Garter Slip-Stitch Washcloth (or Towel) Pattern

Hi everyone!

I designed this pattern to teach a beginning knitting class for one of my knitting groups, and by popular request I’m sharing it for everyone. (Please excuse the lack of pictures for now, I will update later to add some...)

Garter Slip-Stitch Washcloth (or Towel)

Materials:

Worsted weight dishcloth cotton: Approximately 100 yards for washcloth size, or 200 yards for towel size. The 2-color version will require half of the total yardage in each of 2 colors.  Yarn Examples: Knit Picks Dishie, Lily Sugar ‘n Cream, Peaches ‘n Cream

Knitting needles: Size US6 (4 mm) for washcloth or size US8 (5 mm) for towel.

Gauge is not critical, though variations in gauge will affect the yardage used and the size of the finished item.

One-color version:

CO 40 sts.

Row 1 (WS): K2, *sl1 wyif, k4, repeat from * to last 3 sts, end sl1 wyif, k2.

Row 2  (RS): K all sts.

*Repeat rows 1 and 2 until your cloth is the desired size (approximately square), or until you have approximately 1-2 yards of yarn left. End with row 1.

BO all sts.  Weave in ends.

Two-color version:

Note: carry the unused color up the side of your work (do not break the yarn at each color change).

CO 40 sts in color A.

Row 1 (RS), color A: K2, *sl1 wyib, k4, repeat from * to last 3 sts, end sl1 wyib, k2.

Row 2 (WS), color A: K2, *p1, k4, repeat from * to last 3 sts, end p1, k2.

Row 3 (RS), color B: K2, *sl1 wyib, k4, repeat from * to last 3 sts, end sl1 wyib, k2.

Row 4 (WS), color B: K2, *p1, k4, repeat from * to last 3 sts, end p1, k2.

*Repeat rows 1-4 until your cloth is the desired size (approximately square), or until you have approximately 1-2 yards of color A left. End with row 2 in color A.

BO all sts in color A. Weave in ends.

Towel variation:

CO 55 sts.

Work as specified above for either the one-color or two-color version, working until the towel is the appropriate length.

Abbreviations

CO: cast on

K: knit

Sl1 wyif: slip one stitch purlwise, with yarn held to the front of the work

Sl1 wyib: slip one stitch purlwise, with yarn held to the back of the work

St(s): stitch(es)

BO: bind off

RS: right side

WS: wrong side

Other variations:

You can make this cloth/towel any size you want—just add or subtract stitches from the cast-on count in multiples of 5.

You can also use any yarn you’d like—adjust the stitch count as needed, and pick needles 1-2 sizes smaller than recommended for the washcloth, or at the recommended size for the towel.  An absorbent cotton (or cotton blend) is recommended.

So easy a 4-year-old can do it

Jack and I made pom-poms today:

 

I got these Clover pom-pom makers today (the large and small sets), and Jack and I had fun with some yarn scraps. We watched a YouTube video, and it really is super easy (the video is a bit long, so I admit I kind of skipped some parts of it). He's 4 now and he did most of his pom-pom all by himself, with only a little help with the scissors.

And since he picked the very biggest one and it took awhile to wrap, I made myself a whole bunch of smaller ones out of small bits of handspun:

 

Needless to say, this was a super fun way to use up small bits of yarn. Now I just have to figure out what to do with a bunch of pink pom-poms ;).

Frogging success

I had this project on the needles for at least 7 years:

I created the project in Ravelry in late 2008, though the niece I started this project for was born in 2006 so it may have been cast on even earlier than that. I was trying to make a little jacket, designing it as I went, and for whatever reason I just never finished the sleeves (I think this was back when I had a habit of leaving a lot of projects with only the sleeves left to go).

So I finally frogged that project that was never going to be finished, and I made the yarn into a super soft blankie for Rosemary:

I did not enjoy working with this yarn (I understand why it's discontinued!), but the finished blankie is pretty nice. I'm not sure how well it's going to hold up, so I guess we'll see!

Anyway, I didn't use a pattern to make the blankie. I just divided my yarn in half, and I worked a garter stitch square from one corner with a KFB at the beginning of each row until I got to the halfway point of my yarn, then I worked K2tog at the beginning of each row. Just in case you want to make a super simple blankie of your own :). At a bulky gauge on size 11 needles, this took me less than a week to make, and I didn't even have a ton of knitting time to work on it, so it's quick in addition be being easy.

One of my goals for 2016 is to either finish or frog all of my old WIPs this year. Over the past 2 years, I've been much better about finishing projects and being semi-monogamous with my knitting, so I haven't added too much to the pile of hibernating WIPs, but I never really went back and cleaned up all that stuff from the past when my knitting was much less focused.

So, in January I'm trying to frog all of the old stuff I know I don't want to finish, and then I've got the rest of the year to finish the other projects. So far I've frogged several projects, but this is the only one that's been made into something new already. I have a little bit more frogging to do, then I need to work on finishing the rest. Wish me luck!

 

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