wash and play with at bath time.

I crochet-chained a hanging loop in one corner to each dishcloth square to hide the cast-off end of the yarn. Can't say that knowing as little as this simple beginner's step of crocheting wouldn't prove useful every now and then. I can only imagine what I could do if I could progress beyond that stage...

Anybody else out there who learned to knit first and can't seem to learn how to crochet?

1 comment:

  1. I've learned both knitting and crocheting as a little girl and I enjoy doing both. But I have no patience at all for anything else than the basic stitches (both in knitting and crocheting). I love stitching away while letting my thoughts wander... cannot really be bothered with counting stitches and so on... although I do admire complicated patterns. Your dishcloths turned out really nice!

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