Tunisian Short Row Dishcloth Video Tutorial

Not too long ago, Merry of the darling Noah's Ark Crocheted Blanket fame, contacted me and asked if I could help her with a new project she had found on Ravelry for a Tunisian Short Row Dishcloth. Since I had not yet covered Tunisian crochet here at Hooked On Needles, I used that request as motivation to begin some tutorials on a few of the basic Tunisian stitches before jumping into the dishcloth pattern. I have had such fun with Tunisian Crochet since then and with this dishcloth pattern in particular. I hope you give it a try and see if you like it as much as I do.


Here are a few pictures of my first dishcloth which I made just to make sure I could do the pattern myself before offering to help anyone else with it. It was pretty easy to pick up the technique and I thought the result was very pretty and different.


The six wedges of this pattern are all crocheted in one piece using a method of Tunisian Crochet called Short Row, which means just what is says...short or incomplete rows of Tunisian Crochet. The pattern is an original of Khebhin Gibbons who posted it on Ravelry as a free pattern. I contacted him and asked his permission to include the pattern here to go along with the video, since not everyone has or wants a Ravelry account. He graciously granted permission for me to reproduce his pattern here on my site, so now you can try it too. You can find the pattern after the video at the end of this post. Please make sure you give Khebhin credit for this dishcloth pattern if you share it with anyone else.


This is the completed dishcloth that you will see from beginning to end in the following video tutorial. I used a solid color in the video just so the picture wouldn't be quite so busy. It is about 9 inches across the middle so it is a generously sized cloth. It took about 2/3 of a ball of Peaches 'N Cream cotton yarn and I stitched it with a size K or 10 1/2 afghan hook. The single crochet border was worked with the same yarn and a size K regular crochet hook.

Here's the video, which I will warn you is quite lengthy for a tutorial, running just shy of 18 minutes. I tried to cover all the major points of making this pattern so that hopefully even a beginner would be able to crochet it. If you have never done Tunisian Crochet before, you might want to start out with the Tunisian Knit Stitch tutorial so you have a basic understanding of the technique. Also when you watch the video, you might want to click the pause button just after starting the video and allow most of the video to buffer before playing it. This should allow you to watch it without any odd little glitches caused from the buffering.

Tunisian Short Row Dishcloth

You will need:
1 skein of dishcloth cotton-variegated preferred
size “J” afghan hook
yarn needle

*Note: all return rows are done as follows: Yo, pull through 1 loop on hook. **Yo, pull through two loops on hook. Rep from ** to end.

Chain 15.

First Wedge

Row 1: Pull up a loop in 2nd chain from hook. (2 loops on hook). Work return as shown in notes.

Row 2: Pull up a loop in next vertical bar. Pull up a loop in next chain st. (3 loops on hook.) Work return row.

Row 3: Pull up a loop in each of next 2 vertical bars. Pull up a loop in next chain st. (4 loops on hook.) Work return row.

Row 4: Pull up a loop in each of next 3 vertical bars. Pull up a loop in next chain st. (5 loops on hook.) Work return row.

Continue as established, pulling up a loop in next empty chain st after all vertical bars have been worked until you have worked all the chain sts and you have 15 loops on the hook. Work a return row. (1 loop remaining on hook.)

Wedges 2-6

Work as for Wedge 1, but using vertical bars on previous wedge instead of chain stitches.

After the sixth wedge has been worked off, slip stitch in each vertical bar across. Break yarn and thread yarn needle. With right sides facing, sew or whip stitch edges together. Using tail from original chain, sew center hole closed. Attach yarn to any stitch on outer edge and work 1 round of single crochet around entire edge. (That part is optional). Weave in ends and call it a day!

This Rainbow Tunisian Jacket designed by Dora Ohrenstein is a colorful example of using Tunisian Short Row for shaping a garment. It's a little more ambitious project than the dishcloth, but certainly something to look at and admire. I'm considering adding it to my wish list of projects to do someday!

Happy Stitching!

Click here to return to HookedOnNeedles.com