Little Doilies

Last month I wrote a post about the Creative Grandma’s Bath Pouf pattern. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest taking a few minutes to catch up on the conversation. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Back? Great! So yes, technically this post was supposed to go up in October. But life happened, and it’s going up now. Here is my adaptation to the bath poufs. I made the first one and gave it to my mom to test out in place of the original bath pouf design. It’s been almost a year, and she still has yet to use it…*facepalm*

Okay, let me rephrase that. Instead of using it as a shower pouf (its intended purpose), she is using it as a doily. So I started a challenge within my family. I churned out 25 or so of these and gave them out at a family reunion, asking my relatives to come up with a name and other uses for these little ‘rags’. Many agreed with my mom’s doily idea. Others suggested dish rag and said that the loop makes for easy storage while it dries. The most creative suggestion I got was to use it as a sweat rag - my cousin would put cold water on it and wipe her face during hot flashes. Not a bad idea, right? Each time I make and give one away, I’m excited to hear what people decide to do with them. Although I’ve chosen to call them ‘Little Doilies,’ I sincerely hope they find a life more interesting than serving as a doily.

Now let’s get to the fun part: the pattern itself. I’ll tell you now that every time I make one, I do it a little differently. Sometimes they’re circles. Sometimes they’re squarish. Sometimes they’re triangles. I even made a few hexagons and octagons (which yield a fuller doily). The written pattern below is for the original squarish design, but you can easily increase the number of sides/corners by adding additional [3 dc, ch 2 ] repeats in the center circle. You can also play with the fullness by adjusting the number of stitches you add with each round. So really, there’s no right or wrong way to make one of these. Just experiment and have fun. They work up quick, so you’ll have a pile of them before you know it.

Oh! One more thing: make sure you use cotton yarn (cotton scrubby yarn works great)! It holds up the best in heat and wet. Also, I typically use two colors for these, but you are more than welcome to switch it up and use more or just one color. Okay. On to the pattern!

Little Doilies by Vanessa

Pattern Abbreviations:

Ch - chain

Sl st - slip stitch

Dc - double crochet

Trc - treble crochet

With color 1 (white)

Start: ch 5, sl st to first ch to form circle

Ch 35, sl st to the first chain in this line to form hang loop

Sl st into the middle of the circle

Round 1: ch 3 (counts as first dc), 2 dc into circle, ch 2, *3 dc into circle, ch 2*, repeat between stars two more times. Sl st to the top of the ch3, pushing the hang loop to the back. Should have four 3dc groupings at the end of this round (unless you’re going rogue).

With color 2 (your choice)

Round 2: Join new color in one of the ch2 corner spaces. ch 4 (counts as first trc), 1 trc, ch 2, 2 trc in the same ch2 corner space. Do 3 trc in each of the next 2 dcs. *In the next ch2 corner space, do [2 trc, ch 2, 2 trc]. Do 3 trc in each of the next 3 dc.* Repeat between the stars two more times. Sl st to the top of the beginning ch 4.

Round 3 (similar to round 2): ch 4 (counts as first trc). Do 2 more trc in the same stitch as the sl st. Do 3 trc in each of the next trcs until you reach the ch 2 space. In the ch2 space, do [2 trc, ch 2, 2 trc]. Continue this way around until you reach the beginning. Sl st to the top of the ch 4. Fasten off and weave in ends.

All done! This pattern is meant to be quick and easy, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Let me know if any parts of the pattern are unclear. I’m still figuring out my pattern-writing style and am open to any suggestions you have. What other uses can you think of for these Little Doilies? Any ideas for other shapes? Let me know in the comments! :)