Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

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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Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.