Soap Saver Recipe

You can use any sport/dk or worsted/aran weight cotton or cotton/linen blend yarn for this. Once you have picked your yarn you can determine hook size. For example, on the tan soap saver pictured I used a worsted weight cotton and a 4.5mm hook. This gave me a very dense scrubby fabric. On the yellow one I used a larger hook to get a softer fabric. Choose your hook based on your tension and the effect you're going for. Just keep in mind that you want it to dry out between uses so if you go for super-dense you may want to make it a bit bigger than the bar of soap.

Chain until it is a couple stitches longer than the long end of your bar of soap.
1. HDC in second chain from the hook and once in each chain across
2. Make turning chain and hdc once in each stitch across.
repeat row 2 until you have a rectangle that covers the bottom of your bar of soap


Now we are going to switch to crocheting in the round.
Rd1. place stitch marker on your last hdc. *Now hdc down the side of your rows, one stitch for every row.*

When you get to the corner turn so that the bottom of the chain is up -- hdc across this row once in the bottom of each chain.

Response to a question: When you initially crochet across the chain row you are (most likely) crocheting into either one of the loops, or the little bump on top of the loops, depending on your preference.

Once you get to this point in the pattern, I'm asking you to turn the piece until the un-worked loop(s) are facing up and crochet into the remaining loop(s)

Please let me know if this helps or if you have more questions -- that was my very first pattern.

When you get to the corner repeat from * to *. Check to be sure there are the same number of stitches as on the other side.

Continue to stitch one hdc in each stitch until you come to your stitch marker. Check to make sure that you have an even number of stitches around. If not work one inc. in last stitch of round
(2hdc).

Rd2. Now we begin the moss stitch. Starting in the stitch where you placed your stitchmarker, +work 1sc, 1dc in the same stitch, skip the next stitch+ repeat from + to + across row.

repeat rd2 until your soap fits inside with 2 rows sticking up over the top.

OPTIONAL -- If you'd like to put in a little bit of mesh to show off nice handmade soaps, you'll need to insert the following at whatever height you wish. When you have gotten to the part of your soap saver where you would like to insert the mesh:

MeshRd1. hdc across all stitches
MeshRd2. ch4 (3 for dc, +1ch), * skip 1 st, dc in next st, ch1 * repeat from * to * across. slip st in top of beg. ch 3.
Do this for 1 or 2 rds then work moss st across top by working sc, dc in dc from prior row and skipping chst

Final Rd. Work 1dc in each st across. Slst in 1st dc to join.

To make your drawstring there are 2 methods.

1. cut 3 strands that are about 1" - 2" longer around than the top of your soap saver tie them together by placing a not near one end, braid them, then tie the other

--OR--

2. make a chain about 1" - 2" longer than the top of your soap saver measures around, tie a knot on each end and snug it up against the chain. trim ends.

Finally, thread thread drawstring through dc round, tie ends in a knot close to the other knots, fill with bar soap.