Keeping it Simple

My theme for this year is to "Keep it Simple" - from cooking and baking, to decor and clothing and (most importantly) crafting!

In keeping with this I kicked off the year by making some new washcloths for the bathrooms.    The beauty of a neutral room is that you can really go to town with colourful accessories, and this is what I did with the first set of Continuous Solid Square washcloths.

These little cloths are super easy to make.   They are worked in the round and are therefore much easier to edge than cloths worked in rows (deciding where to put your stitches is always a bit of a bother).

Walking on the beach one morning after a storm, hubby spotted this lovely big shell.    It was a sickly shade of green and covered in barnacles.     I cleaned it up over a few days and now occasionally use it as a soap dish!

Working in a spiral (for whatever shape) is particularly useful for crocheting with variegated / colour change yarns.  When working a motif where you end each round and then begin a new one, you will notice that your colour changes do not match up.    Instead of the colour flowing throughout the motif, each round ends with an abrupt colour change, which then starts again a row higher...... so you have a definite division (or stepping) of colours.

How To:  

Dedri Uys (Look At What I Made) has made a brilliant tutorial for this technique HERE.

I have made quite a few blankets exactly as Dedri instructs, but because the cloths where such a small project, the shape of the centre bothered me a bit.......

So this is my solution for the first round: 

Foundation:  4ch,  sl sl into 1st ch to form circle OR make a magic circle

Round 1:  6ch, [(3dc, 3ch) x 3, 3dc into circle], 2sc into 6ch...... and then follow Dedri's tutorial for the next 9 rounds (ten rounds in total).

I used a simple 2 round "ribbed stitch" for the edging.      This makes for a sturdy edging that helps the cloth keep its shape. 

Round 11:   alternate Fpdc, Bpdc stitches around each dc;   into corners work 2dc, 2ch, 2dc.

Round 12:  work Fpdc around Fpdc;  Bpdc around Bpdc,   into 2dc corners of Round 11 alternate Fpdc, Bpdc in keeping with the "ribbed" sequence;  into 3 corners work 2dc, 2ch, 2dc;   into 4th corner work 2dc,20ch, 2dc.

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Crocheting washcloths has become a bit of an "end of old - / start of new year" tradition for me (2016 and 2015 ).   I love being able to start the new year with a tidy stash and a heap of neat little washcloths to use or gift. 

I hope that you will enjoy making these as much as I did!