Diagonal Weave Crochet Dishcloths

This week I made dishcloths for my SYTYC entry for "In the Kitchen". I was really worried that dishcloths would be a little too boring but they did really well. I didn't win the week but I came in second, one vote behind the first place winner. I knew that crocheted dishcloths have always done well on blog I just wasn't sure if people would vote for them in a competition but I guess they did. That was pretty exciting to see.

When I made these dishcloths I played around with several different stitch ideas, some one color, some multicolor. I knew I wanted something with lots of texture. I crocheted little swatches of several different patterns and then I made my husband choose his favorite. I was glad he chose this one because this stitch was probably my favorite and I loved the way these dishcloths turned out. They have tons of texture and kind of a woven look to them. I wanted to make them in fall colors and these were the closest I could find, they kind of remind me more of desert colors but I still thought they looked nice, kind of different from colors I would normally choose.

I would definitely say this is a little more advanced dishcloth pattern due to the use of post stitches. It isn't hard necessarily, especially once you get the pattern down, but definitely more complicated than a pattern that just uses normal sc, hdc, and/or dc. Also, just a little note about the pattern- because the post stitches are a little shorter than normal dc I started with a ch 2 at the beginning of each row rather than the normal ch 3, if you feel that is to tight you could switch to a ch 3 I just thought it was giving me too loose of a stitch on the ends.

How to Make Diagonal Weave Crochet Dishcloths

Finished size: about 7 1/2" square

You will need:

• 1 ball cotton yarn 
• H crochet hook
• yarn needle

Instructions:

start by ch 32 (to make adjust size begin with a multiple of 4)

Row 1: in 3rd ch from hook (first 3 count as first dc) 1 dc, dc in each ch to end (30 dc)

Row 2: ch 2 (counts as first stitch), [1 fpdc in first 2 stitches, 1 bpdc in next 2 stitches] repeat until there is one stitch remaining, dc in last stitch (2 dc, 14 fpdc, 14 bpdc)

Row 3: ch 2 (counts as first stitch), 1 fpdc in first stitch, [1 bpdc in next 2 stitches, 1 fpdc in next 2 stitches] repeat until there are 2 stitches remaining, fpdc in next stitch,  dc in last stitch (2 dc, 14 fpdc, 14 bpdc)

Row 4: ch 2 (counts as first stitch), [1 bpdc in first 2 stitches, 1 fpdc in next 2 stitches] repeat until there is one stitch remaining, dc in last stitch (2 dc, 14 fpdc, 14 bpdc)

Row 5: ch 2 (counts as first stitch), 1 bpdc in first stitch, [1 fpdc in next 2 stitches, 1 bpdc in next 2 stitches] repeat until there are 2 stitches remaining, bpdc in next stitch,  dc in last stitch (2 dc, 14 fpdc, 14 bpdc)

Repeat rows 2-5 until you have a square, finish off, weave in ends