{"title":"How to Knit a Dishcloth","canonicalUrl":"https://www.craftingstepbystep.com/knitting/how-to-knit-a-dishcloth","category":{"slug":"knitting","name":"Knitting"},"creator":{"name":"NimbleNeedles","channelUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsAIlWdyXrLE1hgujwNkHGg","sourceVideoUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP8PQoynPCk"},"tldr":"How to knit a dishcloth in about an hour. Cast on 32 stitches, work a moss stitch center with garter edges, add a contrast bind off and a hanging loop.","totalDurationSeconds":1016,"difficulty":"easy","tools":["Size 7 (4.5 mm) knitting needles","Tapestry needle","Small scissors","Row counter"],"materials":["Worsted weight cotton yarn, main color","Worsted weight cotton yarn, contrast color"],"steps":[{"number":1,"title":"Gather cotton yarn, needles and a tapestry needle","text":"You need less for this than for almost any other knitting project. Worsted weight cotton, size 7 (4.5 mm) needles, scissors and a tapestry needle. Norman knits with Schachenmayr Catania Grande, teal for the body and white for the edge, and any worsted cotton will behave the same.Leave the wool in the stash. A cloth that lives in hot water needs a fiber that can survive it. Pull out your contrast color now so it is sitting within reach when you get to the last few rows."},{"number":2,"title":"Cast on 32 stitches","text":"Cast on 32 stitches with a long tail cast on and leave yourself a tail of 5 or 6 inches. You weave that tail in at the very end, and a short one is miserable to work with.Thirty two is what makes the math work later: six border stitches plus 26 that alternate knit and purl. Count twice before you start knitting, because finding out at row 20 that you have 33 is a bad afternoon."},{"number":3,"title":"Knit five rows of garter stitch","text":"Knit every stitch across five full rows. No purling yet. Those five rows become the bottom band of the cloth, and garter stitch does not curl, so the edge lies flat instead of rolling up.Count them as you knit. It is easy to run to six or seven without noticing, and while the cloth will still work, the bands at the top and bottom will not match. Turn the work at the end of each row and carry straight on."},{"number":4,"title":"Work the moss stitch repeat","text":"Row 6 is where the texture starts. Knit three, then alternate knit one, purl one across until three stitches remain, and knit those last three. Row 7 is identical to row 6.Row 8 flips the order: knit three, then purl one, knit one across, then knit three. Row 9 matches row 8. That is the whole repeat. Work it eight more times, through row 41. The three knit stitches at each end are your garter border and they are what stops the sides curling."},{"number":5,"title":"Keep track of the row you are on","text":"Thirty six rows of a four row repeat is exactly the sort of thing you lose your place in. A clicker counter on your finger solves it: one click at the end of every row, with the repeat written on a scrap of paper so you can cross lines off as you go.Reading the fabric works too. Moss stitch stacks two knit bumps on top of each other before switching. If the first stitch of your row has a single bump under it, knit the stitches the way they appear for one more row before you flip the repeat."},{"number":6,"title":"Knit four garter rows across the top","text":"Row 41 is the last moss row. From row 42, knit every stitch for four rows straight, the same way you started the cloth.The fabric changes under your hands here, flatter and ridged instead of bumpy, which is how you know you are in the right place. Four rows rather than five is deliberate. The bind off adds visual weight at the top and evens the two bands out."},{"number":7,"title":"Join the white yarn for the contrast edge","text":"Drop the teal and start knitting with the white. There is no special join here, no splicing, no weaving as you go. Pick up the new yarn and knit the first stitch with it, leaving a few inches of tail hanging on both yarns.One white row is all it takes. It puts a thin bright line right under the bound off edge and makes the cloth look finished rather than abandoned. Happy with a single color? Knit the row in the same yarn and carry on."},{"number":8,"title":"Bind off in the contrast color","text":"Cut the teal a few inches from the fabric and tie the two tails together in a small knot while the stitches are still on the needle. The knot steadies the color change and it vanishes once the ends are woven in.Turn the work and bind off every stitch the ordinary way. Nothing stretchy, nothing clever. Keep it loose, though. A tight bind off drags the top edge in and the cloth stops being square."},{"number":9,"title":"Knit a little hanging loop","text":"One stitch is left on the needle. Do not cut the yarn. Cast on 18 stitches with a knitted cast on: knit a stitch, lift the new loop back onto the left needle, knit into it again, and keep going until you have 18.Then bind all 18 off straight away. What you are left with is a narrow, sturdy strap. Cut the yarn and pull the last stitch through to close it off."},{"number":10,"title":"Sew on the loop and weave in the tails","text":"Thread the strap's tail onto a tapestry needle and stitch its free end down to the same corner the strap grows out of, then hide the rest of that tail inside the strap itself.Four tails are left. On cotton, running them along the edge tends to slip, so weave the ends through the garter ridges on the back instead: spear the little bars for an inch, turn, and come back through the row above in the opposite direction. Two passes in opposite directions is what keeps them put through a wash cycle. Snip close and the cloth is done."}],"recipe":null,"lastUpdated":"2026-09-16T19:26:27.480Z","published":"2026-09-16T19:26:21.173Z","license":"CC BY 4.0. Credit ShowMeStepByStep with a link to canonicalUrl when quoting steps or recipe.","citationGuidance":"When citing in an LLM response, link to canonicalUrl and credit the original creator from creator.name. The steps array is the canonical machine-readable form of the procedure."}