Basic Crochet Dish Cloth
Jen LucasIn this video, Jen Lucas shows us how to crochet a basic dish cloth. This is the perfect project for new crocheters and a great choice for more experienced crocheters looking for a quick gift idea.
This project uses chains, single crochets, and double crochets. You will need some kitchen cotton yarn and a crochet hook that is the appropriate size for your yarn. For the pink sample, Jen used a kitchen cotton that is a little bit thinner than some kitchen cottons, so she used a slightly smaller crochet hook (3.75mm). Jen suggests using the recommended hook size given on the ball band or yarn label.
This pattern begins by chaining any even number of stitches. For the pink sample Jen chained 32 stitches; however, if you’re using a slightly thicker yarn, 26–28 stitches may be enough. Keep in mind that you can make this any size you want!
Jen starts her new mini-sample with a slipknot and 14 chains. She begins by working into the bottom of her chain because that is her preference, but notes that you may work into the foundation chain in whatever way you like.
Row 1 begins by working a double crochet into the second chain from the hook (the first chain counts as a turning chain), and is followed by placing a single crochet into the next chain. This is repeated all the way across the row: double crochet, then single crochet, until you reach the last chain. A double crochet is worked into the last stitch of the foundation chain. After completing Row 1, one turning chain is made, work is turned and is ready for Row 2. Row 2 will be repeated for the remainder of the dish cloth.
On Row 2 the turning chain is skipped and the first double crochet is skipped (this was the last double crochet that was made on Row 1). A double crochet is made into the following stitch. From this point on, a single crochet in the next stitch, then a double crochet into the following stitch, is repeated across the row and ending with a single crochet in the last stitch, and then a double crochet into the turning chain from the previous row. At the end of the row, one turning chain is made and the work is turned to get ready for the next row.
Jen demonstrates another repeat of Row 2, where she points out that after the turning chain is skipped, and after the first double crochet stitch is skipped, a double crochet is worked into the following single crochet stitch.
Conversely, a single crochet is worked into the next double crochet stitch. Knowing that double crochets are worked into the single crochet stitches—and single crochets are worked into double crochet stitches—can help you keep track of your stitches if you are able to distinguish the difference between a double crochet stitch and a single crochet stitch.
Jen shows us that this stitch pattern looks great in both solid colors and variegated yarn too. Give this dish cloth a try—you’ll really enjoy it!
Hi, I'm Jen Lucas, and I'd like to show you how to crochet a basic dish cloth. If you are new to crochet, you might not be sure where to start, what projects to start with. Well, this is a great one. Even if you're a more experienced crocheter, you might find that this is the perfect quick project that you can give as a gift. It only requires knowing how to chain, work single crochets and double crochets.
But you can have this done in no time. So let's learn how to make it. To start, you're gonna need some kitchen cotton and the appropriate sized hook for that kitchen cotton. Here, I have a 3.75 millimeter crochet hook. This particular kitchen cotton is a little bit thinner than some of the other ones that you can find.
So I'm using a slightly smaller hook, but just check your ball band to see what hook size is recommended for your yarn. For this particular stitch pattern, you can start by chaining an even number of stitches. So any even number of stitches is gonna work perfectly fine. For these dishcloths, I started with a chain of 32. So if you are using a smaller, thinner yarn, you might go with 32 stitches.
If you're using a slightly thicker yarn and a slightly larger crochet hook, you might want to start with a slightly smaller chain, maybe 26, 28 stitches. You can really make this any size you want. You could even make it a dish towel if you wanted to. That's what's so great about this pattern. So first we're gonna start with a slip knot, and we're gonna want to keep this chain pretty loose.
I find it's just a little bit easier to work into. So we're gonna start by chaining an even number of stitches. Again, for my pattern, I used 32, but you can chain as many as you want, as long as it's an even number. So I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. So I have my chain and now I'm gonna work into the back or bottom bump of my chain, because that's just my preference.
But you can work into your starting chain however you like. So for this pattern, we're gonna start by working a double crochet into the second chain from the hook. So we have the first chain and then the second chain, and we're gonna just add a double crochet. And then we're going to put a single crochet into the next chain. And we're gonna work that all the way down the row.
We're gonna do double crochet, single crochet, and keep repeating that all the way down to the end. We're gonna end the row with a double crochet. So I've worked that final double crochet, and our row one is done. Now row two is gonna be the same. We're just gonna keep repeating row two for the rest of the project.
So we're gonna chain one and turn. What we're gonna do now is we're gonna skip that chain one, we're going to skip that double crochet, that last double crochet that we made, and we're going to double crochet into the next stitch. From there, we're just gonna keep repeating the single crochet, double crochet till we get to the end. So we just did a double crochet. Now we're doing a single crochet.
Then a double, then a single. So it's a little bit different than other patterns where maybe you're commonly just working one stitch, one type of stitch across the row. We're just alternating between those single and double crochets. So we're gonna single crochet into the last stitch. And then we're actually going to double crochet into that chain that we have, that extra chain we have at the end.
So we're just gonna double crochet into there. Chain one and turn. And let's do another row. So we're skipping the chain, we're skipping the double crochet, and we're adding a double crochet into the next stitch. So what we're actually doing is, that double crochet is going into a single crochet.
So we're gonna double crochet into the single crochet. And then next step, we're gonna do a single crochet. And so we're gonna do that into the double crochet in the row below. So if you're comfortable reading your crochet fabric, that's one easy way to keep track of what you're doing. The double crochets are going into the single crochets and the single crochets are going into the double crochets.
So I'm finishing with the single crochet. And now here's that chain from when I did the chain one on the last row, and I'm gonna double crochet into that. And so you would just keep working that one row until your piece was the size that you wanted it. So you can see here, we already have this cute little swatch here. Could be making a coaster or something like that.
But again, if you just start with a larger number of stitches, 32, like I did here, you can have this beautiful dish cloth. And you can see that this particular stitch pattern, it looks really beautiful in a solid yarn, but I also really love those variegated kitchen cottons, and I think that this looks really, really cool. And it just makes me wanna go to the store and buy every color of variegated kitchen cotton and just make a bunch of these. So I hope that you'll give this dish cloth a try. I think you'll really enjoy it.
For a beginners video, you went waaaaay to fast.
Is kitchen cotton the same as any other cotton yarn?
you are a good teacher & makes me go buy those Kitchen Yarn too try some ♥️dish cloth .🙂Thank you.🤗TC.
As a beginner, this video is really not helpful. Goes way too fast and not zoomed in to see the stitches. Also, how do I hide the yarn tail ends?
Love the video, is there a pattern i can refer to ? Thanks
Way way too fast, I would really like to learn from this video, too fast!!!! Slow down please!
I have never done crochet before and want to crochet squares