Last Monday I mentioned that I would soon post the pattern for the dishcloth I was knitting. I think I’m running out of time on “soon,” so here goes. My pattern for this is more of a rough guide for you to use as a starting point. When I knit garter stitch bibs, I use a US6 needle. I knit these cloths on a US7. I’ll try a US8 next time – this is a tight pattern and it is much easier to knit if you use needles that help the knitting stay loose. Also, if cotton bugs your wrists, you’re going to need to do this in small doses – or skip straightaway to knitting a wool scarf using the stitch pattern.
The stitch pattern is from my beloved Mon Tricot Knitting Dictionary, procured from the thrift store for $0.69 a few years ago. If you ever come across a copy of this, snatch it up immediately. You won’t regret it.
The stitch pattern is the woven basket stitch, featured on page 54:
I first discovered this stitch while trying to knit Bamboozelle a while back. Something was very awry with the pattern (at least as I was interpreting it) and I dug through many stitch guides before I found the equivalent in good ol’ Mon Tricot.
You need to cast on an even number of stitches using the long-tailed cast on. I cast on 46 for this cloth, and it turned out a bit small – I would probably try 56 or 60 stitches next time. (My lovely assistant Chaos indicates the cloth of which I speak. The other one was knitted when I was trying to sort out the Bamboozelle confusion.)
“Hmph. This cloth is clean. It has no intriguing smells. What’s the point of this if I can’t have a snack?!” -Chaos
Row 1 (wrong side): P1, *purl the second stitch on the needle, purl the first stitch on the needle, slide both stitches off the needle*, P1
Row 2 (right side): *pass the right-hand needle behind the first stitch to knit the second stitch on the needle, knit the first stitch “in the usual way,” slip both stitches off the needle* (On Row 2, make sure you get both stitches off the needle! I had trouble with that if I wasn’t paying close attention.)
Knit until you like the size, then bind off. I’m still experimenting with bind offs. Whatever you do, don’t bind off in pattern! You’ll end up with a very wide bind off row. Trust me on that one.
As written, your cloth is going to curl a little bit. I couldn’t figure out an edge treatment that really went with this stitch pattern, so I decided to live with the curling. Hey, no dishcloth curls when it’s being used, right?
Please let me know if you have questions about this or if you come up with a really spiffy edging or bind off!
