Basic Heavy Duty Potholder Crochet Pattern

So I thought I was pretty smart when I came up with this pattern several years ago.  Then I discovered that many other people are as smart as I am and were smart before I was! :D  So the idea is not unique, but I've still written it up so anyone who wants to can make their own heavy duty potholder.

Basically, it's a densely crocheted cotton potholder, doubled up and seamed around the edges using crochet stitches.  It's useful and pretty, and heavy duty utilitarianism at its best.  These things can practically be used in blacksmithing!  (Okay, well, maybe not, but they are very protective. :D )  I take these potholders from the kitchen straight to the dining room table where they are also trivets for the serving dishes.  So it's handy to have a few hanging around.

It's really simple to make these; even if you just have a basic knowledge about crochet, you can do this. Admittedly, I'm a fast crocheter, but I can make one of these in an evening while watching TV.  You can adjust the size by adjusting the number of stitches you chain at the beginning.  I like to have a really big one around for larger pots and pans - especially when it's on our antique wooden table and it's hot!

You can also find this pattern as a free PDF download on my Ravelry design page.  If you would like to use this for a class, I just ask that you drop me a line and I'd be glad to provide you with the PDF version of my pattern.

I'd love if you would drop me a note at my Mulberry Fibers Ravelry group or make a Ravelry project page for your potholder!  I love to see what people create.  If you aren't a part of Ravelry, it's a great resource for all things knitting and crochet, with hundreds of thousands of patterns, forums where you can ask questions and chat, and a fun (if a bit neurotic) way to catalog all your yarnie projects and stash.

Materials:

Approximately 150 yards of worsted weight cotton yarn.

Finished Size:Finished size using gauge below will be approximately 8 ½” by 8 ½”.

Gauge:

Gauge is unimportant for this pattern, however, as written, you should have an approximate gauge of 3 ½ st per inch to get the sizing above.

Hook:

Suggested hook size:  US I/5.5mm

Instructions:

Chain 29

Row 1 (set up row):  In the second chain from your hook, single crochet (sc) 1 time.  Single crochet (sc) in every chain across.  Make one chain (ch) and turn your work.

Row 2: Single crochet (sc) 1 time in every single crochet from the previous row. Make one chain (ch) and turn your work.

Repeat row 2 approximately 68 more times, until, when folded in half widthwise, your work measures the same on each side (a square).

When your work, doubled, is a square, cut your working yarn and pull it through the last chain.

Finishing:

You are now going to seam your work together with crochet stitches to form the thick potholder with an insulating air pocket.

Fold your work in half again, this time using pins or clips to hold it in place.  Line up the rows to keep it even.  Attach your working yarn at the fold, and single crochet (sc) evenly across one side. 

When you reach the corner, single crochet (sc) three (3) times in the same space. 

Single crochet (sc) across top. 

At the corner, again, single crochet (sc) three (3) times in the same corner space. 

Finally, single crochet (sc) across third side.

Now all four sides of your potholder are closed.

Create the loop: without cutting your yarn, chain several times, tightly.  Once the chain is long enough for you (a minimum of 2”), slip stitch (sl st) into the fold of your potholder, next to the last single crochet (sc).

Cut yarn and pull through.

To weave in any ends, simply use your crochet hook to pull them to the inside of the potholder.

Other options:

-Crochet two squares instead of a long rectangle and use the finishing technique on all four sides instead of three.

-Make your potholder larger or smaller by adding or subtracting from your beginning chain.  (33 stitches chained makes a very large, nice potholder for commercial cooking!)

- Use up your scrap cotton – ends can be crocheted over using a new color, and then tucked inside the potholder.

The Ugly to the Beautiful - DIY creation

I read a blog today about a bathroom renovation, done by the blogger's husband.  It reminded me a lot of the work we have done in our own house.

We bought our two-story, 1905 house in 2009, with one floor livable and failing systems.  The bank wouldn't even let us buy it until we replaced all the windows and floors on the first floor!  Probably not our smartest move, but it all worked out and we got the house.  The upstairs was completely unlivable - unheated with no insulation and wallpaper crumbling off the walls dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.  You can see that part of the upstairs was finished...barely...

Since then, we've replaced (or added for the first time) two heat and air conditioning units - one for each floor.  We've renovated the upstairs into three bedrooms and a hallway, completely carpeted and drywalled, with new windows and insulation.  We have one last room up there that is mostly unrenovated, with hardwood floors and plumbing installed up to the second floor for a bathroom.

Downstairs we've painted, renovated two bathrooms (one had a floor that was an inch lower than the rest of the house - that was fun!), capped or taken down two useless chimneys, rewired, and cut back years of plant growth and overgrown 100-year old tree limbs outside.  We've also dug up an old sidewalk and two more steps off our front porch because of something someone down at the Dollar General said about her childhood.

I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea. :)  I think it would be fun to do some before and after pictures. I was looking through my original photo folder and it's amazing the difference.

I was reminded today of the pride and joy we feel, taking something ugly and ruined or worthless and making it beautiful.  This could be something as big as a house, or as small as a braided rag rug made with an old, holey sheet.   We are meant to create, and I think that making something from something ugly is even more profound than making something from almost nothing.

Clothesline

When we lived in Ohio, we had a great clothesline.  It sat between two big trees. The two lines - one at my waist and one at eye-level - were the perfect amount of space for our growing family.  The sun hit the line just right, so it was perfect for sunning out stains in the afternoon.

When we moved into our fixer-upper in Nashville, and through the past 4 or 5 years, a lot fell by the wayside as we coped with the repairs to the house and two new (and unexpected) pregnancies.  We had a brand new, energy efficient dryer, and no good place to put a clothesline.  I was overwhelmed and completely stressed out for the first two years.  And the clothesline never was set up.

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This spring we took another look at our electricity bill.  Too much.  Too much for running no heat or airconditioning; just the kitchen appliances, the washer/dryer, and the electronics like my computer and the TV.  What was causing such a high bill?

We turned off the electricity to the entire house - every single breaker was flipped off.  No phantom energy was going to affect our experiment if we could help it!

Then, one by one, husband turned a breaker on and ran each appliance separately.  I watched the wattage meter outside.

Surprisingly, the one thing that really got the meter going almost as fast as the air conditioner was the dryer!  My brand new, energy efficient dryer!  And with four young children, two loads a day was pretty standard.

Did you know that even dryers with good ratings are costing you a lot of money?  Have you heard that they wear out clothes faster?  (You know those mystery holes you sometimes get in clothing?  Clothes get caught on buttons, zippers, and even loose parts of your dryer as they tumble. And the lint you see is bits of your clothing being worn away with heat and agitation.)

I bet you can guess what happened next...

Yep.  A line went up pretty quickly!

I don't think it's self-evident in the picture, but we have a four car carport attached to the back of the house.  The best place to put the line, without having to haul wet laundry hundreds of feet across the property, was along the back side of the carport.  We were able to put up about 80-100 feet of line, doubling it as you see it.

It actually works quite nicely.  It's hard to hang or take down the clothes when the cars are parked under the carport (the other two sides hold our machinery, tools, and kids outdoor toys and bikes.)  But the line gets a good breeze, and is protected from rain, hail, and bird poop.  Yes, the bird poop is always fun.

Additionally, if I get the clothing up in the morning, the sun comes over the hill midmorning and hits the clothes just right.  So I'm able to use the sun to bleach out stains (this is remarkably effective!)

It's more work.  But it's refreshing - peaceful, even - to go outside and hang those clothes out.  To connect with women before me, completing the same tasks as they did.  One recent fact I read was that only 10% of households in 1955 had a dryer.  My grandmother (born in the 1940s) was probably the first generation to enjoy a dryer, and then only when her children were mostly grown.  In most other countries, clothes dryers are still rare!

To be honest, I also feel like I'm kind of "flipping the bird" at the power company, too! :D