Crocheted towel holder from Little Birdie Secrets
I will admit, I love me some Pinterest. The DIY section is pretty much the only area I’ve ever ventured into but all those pictures are a fun way to get inspired for the craftiness. I recently came across a pin for this crocheted towel holder (pictured left). It caught my eye because our oven handle is so close to the oven door that you can barely get a tea towel to hang there. But! With a tea towel holder ring, I knew that problem would be solved. Not to mention, it’s pretty darn cute. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to crochet. So I decided to make up my own knit pattern to look similar and function identically. What you need:
- Scrap yarn (I probably ended up well under a yard of my leftovers)
- Double pointed needles, size US6
- 1 medium sized button and thread
The pattern:
- Cast on 9 stitches
- Row 1: Knit all stitches
- Row 2: k4, bind off 1, k4 (this creates your button hole)
- Row 3: k3, kbf, k4
- From here, continue knitting all stitches (garter stitch) until your piece measures 3 to 4 inches*
- Next row: bind off 6, k3
- With your 3 remaining live stitches, knit an i-cord 3 inches long
- Bind off the i-cord
Now your knitting is done. All you have to do is sew the loose end of the i-cord up to make a loop where your tea towel will sit, add a button right above your i-cord loop, weave in your ends, and then button up your knit topper on your stove handle. * You can modify how long you make your topper depending on the size of your oven handle. With the weight of the tea towel, it will stretch a bit so no need to go crazy on the length. Here’s what my basic garter stitch version looks like: 
This is a really quick project to knit up and since it’s small, it could be a good way to experiment with different stitches. Next time, I may give a herringbone stitch a try just for fun.
Becoming Crafty 
don’t know what kbf stands for can u help me please……
Hi Maggie! KBF or KFB stands for “knit in front and back”. Knittinghelp.com has one of my favorite resources on increases – you can check it out here. She has two videos for this type of increase: one in the continental knitting style and one in the English style. Happy knitting!
What is I cord?
Hi Brenda! Here’s an article about I-Cords: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2006/09/29/i-cord/ As they say, it’s a knit tube. Happy knitting!
I saw that same crocheted towel holder on Pinterest and I don’t know how to crochet either (but would love to learn). I will copy your pattern and knit my own. Thank you very much for this!
Btw, Very Pink Knits has an awesome YouTube channel. She also has “crochet for knitters” videos. https://www.youtube.com/user/verypinkknits.
Thanks, Ronna! This was definitely just an experiment so let me know how yours turns out / any modifications you make. It’s pretty easy to just garter stitch a bit but I may get fancier with the next one and try a cable. Thanks for the YouTube channel! I’ll check it out and maybe we’ll both be crocheting in no time.
Did you try it in cable stitch? I’d love a pattern for it. I’m new to cable stitch, so this might be the perfect little project to practise it.
I want to get the button hole a bit bigger. This hardly made a hole. What would you suggest?
(I love this, by the way)
Hi Kathy! Yes, the hole size does depend a lot on the stretch in your yarn – mine was quite stretchy so the pattern worked for me.
To make a bigger hole, here’s what I’d recommend doing for the start of the pattern:
If a single yarn over still doesn’t get you the size hole you need, you can yarn over twice or even three times in Row 2. If you do, in Row 3, just knit one of the yarn overs and drop the other one (or two). That way, even though after Row 2, you have 10 or 11 stitches on your needle, you only knit 9 and drop the others to form a larger hole.
I put together a quick sample to show you what each of these would roughly look like in terms of hole-size:
Apologies the pictures are a little rough but hopefully that gives you an idea of the relative size of creating one, two or three yarn overs, rather than binding off one stitch. Let me know if that works for your project!
Thank You…I have wanted to do this for quite some time but didn’t want to knit it onto the actual towel.
I’m confused are we using dpns or circular needles because we are knitting in the round? Or just using the short needles because it’s only 9 stitches?
DPNs! Short ones are fine. There’s no knitting in the round, I just used circulars once because I didn’t have any DPNs available. 🙂
Bear with me, please, as I can be a little dense in understanding the written word. I’m still confused by the use of either dpn’s or a circular needle. Since there is no knitting in the round, what exactly is the purpose of them?
Oh, and thank you for sharing the pattern. I’ve always wanted to do something like this. 🙂
No worries! You’re correct, there’s no knitting in the round. Just use dpns. ☺ Let me know how it goes!
Thanks, finished, all but sewing on a button! Finally, a solution for keeping a dish towel on the oven door handle. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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I have knit 3 of these, but mine continue to look like the crocheted version. In your photo it looks like the holder has less stitches to begin and end with. Mine looks more square than yours. Any suggestions on what I maybe doing wrong.
Hi Jody! Mine actually stretched quite a bit which is why it looks like that. Part of the reason is that I keep my yarn fairly loose as I knit. If you like the look of the holder getting more narrow at the end, you could try the following:
From here, continue knitting all stitches (garter stitch) until your piece measures 3 to 4 inches*
When you have your desired length,
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This is a really great pattern, thanks for sharing. One question, how do I attach the I-cord?
Hi Darcy! So sorry for the horribly slow reply. I just stitched in the tail of the yarn from the i-cord to make the loop and tied a knot. Not too precise but it’s still holding together.
I think the questions about dpns was asked because dpns are usually used when knitting in the round. Why are dpns used when the pattern is not knitted in the round? Is it because of the i-cord at the end?
Yes, that’s right! You could definitely use regular knitting needles for the body and make an i-cord separately but I just made the whole thing as one piece so it was easier to use the DPNs all the way through. Here’s a nice article on i-cords specifically: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2006/09/29/i-cord/