Crocheting a dishcloth can be made simple with the single crochet stitch. It can be used as a dishcloth, face cloth, mug rug or like what I’m using it for — a cover for my sourdough starter!
I was never taught how to knit or crochet. I tried learning to knit several years ago, but simply could not pick that skill up. I did learn how to crochet from my daughter recently, and with practice, my crochet skills have improved! So much so that I was able to make this simple, yet lovely dishcloth. As a beginner, it’s a great accomplishment!! And if I can do it, you can too!
When my daughter was 7 years old, she learned how to crochet from my friend’s mom who wanted my daughter to know how to crochet. She got her to crochet a bit, and take it out and crochet and take it out, over and over again before teaching her how to make a simple granny square and dishcloth. Now that my daughter is 19, she is quite good at crocheting and she is able to do an array of stitches and techniques. Through the years, she has improved considerably! I’m always amazed watching her at work! I’m lucky enough that she has the patience to now teach me!! I think it’s such a wonderful skill to have.
This dishcloth just uses the single crochet stitch. It’s simple enough to do and is a nice tight stitch which works great for a dishcloth. A typical dishcloth is 30 stitches wide and 30 rows. This cloth I made however, will be much larger as I am doing 45 stitches by 45 to fit my bowl of sourdough starter. I will then border it so the edges look neat and clean.
“Oh the weather outside is frightful, but this yarn is so delightful and since we’ve got no place to go, another row, another row, another row.”
– unknown
I like doing crafting such as this when I cannot go outside as much like in the winter, or on chilly rainy summer days. It is a wonderful way to pass the time. Let’s get started!
First, let’s talk yarn. I am using Bernat cotton yarn, medium 4. Sometimes the yarn may say “dishcloth yarn” on it. My hook is a 5mm hook (H/8-5.00mm) which is the hook I generally prefer using. There’s so many colors of yarn to choose from but I really like variegated yarns!
Now that we have picked the yarn and hook, let’s begin our cloth. To start, you will need to do a slip knot. Then, you will chain 31 to end up with 30 since the one extra will be the turning chain. I started with 46 to end up with 45.
So step 1 — slip knot and chain.
Once you have your starter chain done, you can start crocheting in the chain to get your first row. This part is a little tricky and be sure to carefully put the hook into the chain correctly – you should have 3 pieces of yarn looped on your hook when you first enter the stitch. When you get to the end of the row, count to be sure you have the correct number of stitches. It’s easy to miss a stitch in the chain! I’ve missed several and have had to take the first row out a few times until I got it right!
So step 2 — crochet in chain for first row.
Once the first couple rows are complete, the stitches are easier to do and it should look like the photo here:
Next, at the end of the row, chain 1 and then flip. Go into the first stitch, yarn over and pull the yarn over piece through the other 2 stitches. Be sure you are in the first stitch because it is the stitch I always miss as a beginner crocheter! Yarn over again, pull the stitch through the 2 loops again. After this you should only have 1 loop of yarn on the hook.
Now go into the next stitch, and continue on. At the end of the row, chain one extra, flip and continue by repeating the previous steps until your cloth is complete. Once you begin the second row, it will be much easier to see where to put the crochet hook. I’ll try to explain the stitches a bit better as we go along. The more you do it, the easier it gets.
So step 3 — stitch in the second row, chain one at the end, flip and continue.
I’ll show you each step of the stitches now. First go into the stitch. You’ll have 3 stitches on your hook.
Yarn over (yo). This just means to wrap the yarn around the hook one time. It is the white yarn in the photo below.
Then pull the yo through the first stitch which has 2 pieces of yarn. So in my cloth, pull the white part of the yarn through the 2 grey loops.
You will now have 2 stitches on your hook. These 2 stitches are the yo part and the stitch from the previous stitch.
Now yarn over again. You should have 3 stitches on your hook now.
Pull the yarn over stitch through the other 2 on the hook. Be sure to go through both of these stitches.
You will now have one stitch on your hook. That is a complete single crochet stitch.
Go into the next stitch and start the stitches again.
When you get to the end of the row, you will complete your stitch and chain 1. This chain 1 will allow you to keep the same amount of stitches in the next row and helps you turn the corner basically. Flip the cloth and continue on, making sure you do not skip that first stitch. Repeat this step at the end of the each row and continue until the cloth is finished.
So step 4 — at the end of the row, chain 1 and flip and continue on
Here is my cloth after a couple hours. I am a slow beginner!
Here’s my cloth by evening time. I worked on it off and on for about 5 hours in between cooking and dishes and all of the other fun stuff we do each day.
The next day, I worked on it diligently and finally finished the cloth that evening! It took me about 2 days to do, but probably one full day had I worked on it non-stop.
Once the cloth is complete, we are going to border the cloth so it looks neat, more complete and much nicer!
So step 5 — border the cloth
For the border, we are essentially repeating the previous steps of our single crochet stitches, but going around all of the edges. The sides are easy enough to do, but the top and bottom can be a little tricky to find the stitch. You may have to really push the hook through.
In your last stitch fasten off (fo) — chain one, cut the yarn, pull the tail through and then weave the tail through some of the stitches.
So step 6 — fasten off and weave the tail through the cloth
And here is the completed cloth!
And this cloth works perfectly to cover my bowl of sourdough. I absolutely love it! It may be a bit too large for a dish cloth, but is great for the purpose I created it for. So again, this cloth is 45 stitches and a typical dishcloth is 30 (and up to 35) stitches.
Do you enjoy crocheting? I’d love to see what you are working on – please share with us in the comments below.
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours