Starfish Washcloth Free Crochet Pattern Workshop ~ Cute Crochet Washcloth Tutorial and Free Pattern

Hey everyone, it's Deja from CrochetEverAfter.com. Today we're going to make this cute little starfish washcloth. It was a request from one of the viewers that wanted a beachy type washcloth, so this is what I came up with. The pattern download link is right below so you can click on that to download the pattern, and we'll get started right now. Okay, so to make our starfish washcloth, what we're going to be, or what I'm going to be using is a Knit Picks Dishy, which is 100% cotton, so you can also substitute with any 100% cotton, and I'm using Clementine is the name of the color, the color number is 25403, and the hook I'm going to be using with this yarn is a 5mm USH hook. And this is a nice, easy-care yarn that you can wash and dry, so that's why you usually want to choose a cotton for a washcloth. To get started, we're going to put a slipknot on our hook, make sure you have a nice long tail for weaving in. You're going to be using this a lot with water, so you want a nice, good weave in at the end so it doesn't pop out. The beginning instructions tell me to chain four. I'm going to join that with a slip stitch at the beginning of the first chain. I don't really care where I'm joining in that first chain because my first round of actual instructions is going to cover the entire chain, so it doesn't have to be pretty. Just put it through any loop that you like and slip stitch it to finish off the round. You'll see it's kind of a muddled mess here. If we just pull on it, we'll find that center hole. that we're going to work into right below. So my very first instructions are chain three, which is going to count as double crochet, and then we're going to do 14 double crochets into our center ring. So I'm going to yarn over and I'm going to find that center hole again and put my hook through and then yarn over and pull up that loop. You'll see it's more of like a layover, you're not really yarning over. Finish off my double crochet, so let me show you that layover again. Yarn over, put through the center, and I'm just kind of laying over the top of my hook. So if you're a beginner, you're not actually wrapping it around or anything. You just lay it over and turn your hook to grab it and pull it through the center. Then I'm going to yarn over and I'm going to pull through the first two loops and yarn over and pull through the second two. I'm going to keep on doing that. I'm going to leave my tail out. Sometimes you can crochet it into the beginning ring, but I'm going to leave it out and just let it fall behind so that I can weave it in easier at the end. So there's another double crochet. I'm going to do 14 of these, so I'm going to have 15 all together because I'm counting that chain three as my very first double crochet. I'm on my last double crochet, and you can see that my center ring is completely covered now. If you have trouble counting the post when it's in a tight circle like this, remember you can turn your work and just count your Vs. So the stitches that look like Vs, count how many you have, make sure you have 14 Vs and then this chain three, which doesn't really... It looks like a little bit of a V, but it's a little bit more muddled. um to get your 15 for your first round. After you get your 15th you're going to join with a slip stitch at the top of your chain three. So I usually grab two loops when I join and the reason being let me grab just one first so you can see if you've never seen my tutorials before. If I grab one and I do a slip stitch it pulls on all the other chains that I've made and And it creates this big hole. that my join will have. If I grab two loops, which, I'll pull it back into shape, if I grab that back loop and the bottom bump of my foundation chain that I made, that's the bottom bump right there, you can see on each chain there's a little dash for the bottom bump, I grab both of those loops, and I have two loops twisted on here, and I join with a slip stitch. That hole is a lot less noticeable. It doesn't pull on the rest of the chains, and it's more in line with the rest of my stitches. So now we're going to move on to our round two instructions. So the first thing we're going to do is chain three, and that counts as a double crochet. And then we're going to double crochet back into that same stitch. So that little hole that we have, we're going to double crochet right into it, and that's going to create an increase. And then after that, we're going to start making our star points. So our next stitch is going to be into our next one, and the next one after the join always looks a little strange and small, so you've got to make sure you get in there and get under both loops. I'm going to double crochet in there, if I can get in there, there we go, and I'm going to chain two to start making the first point of my starfish, and double crochet back into that same stitch. We're going to start to form a point for our fish. This is also the beginning of our pattern repeat, so our DC, chain two DC in one stitch. Then we're going to do two double crochets in the next stitch and the next stitch. So we're going to do two increases in our next two stitches. So I did two double crochets. In that stitch. And then two double crochets in the next stitch. And you'll see how I grab my stitches when I pull through my loops. That's just a habit of mine. It keeps my loops kind of the same size and keeps them from pulling out when I'm pulling through. That's just something that I always do. So if you want to keep, especially with like slippery yarn, like cotton yarn, it'll help keep your loops the same size so that you're not having stitches that are pulling out very easily. So when you have slippery yarn, if you grab onto your stitches as you pull through, it will help them stay the same size. So now I'm going to do my repeat again. So I'm going to do my next point. So I'm going to double crochet once in the next stitch. And then I'm going to chain two and double crochet right back into that stitch. And then I'm going to do my increases again. So I'm going to do that for three more points, so I can have my five-pointed star. And then we'll finish off the last few stitches at the end of the round. I finished my four repeats, so now I just have my last two stitches. And in the second-to-last stitch, I need to make my fifth point of my star. So double crochet and chain two, and double crochet all in that stitch. Then you'll remember at the very beginning of our round we did two double crochets in one stitch. So we need to do our other two double because in between each point we have four double crochets. So right now I only have two double crochets in between these two points. So I need to do two in this last stitch so that I'm even all the way around. And then after I finish those two double crochets, I'm going to go ahead and join with a slip stitch again, right at the top of my chain three. Okay, so we've got round two done. Now we have a semi-star shape. It's more like a pentagon. But we're going to start with round three. And my very first instructions are to slip stitch into my next stitch. So that kind of short-looking double crochet, I want to slip stitch there. And this is just to keep my pattern easier. And I'll explain that more when we get all the way around, you'll see why that's an important stitch to make. So we'll slip stitch and start round 3. So to begin, after our slip stitch, we're going to chain 3 for our very first double crochet. That's going to count as our stitch that is above this double crochet. And now we're going to double crochet into our next stitch. So once I start working around, you're going to see the pattern that's developing to create more of a star look to this pattern. Now we're going to create our corner. of one of our points and we're going to do that by doing three double crochets first around the chain. We don't work into the chain, we always go around the chain because we have more stitches than we have chains to put in here. I'm going to do three around and then I'm going to chain two again for a new point and then I'm going to do another three inside. This is going to give us a lot more defined point here. To work around, you're simply putting your hook all the way through the center and grabbing it and pulling it up. I like to keep it close to my chain, and that keeps all my stitches nice and consistent. Now I'm going to do a double crochet in my next two stitches. But if you notice, this stitch right here is my next one, and it's a little hard to see the actual loops that I'm supposed to go under. That's because I have so many stitches on my chain that it's blocking it. So make sure you pull those stitches over until you can see those two loops that you need to work under. That way you're not skipping it and working straight into that next stitch. You've got to work into this first stitch. Make sure you catch both loops. And I'm going to do a double crochet there. I'm going to double crochet into my next stitch. And now we're really going to start getting a star shape because we're going to skip These next two stitches, these next two double crochets are not going to be worked into. I'm going to do a double crochet in the third stitch here, and that's going to bring the points together and create more of a star shape. Double crochet into the next stitch, and then we're going to do our corner again. So we're going to repeat this pattern of doing three double crochets, chain two, three double crochets into our corner, And then we're going to work that same two double crochet, skip two, two double crochet. We're going to do that all the way around so we can make our five points of our star. Okay, I just did my last point and I'm doing my two double crochets before I skip my two stitches. You'll see that Because I did that slip stitch, because I did that slip stitch, I have two stitches to skip. If I hadn't have done that slip stitch into my next stitch, I would have only had one. So now I'm going to join right at the top of my chain three to join my round with a slip stitch. So to begin, we're going to slip stitch because we need to free up that stitch that we're going to be skipping at the very end. Then we're going to chain three to be our first double crochet. And now we're going to do... Three more double crochets, one in each stitch that we come