Knitting

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Clean Up with the Hopscotch Washcloth or Towel Knitting Pattern

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My husband and daughter both like using knit washcloths and dishcloths (husband likes them in the kitchen, daughter in the bathroom). Most of the ones I have are many years old, and they’re holding up well, but knitting dishcloths and towels is a great summer activity because they’re relatively small projects and you will use them all year long.

The Hopscotch Washcloth and Towel, designed by Deborah Newton for Purl Soho, is a great addition to your cloth and towel collection. It gets its name from the checkerboard stitch pattern, with blocks of alternating knit and purl stitches and right twists (sort of like a baby cable, but no cable needle required!). It has a simple garter stitch border to keep everything neat.

You can make this pattern as a washcloth or a full on dish towel size, whatever you need. I’m sure you could pretty easily alter the design to make placemats or other gear for the kitchen as well, if you wanted to. Or how about stitching up a bath mat with matching washcloths?

The pattern uses a luscious organic cotton yarn, but you can use whatever you have on hand. Washcloths in particular are a great place to use up all the odd balls of cotton yarn (because a single washcloth never seems to use a whole ball) and no one will ever see the wild color combos and random stripes unless you want them to.

Washcloth knitting patterns are a great way to practice new-to-you stitches, so even if you’ve never worked twisted stitches before, you should give this one a try. There’s also a link to a video tutorial in the pattern post if you need extra help getting the technique down.

You can grab this free pattern from Purl Soho.

[Photo via Purl Soho]

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Knit a Sweet Hood Covered with Flowers

I happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere, but I know we have a lot of Southern Hemisphere friends, too, who are heading into the cooler months as we are warming up. Whichever one of the seasons you’re in, you might want to  stitch up this sweet little hood.

This pattern by saskie&co is called snug hood and it uses two colors of yarn to make a close-fitting pixie style hood (almost a balaclava but it doesn’t cover your face, though there is a neck covering portion to keep you a little warmer). You can use the fingering weight wool and mohair held together that are called for in the pattern, or use a single strand of DK weight yarn.

The neck portion and the edging around the face are worked in ribbing in a single color, while the body of the hat includes an allover colorwork flower pattern. The project is worked both flat and in the round and there is colorwork that is knit flat, which means you’ll have to purl in colorwork (which some people don’t like; also, you can’t see what you’re doing as well on the back of the work).

The pattern comes in one size and the colorwork is charted. Testers noted this is a quick and easy project and a great way to learn some new skills (chart reading, working stranded colorwork flat) if you’ve never tried those things before. They noted the hood is cute, comfortable and warm, and a few said it didn’t take as much yarn as the pattern suggests, so bear that in mind if you’re trying to use stash.

Speaking of the pattern notes, check out all the cute color variations in the projects on Ravelry. From pink and red to blue and white to gray and cream, there are lots of great options to think about.

You can buy this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: saskie&co]