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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Have you read?

Learn a Flower Bobble Technique to Knit a Fun Shawl

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier. 

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project. 

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible. 

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge. 

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects. 

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy. 

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project. 

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Xandy Peters]