Pinnet Tunic Top

Life is always hectic, and this time of year it feels more so.  Spring is coming, so there's a garden to plan, but also end-of-the-year school events, doctor's appointments, a busy season in my main Etsy shop selling reusable products and then... Girl Scout cookie season.

Due to some miscommunication, I, as troop leader, ended up with the rest of the troop's cookies in my house a week before sales ended.  We had way too many cookies and I had no idea until that moment.  Our troop did great in getting rid of them, and we had a lot of help from another troop, but things were dicey for a while.  I didn't sleep for three nights in a row after I saw those cookies!

This happened just as I posted looking for testers for my newest pattern - a lightweight girl's tunic perfect for summer days, with pretty little picots along the sleeves and hem and a button placket on the back.

It's over now, and things have calmed down. I've caught up with orders in my Etsy shop and I'm glad to say that I can now concentrate on my favorite things - my kids and my knitting -again!

Here's the tunic, modeled a size too big on my 4 year old daughter:

It turned out really cute and I'm pleased with it, if not the fit on my daughter!  (But I knit a size 6 and she wears a 5T)

It's a fairly simple pattern, but not a beginner pattern, due to a button placket on the back and picot bind offs.  I knit this one in a superwash sock yarn in a fingering weight, but plan to make my final version in a cotton or linen blend - perfect for a warm summer day!  Look for it in my Ravelry shop in late April 2017!

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.

Pollen everywhere!

So it's just that time of year when everyone gets sick because of the pollen, thick in the air, and in a thick layer on every surface.  Amid viruses that attack while we are already down (smarmy things that they are!) we have been doing lots of breathing treatments on the nebulizer for my husband and myself and my youngest.  It always makes me feel more empathy for those people who can't breathe as the norm - I suppose you learn to live with it since you can't live without breathing, but it must be terribly hard.

Despite that, I managed to finish the first sample of a pattern I'm working on for a girl's worsted weight tunic. This was done in my handspun, a superwash merino combed top from Mosaic Moon.

The handspun:

It's not quite right - the sizing seems to be off despite getting gauge and the math, so I'll need to check that.  And I'd like to make some changes to the seed stitch panel and how it expands at the bottom (which you probably can't see anyway, for the patterning in the yarn.)  Then testing of the pattern with actual other people!  Hopefully I'll have this in my Ravelry pattern shop by early summer, so there will be plenty of time to make a cute little tunic for a little girl before winter comes again.