Last week I did a little bit of boring (read: relaxing) crochet by whipping up these seed stitch washcloths. I’m always looking for ways to incorporate crochet into my everyday life with an aim to live more environmentally friendly and cost-efficiently. For example, I also made a market bag this week that I’m excited to start taking with me to the grocery store, the market, running errands, or wherever. In any event, I recently relegated some old washcloths to the rag pile (for future around-the-house cleaning…waste not, want not!), and was in need of new ones so I decided to try out making my own.
I used Caron Cotton Cakes in colourway Hydrangea. I only made three for now, but there was plenty of yarn left to make at least 2 more (maybe more depending on size). So I will put the leftover yarn away and bust it out again in the future when I need more. The washcloths I made are square and decently sized at 26cm/10.5″ each. You could make them bigger or smaller, or add a border; there are endless ways to customize these.
I knew I would want a dense stitch for a washcloth (keep reading to find out why I now know this for sure). I decided to go with the seed stitch, which is an alternating combination of single crochet and double crochet stitches. It creates a beautiful texture and is also a visually appealing stitch pattern.
I started out just doing regular rows back and forth. This resulted in the colour-changing of the Caron Cake to create a lovely colour-blocked design. I wasn’t sure if I was a fan at first but once it was finished, I liked how it came out.
Next I tried the seed stitch from corner to corner to give a different colour-blocking effect. I had a quick search around on the interwebs looking for a tutorial on how to work the seed stitch from C2C and was unable to find one (not saying one doesn’t exist, just that my quick google search didn’t turn one up), so I came up with my own technique and I’m pretty pleased with how it came out! You still get that beautiful seed stitch design and texture but with even more visual interest with the diagonal colour-blocking. I made a quick video tutorial to show how it’s worked, or check out the written pattern below. You could easily keep going and make this into a lap blanket, baby blanket, or even a big throw blanket.
Finally, to round out my washcloths, I really wanted to work the seed stitch in the round, but still make a square facecloth, like a granny square (I tried to explain this to my fiancé and he was the most confused.) Anyway, I spent several days sketching, crocheting, frogging and repeating trying to figure out how to work the seed stitch in the round and I’m sad to say that I just didn’t manage to come up with anything that I was satisfied with. I was able to work alternating sc and dc stitches around and make a square, but the classic design of the seed stitch just wasn’t coming through. I decided to set it aside for now (this was supposed to be boring, relaxing crochet time, after all!) and maybe come back to it at another time. In the mean time, I worked my third washcloth in the round using the moss stitch instead. I followed the pattern from Sarah at Repeat Crafter Me.
The first cloth I actually tried out was the moss stitch one. First let me say, this is the softest washcloth I have ever used in my life. It feels so luxurious against my skin, especially on my face where the skin is more sensitive. Unfortunately though, as I quickly found out, the moss stitch does not create a great base for a washcloth. When the cloth gets wet, it gets heavier, which causes the spaces between the stitches to become exaggerated. So a dense stitch is a must. The seed stitch fared much better.
All in all, I will keep making these as I need them! The Caron Cotton Cake was a good choice and I’m looking forward to seeing how these hold up through a few washes.
Keep reading for the patterns or check out the video tutorial for the C2C Seed Stitch!
Let’s get started! (Or Pin for later!)
Materials:
- 4mm hook (I use THESE hooks!);
- Caron Cotton Cakes in Hydrangea;
- Tapestry needle.
Stitches and Special Terms (US Terminology):
Ch – Chain
St – Stitch
Sc – Single crochet
Dc – Double crochet
Straight Seed Stitch Washcloth
Chain 41.
Row 1: Sc in second ch from hook, dc in next ch, *sc, dc*, repeat from * across, ch 1, turn (40 sts)
Rows 2-34: Repeat row 1 (40 sts).
Turning chains do not count as a stitch. Row 1 ended on a double crochet, so the next row will have the first sc worked into the last dc from the previous row and each dc worked into a sc from the previous row, and so on.
C2C Seed Stitch Washcloth
Chain 3.
Row 1: Sc in first ch, dc in next ch, ch 2, turn (2 sts)
Row 2: [sc, dc] in each st, ch 2, turn (4 sts)
From here onward, each row will start with the same stitch as the one you ended the previous row with. Additionally, every row will start and end with an increase (until you want to start decreasing and each row will then start and end with a decrease).
Row 3: [Dc, sc] in first st, *dc, sc*, repeat from * across until you get to the last st, [dc, sc] in last st, ch 2, turn (6 sts)
Row 4: [Sc, dc] in same st, *sc, dc*, repeat from * across until you get to the last st, [sc, dc] in last st, ch 2, turn (8 sts)
Repeat rows 3 and 4 until the piece is as big as you want it. I worked until I had 52 sts across. You will want to make sure you chain at least 2 after each round. This is because one side will always end and start with a sc stitch, whereas the other side will always end and start with a dc st, which are taller. Because the sc stitches are shorter, you will want to chain extra to ensure the sc side of the washcloth doesn’t become to tight compared to the dc side. If you crochet a few rows and find that one side is still tighter than the other (or if you just have a naturally tight tension, like me), you may even want to chain 3 at the end of each row.
When you get to row 27 you will start decreasing. Again, each row will start with a decrease in the same st that you ended the previous row with. Row 26 ends on a dc so row 27 will start with a dc decrease.
Row 27: Dc2tog, *sc, dc*, repeat from * across until last 2 sts remain, sc2tog (50 sts)
Row 28: Sc2tog, *sc, dc*, repeat from * across until 2 sts remain, dc2tog (48 sts)
Repeat rows 27 and 28 until there are only 2 sts left. Tie off.
That’s it! Enjoy!
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