The holiday cottage we'd rented on the Isle of White was reasonably well equipped, but had no dishcloth or jay cloth or similar. As it was pouring it down, and the idea of leaving the cottage to go in search of shops was unappealing, I decided to have a go at making one. 

Crocheted dishcloth

With the absence of reliable internet, I improvised. I had a large bag of yarns with me, as I'm still working on my "odds and ends" blanket, and picked out my least favoured, most harsh, yarn - a redish acrylic thing (Wendy foxy DK in strawberry). I did a foundation chain of 25 and single crocheted for about 28 rows, until it was squarish, all using my nice new Clover soft touch 5.5mm hook. I did make a boo-boo of the first few rows and managed to end up increasing the width to probably around 28 stitches before realising what I was doing wrong. As it was just a dishcloth I figured it wasn't worth unpicking and starting again. This is why there is a circular gap near one corner - I figured if asked I could say it was a hole to hang it from! 

I edged it with one row of single crochet in the same strawberry yarn, and then finished with a single row of single crochet in navy blue (Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK in skittle). This was the first time I'd edged anything which wasn't already stitched all around (i.e. granny square/blanket) and I was kind of surprised how easy it was actually (I'd fortunately watched a YouTube video the previous week showing how to as otherwise I don't think I'd have known where to start). I do have to get better at making sure it ends up even and not too wonky. None of which matters for a dishcloth, but would for a blanket or scarf or something.

Still, not bad for an hour or two’s experiment, some more lessons learnt, and a resulting dishcloth to keep the cottage clean.