I like rainbows and I (apparently) like things woven as seen by my woven ribbon choker and woven crochet cowl. I've had this woven crochet pattern saved for some time and I decided to adapt the idea to work with a rainbow washcloth. I altered the pattern to work for the style I was going for and also gave it a woven border so the border would be sort of thick like the body of the washcloth itself.

Instructable 326

Step 1: Supplies

The finished washcloth should be roughly 7" by 7" but can very. Also, the washcloth stretched out when it was used/got wet and the weave was no longer tight. Something to remember.

Supplies:

100% Cotton Yarn - I'm using 9 colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, White and Buttercream (the variegated rainbow one, not shown here)
Crochet Hook Size G/6 4.25mm
Yarn Needle
Scissors
Measuring Tape

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Step 2: Crochet Strips

This whole pattern relies on measurements more than stitch counts, but I will give you both to help you create this pattern.

The goal here is to make a strip that is roughly .75" by 5" or 5 1/4". There will be 2 sets of 7 strips, so 14 strips total in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Pink, or whatever colors you would like.

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To make my strips, I chained about 20 stitches, then chained an additional 3.

Turn, skip those 3 extra chains and do a double crochet into the 4th chain from the hook and continue doing a double crochet in each chain stitch.

Weave in the ends.

Do this so you have two of each color.

Step 3: Connecting First Set

Now that you have all the strips, lay them out in the order you want.

Take your border yarn and start by stitching 3 single crochets in the end of the first strip.

Grab the second strip and crochet 3 single crochets in that one.

Continue until you have stitched together half of the strips.

Step 4: Connecting Second Set

Lay out your second set of strips.

Chain 2, then begin single crocheting 3 times in each strip across like you just did.

Now you should have as you see above, all the strips stitched together with a chain of 2 between the sets.

Step 5: Connecting 3rd Side

Now that you have all the strips connected, you need to continue going around and connecting to the opposite end of the first set of strips.

Try to keep your strips flat and organized so you don't get things twisted or out of order.

Chain 2, and single crochet 3 times into the end of the last strip of the first set of strips, so Pink.

Continue across single crocheting 3 times in each strip.

It should start looking like a square now.

Step 6: Weaving and Connecting 4th Side

Now we are going to weave. It's too messy to try earlier than this point.

I found it was easiest to try to weave all of them at once so they space right. (if you do just one strip and then the next, then the next, etc, they get very crowded as you go.

The ends won't stay in place well, but that's okay. All that matters is you have them woven right when you actually crochet.

When you have them woven the best you can, chain 2 at the corner and begin doing 3 double crochets in each strip going across. Again, make sure they are woven right before you crochet them.

When you get to the end, chain 2 and connect to the first stitch.

Step 7: Double Crochet Border

Border time! I wanted a thick border to go along with the thick pattern so I decided to do a weave.

In order to do a weave, we are going to do a border of double crochets and chains repeating around.

To start, chain 3 as your first double crochet, do an additional chain 1 as your space, then skip the next stitch and double crochet in the next stitch, chain 1, skip the next stitch, and then double crochet in the next stitch, etc. Just repeat this around. When you get to the corner, I double crocheted, chain 2, double crochet and then moved on.

I knew I would need to be able to weave the piece evenly, so to ensure this, I just woven a piece of yarn through as I worked so I would know that the ends would match up.

When you get to the end, assuming your ends match up, chain one and slip stitch into the first chain 3 you did to close it up.

Step 8: Single Crochet Border Piece

Now to crochet the border.

This is similar to the strips we did before, but since i'm using a variegated yarn, I wanted the color to match all the way around. If I chained and then single crochet back, the colors would be all messed up. So, instead I did a single crochet chainless foundation chain.

This Youtube video can help you out with how to do this, but it's essentially like you are stitching a chain and single crochet each time.

So you can just do this until your piece is long enough to go all the way around the washcloth. Don't worry about making it a little extra long or anything, you want it snug.

To make the corners you see, what I did was when I got to where I wanted the corner (about 21 stitches), I skipped the "chain 1" part of the foundation stitch and just did the single crochet part. Then I continued on as normal after that. That caused it to turn a bit. This isn't 100% necessary, but it will make it fit a bit better.

To give you an idea of stitches I did about 22+1 extra corner stitch for each side so that is about 92 stitches going around.

Step 9: Weaving Border

This is pretty easy. Time to weave in the border.

Just weave in and out and hopefully your ends will match up. Sew them together the best you can (I'm no expert here and have no advice, I wing it). Careful about stretching it as you go.

And...DONE!

Step 10: Finished Cloth

Here is just another look and close up of the washcloth.

Remember what I said earlier, the weave will stretch out when wet. I have only used it and not washed and dried it yet, but I assume it will tighten back up once it goes in the dryer.

Step 11: First and Second Attempts

Here is just a look at my first (left) and second (right) attempts. The first I made strips about 7 1/2" long and did twice as many. The strips were NOT long enough to have so many of them. Also, I did a half double crochet stitch instead of double crochet so the strips weren't as wide.

It is very tight and a very large washcloth. I wouldn't mind trying again but I'd probably stitch the strips about 10" long.

The one on the right (black) was done with double crochet strips and each strip had a chain 1 between it and the next when they were stitched together. I did this to try to make the washcloth bigger even though I had half as many strips, but the gaps made it not worth it (and now knowing how much it loosens up when wet, this would become a total mess).

To make up for size on the finished one, I did the woven border which seemed to help. Really, you could keep going around with borders until it's as big as you want it.