Hello everyone! It’s been a hot minute! A lot has gone on the past few months. First of all, I now have a niece and a nephew! They were born just six days apart! I am in absolute love with them both. Corey and I live a little over an hour away from them, so we have been going home home almost every weekend to get our fill of baby snuggles every chance we can get.
Another big thing lately is I was able to pattern test for my friend Stitch and Hound again and made the most beautiful sweater ever! Once she releases the pattern I will be writing a blog post all about that awesome project. I cannot wait to share that with you all. Sarah knocked it out of the park with this design (like she always does).
Also, I had a craft show this past weekend! I have been prepping on it ever since I finished the pattern test sweater. I’m so glad I was able to do this show. Most shows have been canceled this year because of Covid. Luckily, this one was outside and we had the most perfect weather for it. I set a goal for myself and I exceeded that goal which I am so excited about.
I have a few days off this week and decided I wanted to put a quick little project out there on the blog until I am able to get my new scarf pattern out and until I can post about the sweater. So that is how you are getting this Dish Towel Pal pattern! This project is one of the most stereotypical crochet projects out there I think. I am pretty sure everyone and their brother’s grandmothers and great grandmothers have made it through the years. For so long I had wanted to try making them but never got around to it. Luckily, a coworker of mine asked me to make him some of these to give to his family as gifts as all of their dishtowels were all worn out. I had always known the pattern itself appeared to be easy, but it was the part of getting the yarn through the towel that intimidated me. A quick YouTube search brought me to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdj6n6pWmoY. As you watch this, you can see she uses an awl tool to poke through the fabric. She made it look so easy and I highly doubted it would work that well until I got the tool and it worked like a CHARM. From that point, I looked at my friend’s old towels and made some changes to the original pattern that his grandmother used to make it my own. Since then I have made a bunch of these towels and have another big order for them come Christmas time (which is very fast approaching!)
As most of these last few projects have been, this is also another great stash buster project. It requires very little yarn and works up so quick. It makes the perfect gift and also a great project for beginners because of the basic stitches and easy decrease method. This pattern varies some from the normal layout of a pattern. There is a lot of pictures throughout this post to help make it as simple as possible and to explain it step by step as much as I can. I hope it helps!
What you will need to make this pattern:
- Dish towel
- 5.0 mm hook
- A small amount of size 4 cotton yarn
- Awl
- Yarn needle
- Slightly smaller needle (to fit through the button holes)
- One 3/4 inch button
- Scissors
- Measuring tape
- Marker
Some abbreviations you will see in this pattern:
- Ch = Chain
- St = Stitch
- Sts = Stitches
- Sk = Skip
- Sc = Single Crochet
- Dc = Double Crochet
- * * = Repeat instructions inside the asterisk across the row until otherwise noted
Notes:
- The chain three at the beginning of each row does count as a stitch.
- Each row’s stitch count will be in parenthesis at the end of each row.
- This is a beginner friendly pattern.
- Row 7 has some variance with the pattern, see the picture of it at the bottom.
Pattern:
First things first, you need to lay out your dish towel flat and fold it so the front (side of the towel to be viewed) is turned over so that you are facing the back side of the towel. Take the top part of the towel and fold it in half so you can now see the front side of the towel. From here, take a measuring tape and measure the top of the towel (at the folded part). My towel measured about 15.5 inches. I divided 15.5 by 62 and that equals .25 inches. That’s how many holes you are going to poke through the towel.
With the measuring tape still lying flat at the top of the towel, take your marker and dot every .25 inch spot about a half inch below the top of the fold. After you have all the dots marked out on the towel, now you will start making the holes and your first row.
