Tawashi Time

I'll be honest.  I had NO idea what a Tawashi was.  Never heard of them until I stumbled upon them on Ravelry on day.  My first thought was, "These would be great to put in OCC shoeboxes and to use up scrap yarn!"  So I whipped up a few to see if they actually looked nice and worked well.

My 5 year old princess stole claimed the first one as her own and has actually replaced her poof with it.  She loves it!  So, one point to appeal.  We have used it with both body wash and regular soap and discovered that it cleans even the dirtiest 5 year old with ease.  Another point.  And after a few weeks of use it still looks like new.  Home run!

So, what is a tawashi?  Tawashi literally means bundle.  In Japan they are used to scrub off dirt and the word is synonymous with sponge.  They can be used to replace a bath poof or to clean dishes with or whatever else you might use a sponge for.  The crochet version works up super quick (I made each one in less than an hour) and they don't use much yarn (about 40 yards of aran weight yarn).  For shoebox gifts they easily fill in the gaps and have multiple uses.

So how do you make one?  You can use ANY yarn and ANY hook, but here is how I did it.

Pounds of Love yarn
size H crochet hook

chain 27
sc in second chain from hook and each chain across.  ch 1, turn (26 sc)
(you will be working in the back loops only if you want yours to look like the one on the top and the left side of the picture above.  Work in both loops for the one on the bottom left.)
Skip first stitch and work 1 sc in each stitch until the last one.  Work 2 sc in it. ch 1, turn (26 sc)
Repeat the last row until you have 28 rows.  Fasten off leaving a long tail.
Join the last row and the first row to form a tube.  Then weave yarn around the opening on one side of the tube and pull tight to close the end.  Fasten off.  Repeat for the second side only before fastening off flatten the work so that one gathered end is above the other and run your needle through the middle a couple of times to secure them together.  That's it.

For a smaller tawashi use a smaller chain just work two rows more than the number of sc in the first row (ie first row has 24 sc so work 26 rows).  You can make it bigger by increasing your starting chain and the number of rows.

What are you going to do with your Tawashis?  Please consider make a few and packing them in a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child 
Until next time,