Crochet Dog Bowl Mat - Free Pattern and Knit Picks Dishie Yarn Review

With spring here and summer months coming ahead, cotton yarns are my go to for crocheting!  I wanted to try out the Dishie Yarn from Knit Picks, and to sum it up - it's great! Read ahead for the review as well as a free PDF pattern for a dog mat that I made for our new puppy.

When I decided to try the Dishie cotton yarn from Knit Picks, I wanted to make something that most people will use this yarn for - dish cloths.

I whipped up a super simple dish cloth that I could use for a few weeks and throw in the washer/dryer to get a good feel for how this yarn would hold up. I must say - it's fabulous!

Knit Picks Dishie Cotton Yarn Review

I'll first give you the details of this yarn:

• 100% cotton
• Worsted weight
• 190 yards/100 grams per skin
• 29 colors to choose from
• Machine washable
• $2.99 per skein on KnitPicks.com (you can often find sales on the site)

I can't say I've worked with too many cotton yarns in my day, but the two other cotton yarns I have worked with quite often are Lily's Sugar n' Cream and Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton!

I would say Knit Picks Dishie yarn is somewhere in the middle. It's not quite as thick as the Sugar n' Cream and it is a bit softer and more pleasing to work with. 

Compared to Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton!, it's not as soft and doesn't have that finished shine to it. It definitely has more of a 'raw cotton' feel to it. I would definitely choose I Love This Cotton! for a garment versus the Dishie yarn, but I think the dishie yarn is suppose to be more practical for dish cloths anyway - hence the name "dishie"!

One of my favorite things about this yarn is that it comes in vibrant colors (29 beautiful colors, to be exact!) and they don't bleed! I remember using a very vibrant, variegated Lily Sugar n' Cream and it stained my hands while working with it. It wasn't very nice to work with.

As you can see, I chose a vibrant teal color to try out and it did not bleed and held up well through the washer and dryer! 

I used this wash cloth for 3 weeks in my kitchen. Personally, I don't use it to wash my dishes. I use dish cloths to clean my counter tops and stove when I'm cleaning up in the kitchen every evening. I then wash it out in the sink and throw it in the laundry every time I am doing laundry (which is about every 3 days or so).

I have to say, through all the washing and cleaning, it's held up great! No fuzzing or pilling. Even the color has held up! A lot of my dish cloths I have made from other cotton yarns have faded in color after the first or second wash but the color on the Dishie yarn is really stickin' it out!

I give this yarn two thumbs up, especially for wash cloths. I definitely recommend trying out the Dishie Cotton yarn from Knit Picks! You can buy some here.

Free Dog Bowl Mat Crochet Pattern

If you haven't heard, we recently got a new puppy! I knew I wanted to make him something, so I made a cute little dog mat for his food and water bowls! (I also made a basket for his toys - you can find that free pattern here.)

This is a really easy pattern and you can easily adjust it to the size you need, if you need a larger mat! You could also make it larger and use it as a rug/door mat if you'd like!

DOWNLOAD THE FREE PDF PATTERN HERE

Materials:

Dishie Cotton Yarn in Kenai, Jalapeno, and Silver

H/5.00mm hook

J/6.00mm hook

Tapestry needle

Scissors

Notes:

Color A = Kenai (teal), Color B = Jalapeno (green), Color C = Silver

Abbreviations (US terms)

Ch = chain, sc = single crochet, hdc = half double crochet, dc = double crochet

Start with Color A and H/5.00mm hook

Row 1: Ch 44, hdc in 3rd chain from hook and across, turn

Row 2: Ch 1, hdc across, turn

Repeat Row 2, changing between Color A & B every 6 rows

Attach Color C and single crochet evenly around the edge, making 3 single crochet in each corner.

Fasten off and weave in ends.

Paw Applique

Using Color C and J/6.00mm hook

Magic ring, 10hdc in ring, join to first hdc

Ch 2, *dc, 2dc, repeat 3 more times

Fasten off and leave tail for sewing

That completes the main portion of the paw.

For the 4 little circles work the following with Color C and H/5.00mm hook:

Magic ring, 6sc, join to first sc

Fasten off and leave tail for sewing

Make 4 little circles.

Sew paw print onto mat in bottom right corner.