Striped Hand Towel

Originally I wanted to create a Corner to Corner (C2C) hand towel that was simple enough that beginners could crochet one. That’s when I designed this Striped Hand Towel. It has color changes, but they are only at the end of rows. You don’t need to change colors in the middle of a row like you would with a C2C with a picture. This post may contain affiliate links for products I use and recommend. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

UPDATE!!!

There’s now a free video Corner To Corner crochet course if you’re new to crochet! Click the link here for the complete list of video classes! After I completed the Striped Hand Towel, my husband said, “you should make one with an acorn and an oak leaf.” Well, long story short, it was back to the yarn store for me. My husband has great ideas, but not so great timing. 😀 And that’s when I decided to make two towels; one a simpler C2C and the other with a picture. I chose the same colors so that they could go together if you chose to make both. You can see free pattern for the Acorn Hand Towel here. To keep the towel on the smaller side, I decided to use the mini C2C method. It’s similar to the standard C2C except that you’ll start out with a chain 4 instead of a chain 6 and you will be using half double crochet stitches throughout instead of the double crochets. You can certainly use the double crochets if you prefer. Just remember that your finished towel will be larger than the example. If I’m being completely honest, I would have to say that the striped version is my favorite! I will be making more of these in different colors to use the rest of the year. Pastels for spring? Blues for winter? Red, white and blue for summer? Absolutely! These towels came out so thick and soft. I couldn’t stop squishing them! I also think they will last longer than the thin store bought towels that eventually end up threadbare and tattered. In addition to using them as hand towels for your kitchen or bath, you could use them as dish drying mats if you wash your dishes by hand. I still do and I use dish drying mats daily. I designed these three dish towels/dish drying mats last year and these are the same ones that I am still using today. They have held up beautifully! If you’d like to see more crochet patterns that I’ve designed for the kitchen, you can see those at the link. Even though I consider this pattern to be easy, I still created written line-by-line instructions for those of you who don’t like following graphs. For free in this blog post, you will get the abbreviated instructions for working mini C2C and the graph. If you chose to purchase the ad-free, large print PDF, you will receive the instructions and graph in this blog post as well as the written line-by-line instructions. I’m offering the PDF for only $1.99 and your purchase helps support my blog so that I can continue to create these free patterns. Thank you so much for your support! Add this project to your Ravelry queue here… PIN THIS PATTERN TO PINTEREST

Striped Hand Towel

Materials Used:

• 2 skeins of I Love This Cotton! In Woods – 3 oz/85 g – 153 yds/140 m
• 1 skein of I Love This Cotton! In Brown – 3 oz/85 g – 153 yds/140 m
• 1 skein of I Love This Cotton! In Sage – 3 oz/85 g – 153 yds/140 m Or any size 4 medium weight cotton yarn will work
• G/6 (4.25 mm) hook – my favorite crochet hooks that I use daily!
• Tapestry needle

Finished Size Approximately:

21.5” Length x 13” Width

Gauge:

8 ¾ blocks and 9 ¼ rows in a 4” (10cm) square.

Abbreviations:

FC – foundation chain sc – single crochet hdc – half double crochet st(s) – stitch(es) ch(s) – chain(s) sl st – slip stitch

Notes:

• This Striped Hand Towel pattern uses the C2C (corner to corner) crochet technique. With C2C, you can either begin using a chain 4 and work half double crochets (also called mini C2C) or chain 6 and work double crochets for your blocks. This example is worked using the mini C2C or chain 4 and half double crochets. If you choose the double crochets your finished towel will be larger than the example.
• I encourage you to crochet over top of any loose ends as you work to help reduce the amount of ends to weave in after you’ve finished.
• The border instructions use symbols like @ to @ to represent a repeated set of instructions just as the more commonly used symbols like * to *. Both symbols are used to communicate two separate sets of instructions within one row.

*** American crochet terms used throughout.

Abbreviated Instructions:

Using Background Color FC: Ch 4 Row 1: Hdc in the 3rd ch from the hook. Hdc in the 4th ch. Turn. (1 block) Row 2: Ch 4. Hdc in the 3rd ch from the hook. Hdc in the 4th ch. Sl st in the ch-2 space on the first block. Ch 2, 2 hdc in ch-2 space. Turn. (2 blocks) Row 3: Ch 4. Hdc in the 3rd ch from the hook. Hdc in the 4th ch. *Sl st in the ch-2 space on the next block. Ch 2, 2 hdc in ch-2 space.* Repeat * to * one more time. Turn. (3 blocks) Row 4: Ch 4. Hdc in the 3rd ch from the hook. Hdc in the 4th ch. *Sl st in the ch-2 space on the next block. Ch 2, 2 hdc in ch-2 space.* Repeat * to * two more times. Turn. (4 blocks) Continue along with pattern in same manner, increasing the repeat by one with every row. Change colors according to the chart or written instructions. For Decrease Rows, sl st in the next 2 sts along the side of the last block from the previous row until you come to the ch-2 space of that same block. Sl st into that ch-2 space and then ch 2 and work 2 hdc in that ch-2 space. Continue on with your row.

Border

Attach Brown in the space between any two sets of blocks. Round 1: Ch 1, sc in between the two blocks that your ch 1 comes out of. @ *Ch 1, sc inbetween next set of blocks* Repeat from * to * across to the corner. Ch 1. At the corner block, 3 sc all in same corner st.@ Repeat from @ to @ 3 more times. Repeat from * to * once more until you come to the 1st sc made of round. Ch 1, sl st in 1st sc made of round. Don’t turn. Round 2: Ch 1, sc in the same st your ch 1 comes out of, @*sc in ch-1 space, sc in next sc from previous row* Repeat from * to * across to corner. In the middle sc of the 3 sc that make up the corner, 3 sc all in same space. Sc in next sc from previous row @ Repeat from @ to @ 3 more times. Repeat from * to * once more until you come to the 1st sc made of round. Sc in ch-1 space. Sl st in 1st sc made of round. Don’t turn. Round 3: Ch 1, sc in the same st your ch 1 comes out of. *Sc in every st to corner. In the middle sc of the 3 sc that make up the corner, 3 sc all in same space.* Repeat from * to * 3 more times. Sc in every st until you come to the 1st sc made of round. Sl st in 1st sc made of round. Finish off. Weave in end. Here is the link again to see the Acorn Hand Towel. PIN THIS PATTERN TO PINTEREST HERE I hope you’ve enjoyed the Striped Hand Towel pattern! If you make one and would like to share your work, please tag me @highlandhickorydesigns so that I can admire your work too!

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***Click here for the ad-free, large print PDF from Ravelry***

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