Written by Sequoia Abbott-Saulteaux
Waffle Stitch with Bernat Handicrafter in Red
For my seventh #LearningProject, I decided to give myself a little bit of a break from the intensive fur stitch that goes along with the Llama-No-Drama Pattern. This week I wanted to try out something new and work on some different stitches with dishcloths patterns! I went to Michaels in Regina to see what they had for yarn and found out that most brands have a yarn just for dishcloths! It turns out that most dishcloths are made out of cotton because it is a durable and moisture-wicking fabric. I ended buying two skeins of Bernat Handicrafter Yarn in Red and Warm Brown for the cheap price of $1.99 each. Of course, it only comes with 50-grams of cotton yarn but this is just enough to make a good-sized dishcloth. I also was intrigued by the interesting texture of the Red Heart Scrubby Yarn Prints so I got one skein of Tropical because this 85-gram polyester Yarn was $4.99 each.
Strangely enough, I had a really hard time working with Handicrafter yarn at first until I figured out what the problem was. Since I just finished making Leon the Llama’s head I was still making my stitches way too tight, so relaxing my hand made this yarn a lot easier to work with. The dishcloth that I made was in the Waffle pattern with Red yarn. I got the pattern from Amanda Crochets on YouTube, who did a really good job of explaining the pattern without going through the stitches too fast (which I do find for some other channels on YouTube). I found that as I got more used to the pattern, I relied on the YouTube video less and less, but I still added to my “Liked Videos” in case I ever need the pattern again. I finished the dishcloth in around 2.5-3 hours and according to crochet groups such as Reddit’s r/Crochet won a game of “yarn chicken” by finishing the pattern with juuuust enough yarn left on the skien to sew in the ends.
The second pattern that I tried was Red Heart’s Scrubby which I found on the back of the label on the skein of yarn. This pattern was different from the other patterns that I have tried before since I had to make a magic circle and then build on stitches straight from the middle of the circle to make a round cloth. I ended up really liking this pattern even though I had no resources for it other than the small pattern tag. The end product turned out to be a small circular scrubby that actually seemed quite sturdy and thick. I also really liked the hanging loop and have found it very convenient! This was my first time ever trying a pattern that came with the yarn and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was and how much I liked it. I was also really happy about this yarn also because I ended up having enough left out from the pattern to make a second one with the same skien!
Overall, I found that dishcloths were a lot more fun to make than I thought they would be. The small space makes it perfect to try out new patterns and stitches, and I’ve heard a good cotton crochet dishcloth can last upwards of ten years. I think that I’ll be keeping both of these patterns around to try again more in the future!
Sequoia Abbott-Saulteaux 
A fabulous post Sequoia! And I absolutely love the idea of home made dish clothes!
What a wonderfully creative adventure your new crochet passion has taken you on! 😃
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Absolutely lovely!!! Dishcloths are always a fun palette cleanser kind of project for me. Sometimes you just need the satisfaction of finishing something quickly to get you back into the groove of things. Do you have a favourite stitch yet? What do you think of the scrubby yarn? I’m curious to know!
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Hello Haley!
I agree completely with what you are saying, this was my first experience making dishcloths and it was really nice to finish off a project in a couple of hours instead of the usual weeks (or months). I am not sure if I have a favourite stitch yet but waffle is definitely up there! I have never used waffle before and I was super intimidated by the looks of it but it turned out to be not too bad. I didn’t realize that it was just a modification of double crochet! The scrubby yarn was a little harder to work with since the stitches were harder to see, but I actually really ended up liking the finished product and pattern. The hanging loop was an especially nice touch! Thank you again for your kind words, your comments always brighten my day! 🙂
-Sequoia
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Hi Sequoia!
Great post! I love the detail you put into making the dishcloth! I have an odd obsession with having 9 million dishcloths but only using a specific few that I like. I once tried to make a dishcloth when I was younger and just started learning crochet, but I could not figure it out at all. Great work!
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