Crochet Potholders

This is the time of year that many of us are trying to lose weight, stop smoking, etc. I'm not saying that crocheting will do this for you, but why not do something else with your hands while watching TV, waiting in the school pickup line, sitting in a waiting room, or wherever else you may find yourself?

Personally, I use these for some stress control/relief. If you know me, and you see me making a lot of these, you automatically can know that I am probably really stressed out. :-)

Many potholders are not thick enough for me, so I usually use two thicknesses of a cotton type yarn like "Sugar n Cream" or "Peaches n Creme". The former is available at Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc., and the latter is available at Wally World, etc.

To make a couple of double strand potholders I would probably get a couple of balls of single color cotton type yarn, and possibly a ball or two of an ombre or striping version of the same type yarn. In that case, you could crochet a couple rows of one color, then pick up the ombre/striping for a couple rows, then go back to the main color, etc. I did that with a neon/lime green set for a friend, which I should have snapped a photo of before I sent her way to grace her neon/lime green kitchen.

Of course, two different colors are in no way necessary. Do whatever is cool for your design idea!

One of these potholders was made out of the "homespun" lion brand type yarn interspersed with a cream/aran type red heart super saver. These are not expensive yarns, as you well know. I am kind of attached to the cotton rather than the poly ones, having used both.

The original pattern that I took from the Peaches n creme label said to chain 22 with an H hook, and then and hdc in the second chain from the hook and hdc across. If you don't know what an HDC is, it's a half double crochet. In height that is partway between a single and a double crochet. Wrap your yarn around the hook as in a double crochet, but instead of only going through two loops at a time, go through all three loops at once. If this leads to aggravation or pulling out your hair because of the persnickety loops, remember to keep your thumb on the thumb indentation on the hook and that twisting motion as you remove the hook will, in my experience, help you get through all three loops speedily and reduce your stress...because isn't crochet supposed to reduce your stress instead of add to it? :-)

In my case I chained three for my turning chains instead of two, and used two thicknesses of the cotton yarn at a time. This results in pretty speedy completion. Keep going until you have a shape that is twice as long as it is wide. Then fold it wrong sides together, and chain one, and start crocheting both halves together with sc's all around the square. Then when you get to the final corner, ss, chain 9 loosely, and slip stitch to the other side of that corner for a loop. Then I personally go back and slip stitch all the nine chain stitches of the loop to reinforce them, slip stitch once back at the corner where I started the loop, and weave in ends/finish off.

If you like your potholders thinner, I'm sure a single strand will work well too. I would start around a size H for single strand, and maybe J for the double strand.

My decorative stitches on the cream colored ones are done by doing one stitch in the top loops of the last row as usual, then doing the next one into the next row down, and so on and so forth, alternating. If this is as clear as mud, let me know and I'll get some examples up here for you fellow crochet peeps.

This is also a nice way to use up small amounts of peaches n creme or sugar n cream you have left over from other projects. I assume potholders will be primarily made to protect our hard working cooks hands, so I personally could care less if some of them are multi colored. You can always make a nice "dress" set in your kitchen's colors to hang up or display prominently, and have the "bits n pieces" ones in a drawer where you actually use them.

These are thick enough with the double yarn version to make decent trivet-hotpad type usages, too.

enjoy...