Knit a Washcloth for Halloween

It might be getting a little late to knit a Halloween costume, but there’s still plenty of time to knit something festive to decorate or use in your home for the holiday. Themed washcloths or dishcloths are a lot of fun, and here’s a great collection of ideas if you want to knit a washcloth with a Halloween motif.

Over at About I have a pumpkin washcloth that’s pretty simple and cute. Michelle Strait has an adorable intarsia pumpkin cloth as well. Kelly Daniels knit a pumpkin that looks like Mickey Mouse into her dishcloth; both of those are Ravelry downloads. Kelly also has a cute cat washcloth on her site, One Crafty Mama.

Ravelry user Maku Flo has a great collection of charts that can be used for a dishcloth or hot pad in single or double knitting. Check out her spooky tree, Frankenstein and witch patterns.

Speaking of Frankenstein, Brian McGaunn has another cloth with the head of that particular monster featured.

If you like skulls, there’s an eyelet skull washcloth over at Silvercharmster’s Blog and one worked in garter stitch on a field of stockinette called Skully at Blackrayne.

Smariek Knits has a lovely eyelet bat pattern, and you can use the ghost from a set of Pacman washcloths for a bit of Halloween fun from Tea and Cakes.

Why use dishcloths? Dishcloths are re-useable and save on kitchen waste. Most dishcloths are made using cotton yarn and can be thrown into the washing machine when dirty. This makes them very hygienic, especially when compared to kitchen sponges, which sit on the sinks for days if not weeks. Another great thing about dishcloths is when it comes to knitting the knit up quickly and are great for gift giving. Everyone needs a dishcloth. For gifting, It’s not something that has to be in fashion or a certain colour for the recipient to like it, though there are so many great dishcloth pattern designs out there.

Looking to knit more dishcloth patterns ? Check out these dishcloth patterns on Etsy

Next Pattern:

Tif Neilan is a known fan of herringbone stitch as a design element in her patterns. I love it, too, and have written a couple of posts about herringbone stitch and other ways to make herringbone designs in knitting.

Tif uses a herringbone stitch on the cuffs of her Ebbs & Flows sweater, a top down raglan design that also features a bit of mosaic colorwork at the hem and on the sleeves.

The herringbone bit is optional, as the pattern also includes instructions for working twisted ribbing instead, but the herringbone gives such a different textured look that I think it’s worth the effort of learning how to do it for this design.

It is worked in the round except for some German short rows for shaping after the neckline. It’s meant to hit at the high hip but you could make it longer or more cropped as you like.

The pattern comes in 10 sizes, with a finished chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 80 to 170 cm. It is designed to be worn with around 4 inches/10 cm of positive ease at the chest.

It calls for three colors of DK or worsted weight yarn, though you’ll need a relatively small amount of the contrasting colors since most of the body is worked in a solid color. Because of the different stitches used you’ll need a variety of knitting needle sizes and the pattern notes recommend having a set of interchangeable knitting needles to make this easier, but you can always use what you have.

You can find out more about this pattern and grab a copy on Ravelry. There are already a good number of finished projects in the gallery there so you can see how it works with different colors and different body and sleeve lengths (they’re meant to be long but I spy a couple that look like three quarters).

[Photo: Tif Neilan]

Easy Fair Isle Sweaters for Kids and Adults

How to Take Apart a Sweater

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply