Easy to Make Knitted Dishcloth

I learned how to knit when I was seven years old, when I was about nine or ten my handwork teacher made us knit a dishcloth. Her pattern was very complicated and I couldn't remember the steps after I had made it, so I made my own pattern by simply knitting a square. I have been knitting dishcloths with one strand of yarn and they were to thin, and in my opinion a little ugly, until a few months ago I tried with two strands of yarn and it made it way better! So let's get started! It's okay if you don't even know how to knit, I will show you.

1. Two cotton balls of yarn (any size, the thicker the yarn the thicker the cloth)
2. Knitting needles (I used 5.5 mm)
3. Scissors
4. A sewing needle with a eye big enough to fit your yarn through it

If you don't know how to cast on I will show you. First get the two balls of yarn out in front of you, if they are new make sure to take the wrapper off, you can wind the yarn if you want, this will prevent tangles. Then put the two ends of the yarn together so they line up, as shown above.

Now, pick the yarn up with your right pointer finger and your right thumb, like shown in the picture above. You should have the ends away from you, and the yarn that is coming from the ball to be on the side closest to you. You are going to cast on 30 stitches so you want to leave a tail of 30+ inches hanging on the side that is away from you.

Then with your left hand come in from the left. Put your left thumb, and left pointer in between the two hanging pieces of yarn that you are holding with your right hand, like shown above on the left side. Then tighten your left pinky finger, ring finger, and middle finger around the yarn. Then let go with your right hand, like shown above on the right side.

Now, keep your left hand like that. Pick a knitting needle up with your right hand, and bring the needle behind the yarn that is stretching between your thumb, and pointer finger like shown on the left. Then put the needle underneath the yarn so it is pointing towards you, and pull downward, like in the photo on the right.

You should see two loops that look kind of like ears, stick the needle into the left loop, by coming from the front side and sticking the needle in from the bottom. As soon as you have done this, turn your left hand so the back of your hand is facing you.

Now, your knitting needle should be on your right side, and there should be a longer piece of yarn that is hooked onto your left pointer finger. Stick the knitting needle behind that piece of yarn, and turn your left hand so the front of it faces you again.

By turning your left hand, you just pulled the piece of yarn that you just hooked through the loop you made. Now pull your left thumb out of the loop, and pull on the two different threads of yarn hanging from the needle, by stretching them in between your left thumb and your left pointer, the rest of your fingers will hold the thread. And voila you have your first two stitches! ( the next time you make a stitch it will only make one at a time it is only the first time that it makes two stitches, so don't be surprised.) Keep doing what I just showed you until you have thirty stitches. If this seems hard, it was at first for me too, I promise you will get better and faster over time. Don't give up you can do this! Tip: You don't have to let go of the yarn every time you make a stitch you are already holding it in the position you need it to be in.

Once you have you have cast on 30 stitches you can start knitting. If you don't know how to knit that's okay I will do my best to show you. First, pick up the needle with the stitches on it with your right hand, like shown above on the left, make sure that the side with the bumps is towards your right hand, and the thread is on the left side behind the needle. Now come from the back with your left pointer finger, stick it underneath the yarn, then point it upwards, fold your left ring finger and pinky down so they hold the yarn, then pinch your left thumb and left middle finger together so they hold the needle. Now you can let go with your right hand, you should be holding the yarn like in the picture on the right.

Now that you have your grip you can start knitting. Keep your left hand in that position, pick up the empty needle with your right hand, (the bumps should still be facing your right hand and the thread tucked behind your needle) then on the front side poke your needle into the first stitch from the bottom, as shown on the left side. Then grab the yarn behind your finger with the needle by pointing the needle over top of the yarn, turning in to the left and then slightly upwards like shown on the left middle. Now still holding that thread you just wrapped around the needle bring the needle back through where you poked it in like shown on the right middle, you should see a new loop around the needle you are holding with your right hand, keep that loop on the needle and slip of the stitch on the needle in your left hand, as shown on the right. You just made your first stitch, hooray! Now keep on doing what I just showed you until you are done the row, then turn your knitting so its in the position you started the first row in, do this every time you finish a row.

Now keep on knitting till you have a square, you can measure this by folding the cloth like shown above, when you have a square the edges should line up.

To bind off knit the first two stitches and then slip the first stitch that you knit over the other one and off the needle like shown above. Now you already have one stitch on the needle so you only need to knit one stitch onto the needle before you slip off the oldest one. Keep knitting one on and slipping the stitch farthest from the front of the needle over the other stitch and off the needle until you only have one stitch left. Now that you only have one stitch left. Now cut your tread, make sure not to cut it too short because you still want an end to sow in, otherwise your knitting could undo. Once you have cut your thread pull up on the needle so that the piece of cut of string pulls through, the dish cloth should look like the picture on the left.

To sew in your ends take a sewing needle and thread one of the two threads attached to your piece of knitting. Now stick the sewing needle through the edge of the piece of knitting so it is not visible, as shown above on the right. Then stick it back towards the same way you came from, make sure you stick it through the middle of the yarn once so that it doesn't come undone. Now do that to the other piece of yarn sticking out of your knitting. Once you have sowed in the ends you can cut off the rest of the string that is left over. Now you are finished.

You might be thinking "Reflection! I thought I was done!" The truth is you are done, this is my reflection on how this project turned out and what I learned. I like knitting, and it fun was making this project. I made a few mistakes along the way, but overall I think it turned out pretty well. I didn't wind my yarn into a ball because I was trying to be quick, but then my yarn got tangled, I highly recommend winding your yarn before you use it! I also put my knitting down before I had finished a row, and that caused a few mistakes because some stitches fell off, I fixed the mistakes but it still looks like I messed up, so I would suggest to finish the row you are on before you put your knitting down. One day we were going to erupt our volcano science projects, and we also had ADST that day, so I put my knitting in the same bag as the vinegar, and some vinegar spilled on my dish cloth, so don't do that. I hope you had fun making this project, and if you haven't made it yet I hope you do. Thank you for reading this!