One of my favorite summer pastimes is hunting for whelk shells with my dad on the beach at Cape May, NJ, so I was inspired to design this pattern with the whelk stitch. The texture is created with a four-stitch repeat over four rows that involves slipped stitches and alternating between knits and purls.

Any cotton yarn may be used for this dishcloth (or washcloth). Gauge is not too important since this isn’t a garment, but I do include instructions for making the dishcloth wider and longer if desired.

Bonus instructions are included on how to turn this into a tea towel! You will need about 200 yards of yarn for this.