Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Therefore I have a new Valentine’s Day pattern to make a decorative dishcloth. Its a bit of a tradition for me, to make a little Love Day themed dishcloth that is pretty, and special and will never, not ever, actually touch a dirty dish. And perhaps I should explain that a bit.

I have a mom.

Oh you need more than that? Okay. I have a mom who possesses a big ol’ country kitchen and she has both the space and the inclination to keep a full set of functional dishcloths and a set of purely-decorative-do-not-touch-these dishcloths. So every year for Valentines Day I make her something. This year I did a double sided heart. Here are the patterns from the previous two years:

 

If you like those better than a double sided heart, and I would totally not fault you for that, then grab those patterns. They are both freebies.

Why would I not fault you? Because double sided knitting is a big pain in the butt. Its fussy and slow. Don’t get me wrong, I love the results and Mom is totally worth it. But she is the only one on earth who is worth it. I certainly would never bother to make this pattern for myself. But then… you are reading the blog of a woman who doesn’t bother to make her bed in the morning. Fussy.

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If you do feel like taking on double sided knitting, but you don’t have much experience with it, you are in luck. I have a free video tutorial for that.

ppsssttt! Mom got those double sided scrubbies I made in the video above. Wanna bet that they are still perfectly pristine? 

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Now that I have all that out of the way, here is the pattern.

Double Dealing Hearts – a free knit pattern

I used two colors of worsted weight cotton and a size 6 (4mm) needle. The finished size is 8.5 inches wide and 7 inches tall (21.5 cm by 18 cm).

As this is a double sided knit, you will work with stitches that make up the mostly-red side and the stitches that make up the mostly-white side at the same time.

So when I say …

Cast on 29 stitches

… you’ll need 29 stitch of each color. There will be 29 of Color A (red) and 29 of Color B (white). The easiest way to do that is to hold both strands together and cast on, as I show in the tutorial I linked above.

Begin work on Row 1, the mostly-red (Color A) side. That means, knit the red stitches and purl the white stitches. Row 2 will be the mostly-white (Color B) side. That means knit the white stitches and purl the red stitches.

The first color switch happens in Row 7.

But (!!!) remember that for every row, always slip the first two stitches purlwise and knit the last two stitches together (with both working strands). That will keep the sides of your piece closed.

Again if this sounds like goobly-gook, that tutorial might help.

 

When you are on an odd numbered row, i.e. the mostly-red side, use this chart. (It shows you the color of the knitted stitches.)

Then you are on an even numbered row, i.e. the mostly-white side, use this chart:

 

After 34 rows bind off. Its not a complicated pattern at all. Its just double sided and that requires a bit of mental concentration.

But Mom is worth it. Happy Valentine’s Day!