My Favorite Dischloths: Moss Stitch Dishcloth

When I was looking for dishcloth patterns for my spring cleaning round up a couple of weeks ago I started thinking that I should share some of my favorite dishcloth patterns. The ones that I have made over and over, that I use everyday in my home, that I have given as gifts. Designing new patterns is a lot of fun and dishcloths are an easy way to try out a new stitch or design because they are small and work up quickly. But there are also those patterns that you seem to go back to again and again, the old standbys, and I thought it would be fun to share some of those.

I have made a lot of different dishcloths and there are certain things that I have learned that I like in a dishcloth pattern. One is that I like to have some texture and be somewhat solid, no big spaces between stitches.  I have made some that are supposed to be more of a pretty, sometimes kind of lacy design and I feel like they tend to have too many holes to be functional. I guess that is the thing, I want it to be functional, it can be pretty too but it needs to get my dishes clean and wipe up messes. Another thing that I like is for my dishcloths to be easy to make. Maybe that goes along with the functionality part. I don't want to spend a ton of time making something that is going to be used to clean up messes. Some dishcloths seem to be mostly just for decoration and if that is what you are using it for than I guess it makes sense to make the more complicated, time-consuming ones but mine get used on a daily basis so it just makes more sense to keep it simple. I always use cotton yarn for my dishcloths. I have seen some patterns that call for other yarns but I prefer cotton. It is absorbent and wears well, It may shrink a little in the wash but that doesn't bother me. As far as size goes I haven't entirely made up my mind. I probably tend to lean more towards making smaller ones. The ones that I made for this post are definitely on the smaller side, in fact I wouldn't want to go any smaller. I think I prefer smaller ones for washing dishes but for wiping up spills and things like that bigger would be a little better. It is totally a matter of preference and this pattern is really easy to make as big or as small as you like.

I called this the Moss Stitch Dishcloth but the truth is that this stitch has several different names. Moss stitch, woven stitch, granite stitch, linen stitch. These are all different names that I have seen used to refer to this stitch. Moss stitch seems to be the most common so I chose to go with it but sometimes moss stitch is used to refer to a completely different stitch. Whichever name you choose to use, this is an easy stitch and an easy dishcloth to make. If you know how to chain and single crochet then you can make it. This one is probably the least textured of the ones I plan on sharing but I feel like it is still scrubby enough to be effective. Another nice thing about this stitch is that I think it works well with variegated yarn, a lot of stitches don't look great with variegated yarn,  but it also looks good in a solid.

To make this dishcloth you need:

Cotton Yarn (I used Peaches & Cream for these samples)
H hook

Begin by chaining an even number,  this is your foundation chain plus one for turning. I started with 28 chains for these samples so each of my rows had 27 stitches

Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, [ch 1, skip 1, sc in next stitch] repeat to the end of the chain, ending with a sc

Row 2: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, [sc in ch space, ch 1, sc in next ch space] repeat to the end, sc in last sc

Row 3: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, [ch 1, sc in next ch space] repeat to end of row ending with sc in last sc

Continue repeating rows 2 and 3 until your dishcloth is the size you want.

On these dishcloths I added a border by sc around the outside edge all the way around, 3 sc in each corner. I don't always add a border, it just depends on what you want. Below is an example of an old dishcloth I made a while ago using this stitch without a border. It has been well used and washed several times, you can see the pink stain from where it was used to clean up some fruit punch, but it still gets the job done.

This is really an easy pattern that just uses basic stitches. I like the texture and density of the fabric better than a double crochet dishcloth but it isn't any more difficult. I have a couple more patterns that I like to use on a regular basis that I will share soon. Until then check out my other dishcloth patterns:
X's & O's Dishcloth, Bobble Heart Dishcloth, V-Day Stripes Dishcloth, and Heart Rows Dishcloth