This is where the awl will become your best friend. At your first dot on the right side of the towel, poke the awl through the towel. Make sure you push the awl all the way through the towel because doing so will make the hole bigger allowing your crochet hook to fit better. (Since we are mentioning crochet hooks, I usually prefer tapered hooks for 99% of my crochet projects. However, for this project, I have found that the inline hooks work better because it allows the yarn to get tucked into the hook more which helps it not get caught on the other side of the towel as much when pulling it through the hole in the towel.) Now that you have your first hole made, put the crochet hook through the towel. On the back side of the towel, pick up the yarn and pull the yarn through the hole of the towel, yarn over and pull up a loop. You have now completed your first sc!
Another tip I discovered after learning the hard way, only do one hole and one stitch at a time. If you try to go through and poke all the holes first, the holes will close up some and will get the front and back hole jumbled up in the meantime. It takes a little extra time but I promise it will be ten times smoother to do one hole and one stitch at a time.
Your hook may fall out of the stitch you just made while you are poking the next hole but that is perfectly alright. Just keep going all the way across the towel until all of your dots that you marked in are replaced with holes and a single crochet stitch.
Once you are all the way across, your first row of sc will be complete. You should have 61 sc stitches. Just ch 1 and turn your work.
Row 2: Sc in each st across, ch 3, turn (61)
Row 3: Dc in first st, sk 1, *dc, sk 1,* repeat across until 2 sts remain, dc one in each of the last 2 sts, ch 1, turn (32)
Row 4: Sc in each st across, ch 3, turn (32)
Row 5: *Dc, sk st, dc,* repeat across, ch 1, turn (17)
Row 6: Sc in each st across, ch 3, turn (17)
Row 7: Sk first st, *dc, sk st, dc,* repeat across, ch 1, turn (9)
Row 8: Sc in each st across, ch 3, turn (9)
Row 9: Dc in each st across, ch 1, turn (9)
Row 10: Sc in each st across, ch 3, turn (9)
Rows 11-24: Repeat rows 9 and 10 (9)
Row 24 should be a single crochet row. Tie off and weave in all ends.
The next step of this pattern is to sew the button on. Turn the towel so that the front of your project is facing you. At row 8, place the button in the center of the row. After threading the smaller needle with yarn, bring it up through one of the holes in the button. I like to try to go through the yarn threads of one of the sc stitches so that it has more to hold on to. Work the needle back down through another button hole, still trying to go through the threads of the yarn strand underneath the button. Go back up and down through the button holes until you feel the button is secure. Turn your work over and tie a knot between the beginning and end of the yarn used to sew the button on. Weave in those ends.
And there you have it! You have completed the Dish Towel Pal! It is such a simple project, no wonder all our grandma’s and great grandma’s made these all the time! They would be so proud of us for carrying on their tradition.
My favorite part about this pattern versus many of the other dish towel topper patterns is that you can make the loop as tight or loose around your oven or dishwasher handle as you want. The dc rows act as built in button holes. There is no need to make a certain button hole which essentially locks you into one length of the loop.
I hope you all enjoy this pattern! It makes a great holiday or housewarming gift because most people have had these at some point during their lives. But as the towels become worn out over the years, they throw them away and more than likely they probably don’t know anyone that crochets to have them make them more of these. It’s a gift that nobody thinks they want until they see them. I know I will have plenty of these on my hook before Christmas is here.
I would absolutely love to see your finished products! Please tag me @madisonsmakings and use the hashtag #DishTowelPal on Instagram. Also, if you would like to pin this pattern on Pinterest, click here. And if you would like to purchase the pattern on Etsy, that can be found here. Each purchase of one of my patterns helps support Madison’s Makings to keep new patterns coming. As always, if you have any questions about this pattern at all, please do not hesitate to reach out to me either by email or on Instagram. I would be happy to help you bring this pattern to life.
I’ll be back very soon with a new scarf pattern, just in time for Christmas orders. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy this beautiful fall season.
Happy crocheting!
Feel free to make as many of these as you would like and feel free to sell them. I just ask that you please acknowledge Madison’s Makings when you do. Please do not steal or copy this pattern and/or my pictures and credit them as your own work. Thank you!