Knit a Washcloth Inspired by Waffles

Every month The Kitchen Sink Shop releases a dishcloth knitting pattern, and they seem to mostly have a food theme. This one, for example, is said to be inspired by the designs on waffle makers, thus the Belgian Waffle Dishcloth.

As an aside, I wasn’t sure I knew the difference between Belgian waffles and non-Belgian waffles, but they say the Belgian variety is denser, made with yeast and has a caramelized sugar coating. So maybe a little more like funnel cakes than waffles? Maybe I need to go to Belgium and find out!

Anyway, about the dishcloth. The pattern calls for a worsted weight cotton yarn, which makes a thick and durable washcloth. (This would be a great one for a yarn like Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton, because the yarn is mercerized, giving it a little shine that’s fun for a dishcloth.)

It has an easy lace pattern that looks like diamonds, or waffle iron prints if you will. The edges are worked in garter stitch and are just a little wavy. It looks like it would be pretty quick and easy to knit and a nice low pressure introduction to lace knitting if that’s something you haven’t done before.

This and all the future dishcloths of the month are available on Ravelry.

And speaking of using dishcloths and washcloths as a way to learn new skills, many years ago now I published some easy washcloth patterns here that you might want to try using two-color bias knitting, moss stitch in two colors (on of my favorites!), loop stitch, and working a circle from the center out.

Washcloths and dishcloths are ideal learning patterns because they’re small and they’re useful. We still use those washcloths (some in the kitchen, and some my daughter uses). They’re a fun way to play with stitches no matter your skill level.

[Photo: The Kitchen Sink Shop]

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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