I’ve been knitting for over 15 years, but I’d never done any crochet before. Near the end of last year, I had a project that called for provisional cast-on, and one of the methods for doing so is creating a row of knitting from a crochet chain, which would then be unraveled when it came time to put those stitches back on a needle. It was fiddly at first, but I found myself having a lot of fun crocheting that single little chain, and decided that I wanted a project to challenge myself with crochet.
I stopped at Looped over the holiday break to pick up new needles for a project, and asked about a good yarn for creating a simple washcloth for my first crochet project. I came home with one skein of Rowan Handknit Cotton in Goldfish, a delightfully vibrant and bright orange. Today, after a couple rough starts, I crocheted my first project!
It’s not the world’s most beautiful washcloth, but it’s my first project and I love it. For working on this project, I watched a couple YouTube videos to get the stitches down, and crocheted them in a pattern that looked good to me, and made a lovely square.
For learning how to chain, I followed Amy Solovay’s walkthrough for crocheting chain stitch on The Spruce Crafts. Each photo is clear and the written steps are quite detailed.
Even though the language spoken in this video is Tamil, I found Pushpalatha Raja’s tutorial for basic crochet stitches oh so very helpful! The video itself is understandable (even with not knowing the language), the lighting is good, and she works slowly and repeatedly for each stitch. Her video covers single crochet, double crochet, and triple crochet.
For the washcloth border, I followed Blossom Crochet’s tutorial for an easy border. This video goes over how to pick up stitches for the border, single crochet stitch for the first row, and chain and slip stitch for the second row.
So, even though this is my very first project, I’m going to type up the pattern. Maybe this will help someone else with their first project!
Washcloth using basic crochet stitches
I am a complete crochet beginner, and this is my first project! It’s a washcloth using basic crochet stitches: chain, slip stitch, single crochet, double crochet, and triple crochet.
Materials
- Rowan Handknit Cotton
- one H/8 (5.0 mm) crochet hook
- needle for weaving in tails
Instructions
- Create a slip knot about 6 inches into yarn, and place on the hook.
- Chain (ch) 32 stitches for the beginning of the project.
- Single crochet (sc) across all 32 stitches for one (1) row.
- ch one (1) and turn work. sc across a second row.
- Repeat above row for two (2) more rows — a total of four (4) rows of sc.
- ch three (3) and turn work. Double crochet (dc) across row.
- ch four (4) and turn work. Triple crochet (tc) across row.
- ch three (3) and turn work. dc across row.
- ch one (1) and turn work. sc across row.
- Repeat above row for three (3) more rows — a total of four (4) rows of sc.
- ch three (3) and turn work. Double crochet (dc) across row.
- ch four (4) and turn work. Triple crochet (tc) across row.
- ch three (3) and turn work. dc across row.
- ch one (1) and turn work. sc across row.
- Repeat above row for three (3) more rows — a total of four (4) rows of sc.
- ch three (3) and turn work. Double crochet (dc) across row.
- ch four (4) and turn work. Triple crochet (tc) across row.
- ch three (3) and turn work. dc across row.
- ch one (1) and turn work. sc across row.
- Repeat above row for three (3) more rows — a total of four (4) rows of sc.
- sc 3 stitches into the corner stitch.
- Turn work to pick up and sc stitches along the side of work.
- sc 3 stitches into the corner stitch.
- Turn work to pick up and sc stitches along the initial ch side of work.
- sc 3 stitches into the corner stitch.
- Turn work to pick up and sc stitches along the side of work.
- sc 3 stitches into the corner stitch.
- Turn work to pick up and sc stitches along the final row of work.
- ch 3, skip one (1) stitch, then slip stitch (sl) into the second stitch.
- Repeat above stitch pattern across the entire border.
- sl into the first stitch of border.
- Pull yarn through and cut tail.
- Weave in tails, and you have a washcloth!
Tag your finished project photos with #ReedBasicCrochetWashcloth on social media! Email comments, questions, and/or critiques on this pattern. I’m still learning, and anything that could make this pattern more clear or understandable would be much appreciated.