Not too long ago I shared a collection of washcloth knitting patterns and noted that washcloths are great projects for learning new stitches and techniques because they are small and don’t have to come out perfect (they’ll still wash things even if they don’t come out perfectly square).
It turns out I’m not the only person to think this way, and Annie’s has produced a little booklet called Learn-a-Stitch Knit Dishcloths with six different stitch patterns that might teach you something.
The projects are designed by Lena Skvageron, and the booklet is nothing but the patterns and a little bit of technique instruction in the back of the book (long-tail cast on, knit, purl, binding off in knit and purl, and different increase and decreases, many of which are not used in this book).
The patterns are as follows:
- Herringbone dishcloth using slipped stitches to make a pattern of vs on the surface of a knit purl fabric
- Blooming dishcloth, which has multiple yarn overs and knits worked into the same stitch, resulting in equally large decreases like knit 4 together and slip 3, knit 1, pass 3 slipped stitches over
- Golden Coins, a basic cable knitting pattern
- Basketweave Waves, a knit and purl pattern that features wavy bands of texture
- Reversible Texture dishcloth, another one that’s just knits and purls and a bit more like the simple basketweave you might have worked in alternating blocks of knits and purls
- Tree of Life, which uses slipped stitches and tiny cables to make the tree design
All of the patterns are rated easy (even that one that asks you to knit four together in cotton yarn!) and all but the first one include a chart as well as written instructions.
With this handful of patterns you can learn some basic knit and purl patterns, use slipped stitches decoratively, make some cables and play with lace (though, again, not sure that should be your first lace experience because those decreases are not the easiest). Still, this is a fun little book for someone who likes to knit dishcloths or washcloths and wants to try some new things.
About the book: 18 pages, paperback (or PDF), 6 patterns. Published 2022 by Annie’s, suggested retail price $9.99 ($7.99 for PDF linked at Annie’s).