to, until we get to that point. And that gives us a nice, dense washcloth. We have four double crochets, technically, between each of our skipped double crochets. So again, we're going to do three in the corner. It's not really a corner, since it's a star. I always tend to call it that. We're going to chain two in that same space. And we remember to pull our stitches over so that we can get into that first double crochet that we've come to. And we're going to do four stitches, so one, two, three, and then we have our two middle double crochets from the round below. That's creating our divot in between our points, and we've got to keep that, so we're going We're gonna skip those two and do our next four stitches. A double crochet. It's going to create a little kind of hole all the way up. So we're going to keep doing this pattern all the way around again. Double crochets, skipping those middle two and creating our points with the three double crochets, chain two, three double crochets. Keep working around this round and then we'll come back for our round five, right? One, two, three, four, yep. We're on round four so we'll come back for round five. Okay, we're just finishing at the last side of our star for round four. With my four double crochets on the side, I'm gonna have those last two that I have to skip, so I just Join the top of my chain three with that slip stitch, and that creates the little pocket that we have on each side. So now my little cute starfish washcloth is getting even cuter, and I'm going to work on row five, or round five, and you probably guess what our stitch pattern is going to be. We're going to chain, or first, I always forget that slip stitch. Got to remember the slip stitch first, and then we're going to chain three, and now We're going to have, let's see, one, two, three, four, five double crochets, so six all together with that chain three, so we're going to have six double crochets on each of these sides of our points, and then our double crochet three times, chain two, double crochet three times, once again. So it's the same pattern, we're just adding a couple of extra double crochets to each side of our point. So we're going to work this whole round the same similar way, except we're doing six on each side instead of four like the last round, so each round increases by two. Three in here. You're probably very used to pushing your stitches aside to get into that first stitch after the point, so you shouldn't have to keep bothering you with it, that even I forget sometimes. I want to just keep working so quickly that I skip that stitch all together. So I have to consciously remind myself to move it over and get that stitch. So let's keep working around. Remember you're going to do six, and then skip two double crochets to make our little hole in the middle. And then we'll meet up right near the end like we did on the last round. Then we'll only have one more round to go. And also what you can do is if you don't want it as big as the one that I made, you can stop after this round and go straight to the last round instructions. Or if you want to make it even bigger, it's the same pattern. You're just going to keep filling in double crochets and skipping those two in the middle and doing your three, chain two, three in each point. So you can make this as small or as big as you want. So let's keep going on round five and I'll meet you right at the end of it. I'm almost done with my round five and then we're just going to have one more round of double crochet before we finish. Yay! And then we'll do our finishing round which is round seven and you will be ready to wash. I'm going to join my star with a slip stitch at the top. You can see I have a cute cute star going on and I like my washcloths nice and big so I'm doing one more round. And of course, it's going to be the same stitch pattern, chain 3, now this time we're going to have 7 double crochets, 8 total with that chain 3 on each side of our point, and we're going to do the 3 double crochet, chain 2, 3 double crochet in our corner, and we're going to skip those 2 middle double crochets just like every other round, and we're going to work all the way around again. And then we'll finish off with our round seven that's going to include our little hanging loop for our washcloth. So that's optional and I'll show you what you're gonna do if you don't want that. So go ahead and keep on working on round six and I'll meet you right when we join up. All right, we are right at the very end of round six and we're ready to join up and do our finishing round seven. So round seven is totally optional. If you like the way that your washcloth looks now, you can just leave it as is. But the last round is going to kind of give just a nice edging and also a hanging loop. So if you want to be able to hang your washcloth, this is going to be the round for you. So we don't need to slip stitch. Actually, I'm sorry, we do need to slip stitch because we are still skipping stitches at the very end. So we slip stitch our very first stitch. And then we're going to chain one, because this is going to be a round of single crochets. So we're going to single crochet into that same stitch that we slip stitched. I'm