Add a little luxury to your everyday with this free face cloth knitting pattern. These reversible textured cloths look lovely & luxurious and make great gifts.
While the diagonal stripes pattern looks complicated, you knit most of the cloth in simple knit 2, purl 2 rib stitch.
A ball of super soft cotton makes a gorgeous face cloth or washcloth. Or use cheaper hardy cotton to knit pretty & practical dishcloths
Never tried knitting with cotton? This is a nice & easy project to give it a go while make something useful instead of a boring tension square!
Want a crochet version of this pattern? Let me know
Table of Contents
What you Need
- 4mm (size 6 US) knitting needles
- 1 ball (90m, 98 yds aprox) of worsted or aran weight cotton
- Tapestry needle for weaving in ends.
- For optional hanging loop: 2 4mm double pointed needles (or closest size you have)
Finished cloth size: 11 inch square approx.
Use Any Cotton
I used Scheepjes Cahlista in shade 385 crystalline, which is a lovely soft cotton. Close substitutes include Rico Creative Cotton Aran which I also find nice to work with and Paintbox Cotton Aran (haven’t tried this). All 3 cottons come in an 85m 50g ball.
Heads up: I had just enough yarn to finish my cloth with a hanging loop, and my cloth weighs 52g rather than 50. So if you only have 1 ball of 85m or less, you might run out slightly before you can make a full square. Alternatively, you could just cast on 42 stitches to definitely avoid playing yarn chicken.
If you prefer a lighter, thinner washcloth, you could use DK cotton with a 3-3.5mm needle or even 4 ply cotton with a 2.5-3mm needle. But if you still want an 11 inch square (or larger), you will need to add a multiple of 4 stitches.
Diagonal Rib Stitch
The cloth is knit in diagonal or oblique rib stitch, a 4-row pattern repeat which creates diagonal stripes.
It looks complicated, but it’s mainly just 2×2 rib stitch.
You start each row in a different way though, to offset the ribbing, so that you end up with interesting diagonal rib stripes instead of the usual vertical columns.
This pattern also slips the 1st stitch and knits the last stitch of every row, to give your cloth neater edges. You end up with a pretty chain of loops running up each side.
Abbreviations
- kx – knit x stitches
- px – purl x stitches
- sl1 – slip 1 stitch purl wise with yarn in front
insert tip from right to left as if you were going to purl the stitch but just move it across to the needle instead - k2tog – knit 2 stitches together to decrease by 1 stitch
- (x) – repeat stitch pattern in brackets until stated
Knitting Pattern
Cast on 46 stitches (or add/subtract any multiple of 4 for a larger/smaller cloth e.g. 42,50,54 etc).
I used the long tail cast on but you can use any cast on.
TIP: If you only have at most 85m/93 yds cotton & want to knit a perfect square cloth, only cast on 42 to be sure you don’t run out.
Row 1: Sl1, (k2,p2) until last stitch, k1
Row 2: Sl1, k1, (p2,k2) to end of row
Row 3: Sl1, (p2,k2) until last stitch, k1
Row 4: Sl 1, p1, (k2,p2) until last 4 stitches, k2, p1, k1
Row 1-4 form the diagonal rib stitch pattern. Repeat Rows 1-4 until you have knit a square.
TIP: if you used the long tail cast on, where row 1 is the wrong side of your knitting, end after row 1 or row 3 so that you bind off on the right side.
Make a Square
If you don’t have a measuring tape to hand, here’s an easy way to know when you have knit a square:
- Lift the bottom left corner of your knitting up and over to meet the right edge.
- If your bottom left corner meets the top right corner, making a triangle shape, you have knit a square – yay!
- If there are rows of knitting visible above your triangle, your knitting is taller than it is wide and you need to knit some more rows.
As a guide, I knit 81 rows in total (20 pattern repeats + 1 extra row as I used the long tail cast on).
But your total rows may vary depending on your gauge and yarn.
Bind off in the traditional way (knitting the 1st 2 stitches and passing the 1st stitch over the 2nd etc) or your preferred method. If you want to add a hanging loop, do not bind off the last 3 stitches.
Optional Hanging Loop
If you would like to add a hanging loop at the corner of your cloth, leave the last 3 stitches on your needle when you bind off.
Now get 2 short double pointed needles (DPNs), approximately the same thickness as the needles you knit your cloth with if possible.
Knit the 3 remaining stitches on to 1 DPN. Now start knitting a short i-cord loop with these 3 stitches.
Here’s a short i-cord video tutorial showing you how to do it step by step.
Knit 3 inches (8 cm) of i-cord, or double your desired loop length.
On the last row: k2tog, k1 and pass the 1st stitch over the 2nd to bind off.
Cut the yarn leaving a long tail. Thread a tapestry needle with the yarn end and weave in to the corner at the start of your i-cord to make a hanging loop.
Finishing & Care
Finally, weave your yarn end(s) into the cloth. Wash & dry face cloths before use.
The Scheepjes Cahlista cotton I used can be machine/tumble dried – so handy!
While many cotton yarns don’t have the machine dry symbol, I’d still happily dry 100% cotton cloths on low heat. Life’s too short for laundry dramas. Cloths need to be easy care for an easy life! 🙂
If you’re giving it as a gift, while it’s still damp, you could block it by pinning it out to dry in a perfect square shape for an extra neat finish.
I hope you enjoy knitting this free washcloth / dishcloth pattern and find it easy to follow.
Got any questions or feedback? Please leave a comment below.
This free pattern is for personal, non-commercial use only. It may not be copied, sold, translated or distributed in any way, nor any finished items made using it sold, without permission.
