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In this tutorial weíre going to learn to knit a dishcloth.
Like this.
And theyíre great in-between projects. Something to keep your hands going between big projects,
theyíre quick and satisfying.
Also, knitting a dishcloth for a knitter is kind of like a chef preparing an egg.
Itís a way to really get back to the basic skills, and do a great job on something really
simple.
With really nice edge tension, and really beautiful stitches throughout.
Theyíre pretty fun.
Oh! The third thing about dishcloths, is if you havenít used them, if youíre still using
sponges, as a knitter, instead of dishcloths like this, youíre missing out.
These are great. They dry quickly, they go in the washing machine, they never stink.
And the purl bumps, on here, is just enough, enough scrubbie to really get things clean.
I swear by them. I really like them.
Anyway, this pattern that weíre using is a traditional pattern thatís been around
for generations, and is kind of just publicly owned by no one.
You can get the pattern over on my website, itís there for free.
And this tutorial is free. And it will give you a chance to try out my tutorials.
And if you like them, I have a lot more online on my website.
So, for this, Iím using a worsted weight cotton yarn.
And you definitely donít want to use wool for this. Because theyíll just shrink up
when you put them in the washing machine.
So Iím using a cotton yarn, and Iím using size seven needles.
You donít need to use double-pointed needles. I just like using them because I like to use
the shortest needles possible when Iím doing stuff.
So letís start with the cast on.
Iím going to use this blue yarn here.
Iím using the long tail cast on to cast on four stitches.
And if you need a review of the long tail cast on, Iíll give you the link, right here.
Okay there are my four stitches.
Let me show you something real quick.
In this pattern, weíre going to start down here with just a few stitches, expand up to
the biggest part here, and then decrease back down to the other point.
So itís knit on the bias.
If youíre wondering why weíre casting on so few stitches.
The first row here, we are just going to knit across.
The next row weíre going to start our increases.
And the little holes around the border of the dishcloth are done with yarn overs.
Every row is just like this. You knit two, then you yarn over.
And to yarn over you pull the yarn forward between the two needles and keep knitting.
And you knit to the end.
Now every increase row is going to be exactly the same as that.
You knit two, you yarn over, and you knit to the end.
Knit two, yarn over, knit to the end.
Okay, you can already see that weíve already got a little bit of shape going, sort of a
V shape going here.
Youíll want to continue doing that until the, the dishcloth is as wide as you want
it on the diagonal.
I usually go up to fifty stitches, which might make a bigger dishcloth than some people like.
But I know that the pattern that I was looking at says to go to 44 stitches.
I thought fifty was fine.
Next up, weíre going to learn how to do the decreasing on the opposite side.
If youíve done all of your increases, and you have it as wide as youíd like it to be,
and youíre using double pointed needles like me [laughs], youíll have a lot of stitches
crammed on the needles right now.
Itís time to do the shaping on the opposite side.
Letís take a look at my sample first.
You see here, whoops, it goes like this.
We need to maintain the yarn overs on this side, so weíre actually going to be increasing
while we decrease.
You see what I mean when I say that?
The yarn overs are the increase that gave us the shape on the bottom, now we need to
continue increasing, so we need to decrease twice on this side.
And to do that, itís knit one, knit two together, and Iíll give you a link to knit two together.
Then we still have the knit two ñ it looks like that.
Then we yarn over, like before, knit two together again, and then knit to the end.
And this is all spelled out in the pattern.
This is great tv knitting by the way. Because you really only have to think about what youíre
doing at the beginning of each row. The rest of it is just knitting across.
Okay let me show you the decrease one more time.
Itís knit one, knit two together, yarn over, knit two together again, and then knit to
the end.
And you can see here, Iíve already changed direction of my work. Hereís the other corner,
here.
And of course decreasing goes really quickly. Youíll find yourself down to just a few stitches
in a short period of time.
Now what I have here is a piece that I finished knitting. I havenít blocked it, and I havenít
woven in the ends.
So, Iíll grab a tapestry needle, and some scissors.
And I want to weave in these ends, I want to make sure theyíre not going anywhere.
I want them to be really secure so this can be washed in the washing machine.
Iím going to separate the plies of one of these ends, half and half.
So I have two plies here, and two plies here.
Iím going to take a couple of those plies, and just weave them a little bit away from
where ñ just like half a stitch away from where the other two plies are coming out.
Then Iím going to tie that in a double knot. A really tight double knot.
You can pull on cotton pretty hard before it breaks.
So just shy of that. [laughs]
Then Iím going to cut the ends really pretty short.
And that will work itís way in and not be much of a distraction there.
Then Iíll do the same thing on the other side.
Now if you are presenting these as a gift, you might want to wash these and then set
them out flat to dry.
And really pin the corners. Youíll find that the decrease end that you knit will probably
be kind of stretched out like this when youíre done.
And this edge will be nice and straight.
Itís because the weight of the dishcloth was hanging while you were knitting, and it
will make it look kind of, well, I donít even know what this shape is.
So if you wash it in the washing machine and set it out flat to dry with the corners pinned
square, that will make it look nice.
And then youíll have something nice like this to present as a gift.
If youíre just knitting them for yourself, just throw them in the sink of soapy water
[laughs] and youíll be done with it.
Again this pattern is available for free on my website.
You can go over there and check this one out, as well as my other tutorials.
Good luck.
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