A couple of years ago I stumbled along the concept of making dishcloths. I thought what a great idea when I heard about it. Little did I know there is like a whole secret dishcloth making society out there. If you’re not familiar with the dishcloth phenomenon basically its just a homemade version of the cloths that you buy at the store to wash your dishes or clean your house with expect homemade dishcloths are way better. They last longer, clean your items better and are more environmentally friendly. Again its getting back to the way our grandparents lived. They created items at home instead of buying them at the shops. You don’t have to just wash your dishes with them, they can also be used as face cloths. Dishcloths are an art within themselves. Googling Dishcloth patterns just now and 551,000 results showed up.
I’ve been knitting and crocheting my own dishcloths for a couple of years now. Fantasy me creates amazing dishcloths using very funky and complicated patterns. Reality me can’t follow a pattern so the only dishcloths I’ve ever made have been basic crocheted rectangles that aren’t really straight. I found them very useful to practice my crochet on. Also I haven’t exactly followed the dishcloth rules (do I ever) To date I can’t be certain all my dishcloths are 100% cotton. I think they are 70% cotton/30% acrylic mix because up until the last few months I’ve never had 100% cotton yarn.
A couple of days ago I heard about a dishcloth swap run by Mel from One Crafty Mumma I thought I want to be involved in this. Make 4 dishcloths in about 2 1/2 weeks yep I can do that. I do have one basic pattern which I can follow and I call it my favourite dishcloth pattern. I’m sure it has a fancy name and it sounds similar to this one You cast on 2 stitches and at the start of every row you cast on an extra stitch. When you get it to a width your happy with (you have a half triangle at this stage) you decrease a stitch at the start of every row until your back to 2 stitches and you cast off. I love it you don’t have to keep count with this one. I knitted my shawl using the same principal.
So far I have finished 2 dishcloths and have started my 3rd, once they are all finished I’ll weave in the ends. I’m using leftover yarn from my shawl as its 100% cotton which is one of the requirements. My dishcloths might not be fancy but by making them I’m gaining the confidence that they actually do look ok even though they are really basic. I’m considering giving dishcloths as gifts next yea, by making these ones my mind is thinking yeah I can do this. One day I hope to get fancy with my cloths but until them diamond dishcloths are good.
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