The Simplest, Most Practical Knit Dish Cloth

I have been making my own dish clothes since I learned how to knit. My mom made all sorts of variations of crocheted dish clothes but in my opinion they stunk. It only took one use and a few hours later the thing was so stinky. Washing it never seemed to completely eliminate the smell and the older the cloth was the faster it hit cruddy dirty dish rocket stink mode. I would use the same exact cotton yarn and not have the same problem. Granted, there’s a point where all dish clothes start to stink. But my knit ones took longer to reach that time for the washing machine state.

It’s not a big secret but it might be something not commonly known. The spaces around the stitches need to breathe air to keep back the stink. All those fancy crocheted dish clothes were crunched up next to each other stitches. Rubbing shoulders scrunched. There was no room to breathe.

All you need is a set of size 10 knitting needles, cotton yarn, and to know how to cast on, knit, and bind off. That’s it. The needles need to be big to make big, airy, breathable stitches. The yarn must be cotton. I use the Peaches and Cream or whatever it’s called.

Cast on 30 stitches. It looks big but the cotton will shrink. Maybe it looks small to you. In that case, go ahead and cast on 40 stitches. I make mine with a starting 30 stitches and that works well for me. The beauty of making your own is that you can do whatever you want. If this is a first time project, go ahead and start with a 30 stitch cast on.

Now just knit. Every row, knit.

Bring side up to knitting needle to see if the knitted item creates a square. Knit until a perfect triangle forms when bringing right side up to knitting needle. Well, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It will never be perfect since it’s knitted yarn. Once you get your triangle, bind off.

I have been using these as my dish clothes for many years. They’re the best.

I wouldn’t spend too much time picking out favorite colors for these. The color fades long before the dish cloth needs to be retired. Well, you’ll get some use with pretty colors but normally not very long. They are dish cloths after all.