I had yarn left over from making my Kitty In Your Lap Towel and decided to make a companion wash cloth to coordinate with the towel.
“Spa Cloth” is just a fancy term for a wash cloth. In keeping with the feline community, somehow it sounds more dignified. We want to keep the kitties happy, right?
Using the same yarn type and needle size/gauge as in the Lap Towel pattern, this smaller cloth comes out to about 8.5″ square. I used just slightly less than 45 yards.
Since the spa cloth is smaller than the original lap towel, I planned the garter stitch border to be narrower. But still needed wide enough to control the kitty motif stockinette fabric square against curling.
Here are the terse instructions for how I revised the original Kitty In Your Lap Towel pattern to make this smaller Spa Cloth —
Overview: Simply put, I worked just the center kitty motif with a slightly narrower border.
Cast on 3 + 31 + 3 = 37 sts.
Begin each row with sl 1 wyif, k2.
Begin and end the spa cloth with 3 garter stitch edging rows (instead of the 5 rows called for in the Lap Towel pattern).
Work the center 31 sts of the Kitty Area chart on the center 31 sts of the non-garter border rows. I worked rows 1 – 43 for the kitty motif.
p.s. Next time, I think I will work through row 45 to give a little bit extra space above the ears before doing the upper garter stitch edging. What do you think?
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Love this pattern. My oldest son’s girlfriend has 2 cats that are her babies so I made her a pillow with the square for Christmas. I will make a spa cloth too but I also would like to convert this to a bigger size for a blanket or even lap throw but need help with that.
Any easy way to make a larger lap throw or blanket from the spa cloth size is to knit several and seam them together. This gives you a very portable project (a smaller piece to knit). You can use different colors that might be in your stash or on odd-lot sale at your LYS — then after knitting, you can easily play around with arranging them before seaming. If desired, crochet or knit a border all around after seaming. Have fun!
I love this and I agree with you, work through row 45 and give some extra space for the kitties ears. I can hardly wait to make a set for my sister, our resident “Cat Lady”, LOL.
Thank you for this adaption of the towel pattern.
I was going to try reducing the pattern to cloth-size myself, but now I don’t have to fuss over it.
Thanks again.