Valley Yarns Charaxes Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Charaxes Striped Dish Towels

What is Being Made

The Valley Yarns Charaxes pattern creates a set of two reversible striped dish towels, each measuring 12" x 19". These practical kitchen textiles feature cheerful striped borders and a textured surface, making them suitable for both everyday kitchen use and guest bathroom display. The pattern includes enough yarn to complete two towels with different stripe color sequences, offering versatility in your finished pieces.

Craft and Techniques

This is a knitting project designed for beginners. The towels are worked flat in rows using straight needles rather than in the round, making them accessible for knitters new to the craft. The pattern employs striping techniques throughout, with color changes worked at regular intervals to create the distinctive striped borders. A key technique featured in this pattern is color carrying—unused yarn colors are carried up along the side of the piece when color changes occur closely together, or cut when working in a single color for more than 6 rows. This method reduces bulk and waste while maintaining clean edges.

Stitches Used

The primary stitch pattern used throughout the Charaxes towels is Slipped Rib, which creates the textured surface characteristic of these dish towels. This stitch pattern is worked consistently across all rows and color sections, providing both visual interest and practical scrubbing texture. The slipped rib construction contributes to the reversible nature of the finished towels, with the right side and wrong side displaying different surface textures despite using the same stitch pattern.

Materials and Yarn

The Charaxes pattern calls for Valley Yarns Leverett, a linen and cotton blend yarn composed of 70% cotton and 30% linen. This fiber content provides the soft durability necessary for functional dish towels that withstand frequent washing and scrubbing. The yarn requirements include 2 hanks of Leverett in white (the main color), 1 hank in either lilac or sky (contrast color 1), and 1 hank in either leaf or seafoam (contrast color 2). Each hank contains 50 grams and 109 yards of yardage.

The pattern requires US 5 (3.75mm) needles for the main knitting, along with double-pointed needles (dpn) for any finishing work. Additional materials needed include stitch markers for tracking pattern repeats and a tapestry needle for weaving in ends. The recommended gauge is 20 stitches and 36 rows over 4 inches when worked in the Slipped Rib pattern and blocked.

Pattern Construction Details

The towels begin with a Long-Tail Cast-On of 61 stitches using the main color. The pattern then progresses through a series of stripe sequences, alternating between the main color and two contrast colors in specific row counts. The initial section features 8 rows in the main color, followed by 6 rows in the first contrast color, then 4 rows in the main color, and 4 rows in the second contrast color. This 8-row sequence is repeated once more before the pattern transitions to the main body of the towel. The center section is worked in the main color until the piece measures 15½ inches from the cast-on edge, followed by a final striped border section that mirrors the beginning. The pattern is suitable for beginners due to its straightforward construction and consistent use of a single stitch pattern throughout.