San Agústin Facecloth by Chain Twenty

Merel at Chain Twenty was one of the first people I followed on Instagram back when I started Knits Please last year. I was immediately in love with her beautiful, minimalist aesthetic, and I always loved to see what she was working on.

I’ve definitely been inspired by more than one of her projects, and when she started to design her own knitting pattern, I just knew that I’d want to make it.

The San Agústin facecloth is a classic design. It’s modern and simple enough for the minimalist in me, but completely customisable in colour and pattern for someone who wants a bit more jazz – think colour block stripes or a little ombre effect!

It took me a little while to get to knitting this pattern, because I was trying to work monogomously on my projects, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I was always hoping to make this with some leftover yarn I had from a previous project, which I knit in Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim DK in Charcoal. Thankfully, I had just enough, but I also had some adjustments to make.

The San Agústin pattern calls for a cotton worsted yarn, and the yarn I had was a DK weight. I first worked up a swatch using the needle size in the pattern, but the knit was far too loose for what the facecloth needed, so I went down a couple of sizes to make sure I’d get the right texture. Then, I had to calculate my stitches to account for the smaller knit. I was aware that I only had a little of the yarn left, so I was cautious with my stitch count and, as a result, my facecloth turned out a little smaller than the pattern.

What’s great about the pattern though, is that it includes all of the measurements for all of the different sections. This meant that I was able to take the actual width of my facecloth, and use the pattern’s measurements to calculate what the length should be in order to keep it all in proportion.

I’d also recently finished knitting a few socks, and I wasn’t really feeling all of the Kitchener bind off that the pattern calls for, so I decided to work it from the top down. I cast on with Judy’s magic cast on at the top of the facecloth, and worked backwards through the pattern instructions, to keep it as accurate as possible.

I had made a small error in my calculations for the number of stitches I cast on, because I ended up with uneven ribbing. Instead of being symmetrical and beginning and ending with a purl stitch, I had a purl stitch on one end, but a knit stitch on the other. Really, this is hardly noticeable and doesn’t take away at all from the finished item.

I really enjoyed knitting the San Agústin facecloth. It was quick, fun and I love all of the details that Merel has added to the pattern to make it look super refined and professional. It’s definitely something I’ll be knitting again, and I think it would make a great gift – perhaps a good stocking-filler for Christmas! You can find the San Agústin facecloth pattern here, and you can follow Merel on Instagram here.