Woot! I’m done! Between practicing my crochet and trying to settle on a pattern for the swap, I must have made 10 potholders, so when it came time to do my 5, I was kind of sick of them. Great behavior for one of the hosts, right?

It turns out this pattern is super fun and I started a 6th last night, just because there was one more color combination that I needed to do.

Pattern: Old-Fashioned Potholders by Cathy Irish (rav link)
Yarn: a mix of Tahki Cotton Classic and Elann Sonata, 66 grams per potholder
Size: 8″ across
Hook: 2.5mm
Extras: plastic drapery rings
For: The Swap!

Verdict: AWESOME! This is a totally simple pattern that lends itself to stripes and fun color combinations.

These potholders have 2 identical sides and are crocheted together on the last round.

White plastic drapery rings are used for the loops. When I got to the end of the joining/ last round, I did single crochet around the plastic rings and slip stitched through the first stitch.

These are heavy duty potholders. There’s no chance a finger could poke through and be burned.

These were very wonky until they had a visit from a steam iron. Don’t freak out if you make them and they won’t stay flat. Give them a good smushing with an iron.

Stuff I Love:

Toddy coffee: I’ve been making mine in a 1/2 gallon jar, straining through first a regular mesh strainer to get out the big bits, then through a fine tea strainer back into the original, now washed, jar. We drinking it iced, 1:1 with vanilla soy milk. I can’t believe it took me so long to try this. It’s excellent!

Mimobot mimoShroom: My new project is going to be to put all of my recipes into this little flash drive, rather than printing out recipes from the internet. Since getting a Dell Mini 9, it’s been super easy to cook from a recipe on the screen.

MASW: I’ll be at the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair both days this weekend, shopping, visiting, and helping out AmyBoogie/Spunky Eclectic at her booth. I won’t be selling there, just visiting. Say hi!

Hi, folks! Thanks to all of you who have joined the potholder swap! We are so excited about this and happy to have you all participate in this swap. There is still some time left for those of you who are interested but have not joined yet. The deadline for signing up is midnight tonight.

If you follow me on Flickr, you know that I’ve been having a bit of a crochet attack. This time, I’m all about the hot pads and potholders, with a small side of ripple blanket.

The Swap:

It turns out the crochet attack is going around, and some of us got talking about starting up a swap for these hot pads and potholders, so that’s just what Maritza and I are doing. The goal is for each participant to crochet 5 beautiful potholders or hot pads and send them in. In return, you get 5 glorious potholders back. We’re aiming for something a little above and beyond the norm, here. We want potholders that are super kitschy and fun, or extra beautiful (handspun?!), functioning as useful objects as well as art.

We’d love to have you join our swap. To participate, please email us at potholderswap2009@gmail.com. Deadline to enter the swap is 3/21/09. Please join us at the swap blog, as well!

Now for the rules. They’re pretty basic, so here goes….

RULES FOR THE SWAP:

- hot pads/ pot holders must be crocheted
- each member will crochet 5 hot pads/ pot holders in the same pattern. Different colors are okay. (You can choose whatever pattern you want to work with and vary the colors between them, as long as you crochet 5 hot pads/ pot holders in that same pattern.)
- each pad/holder must be tagged with maker, fiber content, and care instructions
- wool or cotton yarns only please
- if you have a wool allergy please let us know so you will receive cotton hot pads only
- each pad/holder must be between 6 - 12 inches in diameter
- US swappers., you must include a USPS Priority stamp for return postage with your potholders. Non-US residents are welcome, we’ll just need to work out how you pay for return postage with you.
- have fun with this!

We’re thinking that 2 months should be enough time for everyone to finish their hot pads/ pot holders, but we’ll post an official deadline and details as to where to mail them shortly, once we have all our swappers.

For now, there are a few wonderful resources for pot holder patterns, such as Crochet Pattern Central and the Crochet & Crafts Link Index, as well as an inspiration group we started on Flickr.

Take a button! (Save it to your own server, please.)