not counting the chain one as a single crochet. And then we're going to just single crochet in every stitch that we come to. So instead of double crocheting, we're just single crocheting. This is going to give us a nice edge. It'll kind of help our washcloth lay a little flatter. When we come to our points, I'm going to do a regular corner on this point, and I'm going to do the hanging loop on the next one. That way if you don't want the hanging loop, you'll already know what to do. So for the corners or the points, we're going to do three single crochets around the chain, and that's going to just round off our point. And then remember, pull those stitches over and get in that first double crochet. And we're still going to skip those two middle stitches in between our points. We still want to keep that little hole going that we have in between each point. So once you get to those two center double crochets of the round below, we're going to skip those. So that would be, let's see how many we have actually that we're working into. We have one two three four five six seven 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Eight, nine, ten, and then we skip. So it's two extra just like from each row before. So we have those two, we're going to skip over those and do our single crochet in the next one. So it creates a smaller hole but still has the hole. Now we're going to do our hanging loop at this point. So if you don't want the hanging loop, just do the three single crochets in the corner. Otherwise we're going to work this next point into that hanging loop. So what you're going to do for your hanging loop, you're going to do your first single crochet into your group point, and you're going to do your second single crochet. Now you're going to stop before your third, and you're going to chain 16 nice and tight. That way they're not all loopy. Just keep them right on the shaft of your hook so that they're all the same size. And we're going to do 16 total. Keep going, I wasn't counting, let me count mine real quick. To finish off my hanging loop, I'm going to go back into the first chain I made, and I'm going to slip stitch it. So I'm going to catch the back loop in the bottom bump, so I don't create a huge hole, and slip stitch that nice and tight. I'll even tighten it down a little, and then I'm going to do that last single crochet in my chain. So now I have my hanging loop coming out of the middle of the point, and it's all ready to go. And then I'm going to keep single crocheting all the way around. You can make your loop bigger or smaller, depending on what size you like it. So if you want you can do more chains or less chains, but 16 seems to be a good number for plastic hooks for showers. So keep on single crocheting and skipping those two middle stitches, and we'll meet near the end of round seven to finish off and weave in our loose ends. Okay, I'm right on my last single crochet. Remember we slip stitched and created our first single crochet over here, so we can skip those two middle stitches. So I'm going to join my round in the first single crochet, and not the chain one. Just go straight into your first single crochet and join it with a slip stitch. And then to fasten off, I like to do, instead of pulling the loop out and cutting it and pulling it through, I just make a chain and pull that nice and long, long enough to weave in my ends. Then I just pull out the extra loop. Okay, our last step before we are ready to use this washcloth is to weave in our ends. I like to do a video, I like to put it in a video just for people that may not, may have not seen people weave in ends before. So at my fasten off, sometimes it may stick up a little, what you can do is just go into your very next stitch and push your hook through, or sorry, your needle through and pull that Pull that down and it kind of blends in and hides it. Since this is a washcloth and you're most likely going to use both sides of it, or you'll see both sides all the time, you want to get your stitches or your needle between your stitches so that you don't have a wrong or right side to your project. There's lots of gaps between these stitches. So you want to make sure that you're staying within the dense parts when you're sewing. So don't go straight across these big open spaces and create a big line. And as you weave in, Pull back and forth, so you want to go kind of diagonally, you can split your yarn, that's fine, it doesn't matter, but pull in different areas as you go so that way it will lay slack and not really tight to where it's going to bounce back and then poke out from your work. So go one way and then go the other way, and you're just going to do that for both of your Cut your ends until they are sufficiently weaved in. Depending on how much you want to do. I like to do enough to where if it does stick out, I don't worry about having to cut that little piece that's sticking out when I'm using it. So you're just going to do both ends, and then we'll come back and check out our finished project. Alright, I finished weaving in my ends, and my washcloth is now all complete and ready for use. If you have any questions, you can leave them below, otherwise, thank you for watching!