Free & Easy Knitted Dishcloth Pattern For Beginners [+video Instruction]

A free knitted dishcloth pattern for beginners in Moss Stitch with a little white accent.

So, you are looking for a free knitted dishcloth pattern? Then you came to the right place. I put together an easy-to-knit dishcloth suitable for knitting beginners that will look lovely even if it’s your first project and, of course, does its job.

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Fast knitters will finish this dishcloth in 45 minutes or less, so you can easily produce a couple of spares – for yourself or as a gift (and if you are a bit slower yet, don’t worry and check out my free knitting school with tons of tutorials). I made sure to take detailed pictures of all important steps, so you can follow along and knit this washcloth with ease. If you scroll further down, you will find a slight variation of this pattern as well.

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Materials You will need for this dishcloth

• Pure cotton yarn for needles size 7 in at least two different colors. I am using the Catania Grande in this tutorial.
• Knitting needles size 7/4.5mm (doesn’t matter if they are single-pointed or double-pointed; though single-pointed bamboo needles are probably easier for beginners; The needles I used were the Knitter’s Pride Dreamz. You could also check out my knitting needle guide here)
• A tapestry needle and scissors.

Important note: Don’t knit a dishcloth with wool or wool blends. You want a fiber that soaks up water well, dries fast, and you can put it into the laundry at high temperatures without felting. Linen is a good and very durable alternative to cotton.

Anyways, let’s dive right into it, eh?

Tip: Here’s a more detailed post about the basic knitting supplies every beginner needs.

How to knit A dishcloth: The instructions for the Double Moss Stitch Version

I feel the classic Double Moss Stitch is ideal for a dishcloth. It creates a texture-rich and reversible fabric that is perfect for scrubbing. It’s also an easy 4-row repeat that only involves knit stitches and purl stitches – so very easy for beginners. I also added a 3-stitch garter stitch selvage to keep it from curling.

Note: Please read this tutorial if you don’t know how to read a knitting pattern yet.

Cast on 30 stitches with needles size 7 leaving a tail of 5 inches for tidying up. Here’s my cast-on tutorial for beginners, if you don’t know how yet. I picked a long tail cast on for my project.

• Row 1- 5: Knit
• Row 6: K3, *K2, P2*, K3
• Row 7: K3, *K2, P2*, K3
• Row 8: K3, *P2, K2*, K3
• Row 9: K3, *P2, K2*, K3

Repeat rows 6-9 eight more times.

• Row 42- 45: Knit all stitches
• Row 46: Change the yarn color (I use white contrasting yarn) and knit all stitches. When you reach the end of the row, tie the two ends hanging down at the beginning of your row together with a simple knot. You can cut the other yarn (the green in my case), leaving a little tail of 5 inches.

• Row 47: Cast off all stitches (read my cast-off tutorial if you don’t know how).

Help for beginners:

Is this your first time knitting a knitting pattern? Here are some pointers to understand the instruction. “K” is the abbreviation for the Knit Stitch. and “P” for the Purl Stitch. “K3” means knit three stitches in a row with the knit stitch. P2 means knit two purl stitches in a row, etc. Find out more common abbreviations in my knitting glossary

Instructions between two asterisk (“*”) mean you have to repeat these stitches over and over again until you reach the designated spot. So, for row 6 it says “K3, *K2,P2*, K3”. With 30 stitches on the needle, this actually means K3, *K2, P2* (6 times), K3. or “K3, K2, P2, K2, P2, K2, P2, K2, P2, K2, P2, K2, P2, K2, P2, K3”

Once you only have one stitch left on your needle after the cast-off, it’s time to knit the little strap. There are many ways to do this, but the easiest way to do so is with a knitted cast-on.

Here’s what you have to do: you have to knit into the last stitch on your needle instead of tying a knot. But you don’t slip the stitch after you knitted it. Instead, keep it on the left needle. Now, knit into the loop of this new stitch, and keep it on the left needle, etc. Here’s a more detailed tutorial on knitted cast-on.

Cast on 18 stitches with a knitted cast-on.

Now, turn the project around, bind off all stitches right away, and break the yarn leaving a tail of 5 inches.

Last, but not least, you have to tidy up. First, you are going to finalize the strap. So, pick up the tapestry needle and sew the strap to the dishcloth using the tail. Remember to tie at least one knot so it won’t unravel.

Now, you should have 3 more tails sticking out of your dishcloth. Use the tapestry needle to weave in the ends through the little ribs between two rows for maybe an inch. Next, weave the tail in the other direction once more. Then you can cut the rest of the tail.

Important: Normally, you don’t tie knots when you tidy up the tails in knitting. But for a dishcloth, I always add one knot per tail so it won’t unravel even if you put it under stress. You want to scrub with it after all, not just look at it, eh? As there are plenty of purl bumps, you will barely notice the knot (here’s a detailed tutorial on how I weave in the ends).

And tada – there is your finished dishcloth. Wasn’t all that hard, eh? Now go out and knit a couple of them!

Reading tip: 10 easy projects for knitting beginners

Instructions for the Dishcloth in Irish Moss Stitch

If you want to knit a couple of dishcloths, then I feel a little bit of variety makes things a bit more interesting. The Irish Moss Stitch is perfect for that. You can follow the above instructions almost to a word with only a few differences.

If you want same-sized dishcloths, you either have to use one needle size bigger (so US size 8 instead of 7) or cast on 32 stitches. As it’s a bit easier to do so with needles one size bigger I’ll stick that that:

CO 30 stitches with needle size 8

• Row 1-5: Knit all stitches
• Row 6: K3, *K1, P1*, K3
• Row 7: K3, *K1, P1*, K3
• Row 8: K3, *P1, K1*, K3
• Row 9: K3, *P1, K1*, K3

Repeat row 6-9 8 more times and then continue as detailed above (so row 42 and onwards).

Once you get the hang of this, you can, of course, find your own variations. The Star Stitch makes a fantastic alternative. It’s very lovely to look at and creates a great structured fabric for a dishcloth.

So, over to you. Try to create your own dishcloth knitting patterns. It’s fairly easy to do. A lot of people also like to add yarn overs between the selvage and then repeat. This will create lovely little eyelets.

Download this Dishcloth patternSubscribe to my newsletter and get this easy dishcloth pattern for beginners straight to your inbox - for free. Subscribe & download pdfYou can unsubscribe with one click anytime you want. I never share your information with third parties and will protect it in accordance with my Privacy Policy

That’s my knitted dishcloth pattern. I hope you were able to follow along. Make sure to comment with your questions.