Potholder pattern and Tutorial

Hello beautiful people, I hope you had a good week so far. Here in Ahmedabad, the rains are just not relenting with heavy downpour, thunder and lightning in the evenings. And in the daytime it is dark, cloudy, hot and sticky. But on the crochet front all is bright and cheerful as I have managed to complete my first ever crochet tutorial! 

Let me begin by welcoming 

          M. J. Joachim from Lots of Crochet Stitches by M. J. Joachim

(she does have lots of crochet stitches with patterns and tutorials, a must visit site for any crochet enthusiast)

and    Linda from Linda's Crafty Corner.

Now on to the potholder pattern. For those of you who only need the pattern, here it is:

Materials:

Your favorite cotton yarn

Crochet hook which is appropriate for your yarn.

Chain 18, join with slip stitch to form ring. 

Rnd 1: Works 24 sc into the ring.

This forms the loop used for hanging your potholder so you can make it as small or large as you like. (For example you can do Ch 12, join with sl st to form ring and work 18 sc into ring for a smaller loop. This will not affect the pattern.)

Rnd 2: Ch 1, Turn, 1 sc in each of next 5 stitches, 3 sc in next stitch, 1 sc in each of next 5 stitches (13 sc)

From round 3 onwards work in the Back loop only. The Ch 1 at the beginning of each round does not count as a sc.

Rnd 3: Ch 1, Turn, working in Back Loop only, 1 sc in each of next 6 stitches, 3 sc in next stitch, 1 sc in each of next 6 stitches. (15 sc)

Repeat round 3, making 3 sc in the center stitch each time so that each round has 2 more stitches than the previous round.

Continue till you reach your desired size. Fasten off. Weave in the end and your potholder is ready.

Ridged potholder

 And here is the tutorial:

I have used White Rose knitting cotton and a 3 mm crochet hook.

Chain 18, insert hook in first chain,

Join with slip stitch to form ring

 TIP: Hold the "tail" end of the yarn alongwith the ring so that it is woven into the project as you     work. This applies to all crochet projects.

Rnd 1: Work 24 sc into ring.Join with slip stitch.

Rnd 2: Ch 1, Turn the ring

      1 sc in each of next 5 stitches, 3 sc in next stitch and 1 sc in each of next 5 stitches (13 sc)

From round 3 onwards work in the Back loop only. The Ch 1 at the beginning of each round does not count as a sc. 

Usually stitches are worked by inserting the hook under both loops of the previous stitch as seen in this photo

Here is a better picture of working under both loops

 

To work in the Back loop only, insert hook in the loop which is away from you as shown in this pic

And also in this picture

Working only in the back loops gives you the lovely ridged texture seen in the potholder.

Rnd 3: Ch 1, Turn, working in Back Loop only, 1 sc in each of next 6 stitches, 3 sc in next stitch, 1 sc in each of next 6 stitches. (15 sc)

See the ridge formed due to working in the back loop, in the pic below

Repeat round 3, making 3 sc in the center stitch each time so that each round has 2 more stitches than the previous round.

TIP: To make things a little easier, when you make 3 sc in the center stitch, insert a marker into the second sc, so that in the next round you know where to make the 3 sc.

Continue till you reach your desired size. Fasten off. Weave in the end and your potholder is ready.

That's it, you lovely square potholder is ready. Enjoy.

Phew, my gosh that was a bit of hard work. It is a long tutorial for a small project, I know. But I am secretly hoping that my friends who don't crochet, will read this and be tempted to take up the hook.

I would like to take a moment here and sincerely thank all those who have put up any kind of tutorial (crochet, cookery, sewing or anything else)  because it does take a lot of time and effort. (Especially since my assistant cameraman ran off to college and refused to click photos for me .... he he.)

As this is my first virtual tutorial I will be anxiously waiting for your comments. Feel free to send in your suggestions, opinions, criticisms.... because I know there is room for improvement.

To learn the basic stitches you can visit Lots of crochet stitches by M.J.Joachim and also look up videos by Crochet Geek and bobwilson on Youtube.

So, cheerio until next time. I am waiting to hear from you.
Love xxx

State of Hexcitement

Hello, today let me introduce you to my new love, the Hexagon Blanket. In one of my earlier posts I mentioned being inspired by Lucy of Attic24 to make the Hexie. So off I went to my LYS to get my yarn. I left my home with visions of the beautiful colours that Lucy used and wanted to get similar colours.

But when I reached the store the colours available were not as lovely and the quality of the yarn was not too great either. So after turning the whole store inside out, these are the colours I bought.

There are 21 colours in all. Yarn in India is almost always available in skeins. They are then wound into balls by hand using the age-old custom of wrapping the skeins across your knees or a chair back.

Here is my yarn, duly wound.

Hmm... these balls of yarn don't look hand wound, do they? So how did I do it? Well, that is a secret I will reveal in a later post (and no, it is not what you are thinking).

Now on to the actual making of the blanket. I wanted each hexagon to be unique and that the colour combinations should not get repeated. So I sat down with my two bags of yarn and a 4mm crochet hook.

Firstly I chose a colour for the centre at random, then I went about in an eeny-meeny-miny-moe fashion to choose the next colour and so on. You see, I wanted "unique" hexagons.

After hours of painstaking labour, this is what I achieved.

Then I chanced upon this brilliant tip by Angie who has a lovely blog called "Le monde de Sucrette". She starts out by making the centres in each of the colours, which are 21 in my case. Then she moves on to the next round using a different colour every time. Absolutely brilliant. This gives you unique motifs each time and all the colours are used equally and your work progresses much faster. To see this tip in detail go here. On the same page she has a different pattern for the hexagon, which you may like to use.

This is how I started off. I was now making good progress.

The next pic shows how far I have reached now.

Here is close up of the blanket. Looks rustic, doesn't it?

And a couple of more photos, with and without the flash.

Mwah.. I just love this blanket. I will keep you posted about my progress with my blanket.

A big thank you to Lucy and Angie for the pattern and the tip.

Check out my latest hexagon blanket and get my free pattern HERE.
Happy crocheting!

My Favourite Book

Reading used to be the greatest passion in my life till crocheting took over. As it was simply not possible to read and crochet at the same time, books had to take the back seat. The other reason being that it is so much easier to crochet and watch TV at the same time. But I still love books very much and am always on the lookout for new books to buy.

Today I am going to show you my most favourite crochet book  Lovely Lace. 

This book was a  birthday present from my dear friend Malati, in the year 1988. Since then I have made many beautiful doilies from this book.

Here are a few pages from the book and some of my doilies;

 

This doily is now with my mom gracing her centre table.

This doily was an experiment in colour.

The last doily has since been frogged as the shaded pink was not doing justice to the beautiful pattern. As if it was not evident in the first few rounds... I completed the whole pattern before unraveling it ...duh?!

Here is a small tip for crocheters who use pattern books. I never crochet directly from the book. I always use a copy of the pattern and then put the book back in my library. I find it easier to mark my place, note down any modifications, write down the size of thread and hook etc on the copy.  So now you can see that my book is in excellent condition even after 24 years!

Did you find this tip to be useful? Do let me know.

Happy crocheting. xxx