Crochet shower puffs are a great way to make your home eco-friendly. After all they are made with cotton, can be washed and reused countless times and help reduce your plastic use by replacing those net puffs you buy from the supermarket. But are crochet shower puffs any good to use?

A crochet shower puff works up quickly and is easy to make too. You can find Froggity Frogs pattern for a shower puff here.

To make your shower puff I recommend using a non mercerised, 100% cotton yarn in aran / worsted weight. This will give you a nice thick, luxurious shower puff that is a good size without having to make an excessive number of rounds.

Why Use Cotton?

Crochet shower puffs are typically made of cotton. Cotton is the fibre of choice because:

• it is naturally antibacterial- important for something being used in a wet environment.
• Cotton doesn’t felt unlike wool where the fibres fuse together when they are repeatedly rubbed together like they would when using your puff.
• Cotton doesn’t feel slimy when wet like plastic based yarns such as acrylic.
• Cotton yarn becomes stronger when wet, so it it can stand up to repeated use over a long period of time gaining your puff will last you for years.

You can now find cotton in every colour you can imagine. Over the last 10 years the choice of cotton yarn has exploded. I recommend using an Aran / Worsted weight 100% cotton yarn like Rico Cotton Creative Aran which has 54 colours in the range or Paintbox Cotton Aran which has 63 different colours to choose from. I’ve used both of these cotton yarns regularly and find them a lovely choice for a thick and easy to work with yarn with beautifully bright and bold colours.

If you want to know what else you can crochet with cotton yarn, then check out this article here

But why are crochet shower puffs such a good idea to start using?

Eco-Friendly

Crochet shower puffs are fabulously eco-friendly. Not only do they cut down on plastic use (the net things are made from plastic) especially if you are using a 100% cotton yarn which is completely natural, but they cut down on waste as your crochet puff will last for years. One of mine is over 8 years old at this point and is still going strong. Can you imagine how many of those supermarket things I could have gone through and thrown away in that time?

Cut down your plastic use and waste less over several years makes switching to a cotton puff a no brainer.

Quick And Practical Gifts

Crochet shower puffs are quick and easy gifts to make. Not only do they look great, they are practical to use too. You can pick your own colours and make sure that your giftee is getting their favourite colour or the colour that is going to match their bathroom colour scheme.

A puff gifted with a basket of other bathroom goodies like a nice bar of soap and some nice bubble bath make a fabulously luxurious gift for any occasion. Even better, a puff takes less than 2 hours to make so a great choice for a last minute gift.

There are plenty of benefits to making and using your own puffs, and I’ve been making and using my own crochet shower puffs for years. I wouldn’t ever go back to using those plastic net things from the supermarket now, but there are a few things new crochet shower puff users should know.

The Lack Of Lather

The first is that your crochet shower puff needs breaking in. It’s going to take a few uses before your puff starts lathering up. At first it’s going to feel like it takes so much soap to get any lather effect at all, but I would encourage you to persevere.

A cotton crochet puff is never going to lather up as much as one of those net ones, but that’s because a crochet one doesn’t have as many holes in it as a net one. The lather is achieved by forcing lots of air through the soap which is what you do when you give your puff a squeeze.

But just because you don’t see as many bubbles, it doesn’t mean that your puff isn’t doing its job. It will still get you covered in soap and make you squeaky clean, there just won’t be as many  bubbles involved.

Drying Time

It takes time for your cotton crochet shower puff to dry between uses – a lot of time. In fact mine never really dries out between uses. This has never been a problem for me because

1. Cotton is naturally antibacterial so nothing is brewing – proven by that there is no mildew smell at all.
2. I wash is regularly in my washing machine to make doubly sure that all is well.

I always give my puff a good run under the shower before I start using it to make sure it’s nicely rinsed out, which has the added benefit that it’s nicely armed up as well so you don’t have to be worried about it still being cold when you start using it.

Taking Care Of Your Crochet Shower Puff

Thankfully your shower puff is really easy to look after. You just need to pop it into your washing machine once in a while to make sure that any old soap is completely removed. Old soap residue can clog up between the fibres and begin to give it a slimy feel. But a quick wash in the machine with your regular washing load is all that it needs to become clean and refreshed.

Although you probably shouldn’t let it be tumble dried, mine has accidentally ended up in the drier a few times and has never suffered from it. Ideally you should let your puff air dry, but it’s not to have it dry before you use it again – I mean it’s going to get soaked again anyway, so just let it warm up in the shower water first and you would never know it wasn’t dry before you started.

There you have it, everything you need to know about making, using and caring for your own crochet shower puff. Don’t forget you can find the pattern for Froggity Frog’s crochet shower puff here. I’d love to see your finished puffs, come and join our Facebook group – Froggity Frog’s Ribbit And Stitch and show us your beautiful creations.