How to Make Knit Dish Cloth

If your kitchen has a rustic or country decor, a hand-knitted dish cloth is the perfect accent, fun to make and much cheaper than buying cloths or constantly replacing the disposable ones.
A hand-knitted dish cloth also doesn't take long to make--one evening spent knitting in front of the television is probably all you need to finish or nearly finish your dish cloth. Quick and easy, they also make great gifts.

Things You'll Need

• 2 oz. cotton yarn (Peaches and Cream brand or Sugar and Cream brand)
• Size 7 (US) knitting needles
• Scissors
• Large darning needle

Instructions

1. Choose your yarn. Your local Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby or Michael's likely carries either Peaches and Cream or Sugar and cream brands cotton yarn in a variety of colors. If your kitchen has more than one primary color in the decor, consider buying a skein of multi-colored yarn that incorporates or at least goes with your colors. Your dish cloth will be much more colorful and visually interesting than if you just use one solid-color yarn.

2. Cast on. You want your dish cloth to be big enough to do the job, so cast on 50 stitches. Be sure you've left about 8 inches of yarn to weave into the dish cloth when you're done.

3. Choose your stitch. Many stitches are quite easy and have enough texture to provide the friction you'll need to scrub food off your dishes. These two stitches are the easiest--the basic garter stitch and the seed stitch.
   For garter stitch, knit every row.
   For seed stitch, cast on an even number of stitches. For the first row, knit the first stitch, purl the second stitch, and repeat to the end of the row. For the second row, purl the first stitch, knit the second stitch, and repeat to the end of the row.

4. Knit your dish cloth. You will want a finished cloth that's roughly square. Fifty stitches on size 7 (US) needles will make roughly 11 1/2 inches, so when you've knitted 11 1/2 inches of dish cloth, cast off.

5. Weave in the ends. With your large darning needle, weave the casting on and casting off yarn ends into your dish cloth. It is now ready to use.