Free Easy Crochet Dishcloth Pattern

Posted on: July 18, 2013 by: mellie blossom Comments: 78 Comments

Today I thought I’d share with you a free easy crochet dishcloth pattern. It’s my favorite dish cloth pattern as well. Cotton dishcloths have become enormously popular, especially considering the trend to try and protect the environment by cutting down on paper products wherever possible. Crochet dishcloths are practical, beautiful and functional.

I especially like to use dishcloths as facecloths, though. There’s something so luxurious in using a handmade cotton cloth to clean your face instead of an old terry cloth rag. So I made a stack of these cloths to use when washing my face, and I love them.

There are tons of gorgeous dishcloths out there, and while I have made plenty of them, I prefer a more uniform, tidy appearance. Another thing about these is that they don’t have a lot of open holes or puffy abrasive spots, which might be good for scrubbing dishes, but maybe not so much for your face.

This isn’t really a pattern so much as it’s just a technique that I liked and put together for something that worked for me. They are very easy to make, so the very beginning crocheter should be able to whip one up in no time flat. I can usually make one of these in about 45 minutes. And the pattern is very easy to customize as well; you can make it bigger by adding a few extra stitches on your foundation chain, or using a larger hook.

Cotton is the preferred yarn for dishcloths and facecloths, because it is water absorbent and machine washable. Acrylic yarn tends to push water around, and if you use it as a potholder, high temperatures can melt it. There’s a huge variation in cotton yarns, from the $1 kind you can pick up at Walmart to luxurious Egyptian cotton yarns.

So here is the pattern in a nutshell.

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Mellie’s Favorite Dishcloth

With cotton worsted yarn and an H (5mm) hook:

Chain 27.

Row 1: sc in 3^rd chain from hook. Dc in the next. [sc, dc] all the way across. Sc in the last stitch. Chain 1, turn.

Row 2: Dc in sc. [sc, dc] across. Chain 1 and turn.

And this is how you keep the pattern up for the rest of the cloth. You’ll be doing a dc in each sc, and a sc in each dc, with 1 chain at the end.

When you’ve reached around 22 rows or so (depending on your tension), you should have a square. Finish off your yarn, and it’s ready to use! Or continue on if you want more of a rectangular shape.

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This free, easy dishcloth pattern is great for holiday presents, housewarming gifts, and for your own home, so enjoy. And you are more than welcome to sell your finished products from this pattern (just please don’t copy and sell the pattern itself!).

Have a great Thursday!

~Mellie ★

Crocheted Kitchen Sponges

Posted on: April 4, 2013 by: mellie blossom Comments: Leave a comment

The finishing touch for my little kitchen set that I’ve been working on is finally finished – crocheted kitchen sponges! I don’t use these for actually doing dishes (I’m grateful every day for my dishwasher), but they’re perfect for wiping down counters and spills. I’ve gotten into the habit of rarely using paper towels anymore. Not only is it environmentally more friendly, but they get really expensive! We used to go through a pack of paper towels every week or two; over the past year, I’ve pared that down to one roll every month or two.

Mostly, I use old towels, though, and it’s been a joy making myself up some new dishrags, too. Not only do I love to crochet, but they’re useful and functional. So between my potholders, the dishtowels, some cast iron handles from a few months back, and these crocheted kitchen sponges, I have a very beautiful yet practical kitchen.

The pattern writer suggested making seven, one for each day of the week, but – as you can imagine with two young children – I do laundry much more often than that. I was going to go with just four, but then ended up making two in each color. Well, it’s almost a week anyway. Plus I found this little basket at a flea market that’s perfectly shaped to hold them. Looks like a good fit to me!

The pattern is free and can be found here, and my Ravelry notes are here. I made a few minor changes to the pattern just to style it a little more in my own preference.

Well now, since my kitchen is so well equipped, I’d say it’s time that I get in there and whip up something lovely for dinner… or perhaps dessert? Stay tuned…

Kelsey Crochet Kitchen Towels

Posted on: March 25, 2013 by: mellie blossom Comments: 7 Comments

The towels were completely unexpected. I joined Melinda Miller’s Ravelry group just a few weeks earlier, right at the same time she was organizing a new crochet-along (really, I do way too many of these). But of course I couldn’t say no. New patterns! Crochet fun! There were two patterns, and one instantly caught my eye, called the Kelsey Dishcloth. (My Ravelry notes are here.)

The Kelsey pattern was originally intended to be a dishcloth, but at the very moment that I was checking it out, trying to figure out how the color scheme would go, my littlest one came bounding into the kitchen to wash his hands after eating an apple (my kids love apples). After getting water all over the floor and countertop, he went over to the “drying hands” towel and promptly dropped it on the floor when he was done. It was a silly scene, and as I called him back over to pick it back up, I envisioned having a pretty crochet kitchen towel hanging there instead of these old raggedy towels that I use now. (I’ll have to tell you about my towel stack sometime. They’re ugly, but they are so incredibly functional.)

Anyway, this dishcloth pattern is geometrically set up so that adding an extra set of rows or two would be quite easy and that’s when I decided it would suit us just fine to turn them into some hand towels. And so they are. Wonderful hand towels! I just love them. I volleyed back and forth the idea of adding a button or two to wrap them around my oven handle, but then decided against it. They’re great as is.

Between these crochet kitchen towels and the potholders that I made the other week (and something else I’ve got in the works… stay tuned!), I have myself a little bit of a kitchen set going on! I do love it. I just have to make certain that I don’t think my new lovelies are too pretty to use – after all, they were made to be functional. I’ve decided, in order to prevent that, that I’ll make a big pot of stew with warm crusty bread for dinner tonight (yes, while the rest of the world seems to be enjoying spring, we still have our cold rain and snow going on here). My goal for this pot of stew – besides eating it, of course! – is to use these kitchen things that I’ve made. Without abandon. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Spring Washcloths

Posted on: March 15, 2013 by: mellie blossom Comments: 4 Comments

Okay, so facecloths. This is another area in which I am failing badly in my crochet work. Washcloths take only a few hours to do – great projects for those who like that instant gratification. So what do I have? A stack of old, ratty terry cloth washcloths. Oh the irony.

If only I was inspired enough to make up a huge set of these for myself, I think I’d dump every one of these old ones that I have. But maybe that’s a good plan for the upcoming year – one or two a month. Cotton is so lovely and soft to wash with, and gentle enough for face cleaning. Plus cleanup is a snap, just throw it in the wash.

So here is a nice start to a new set of lovely facecloths. These Flowers Dishcloths are perfect for spring, and a lovely way to add a little bit of that spa touch to my otherwise dour bath linens. And while the pattern looks difficult, it actually wasn’t too hard at all. You can find the free pattern here (registration required), and my Ravelry page here.

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