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

Potholder blues

Hi friends, Hope you had a good week and are now looking forward to a lovely weekend. And a great new month.

A big thank you to all those who wished my husband. (He was pretty surprised!). This month it is my turn to be happy as my birthday is on the 10th of September. I would love to get a big carload of yarn as my gift but I don't think my husband will take up any "yarny" hints (subtle of course) I will be putting out.

I have a lot of UFOs floating around the house (purses and a doily). Ever since I rediscovered the joys of reading, crochet is on the back burner. But I will get around to them soon. 

On the blogging front I got my blog  under its own domain name crochetkari.com

Today I will share these potholders with you, that I made sometime back.

They are extremely easy to make and work up to a nice texture and thickness without too much effort. If any novice or non-crocheter is interested I will readily put up a tutorial, just drop me a line. `

On the reading front, I have finished reading one more book by Mary Higgins Clark.

A fabulous read. Excellent story with every chapter bringing a new twist in the tale. And once again a totally unexpected climax. Just could not put it down. 

Well, now I will leave you to your weekend plans while I go off to decide whether to read or to crochet. Oh, how I wish I could do both simultaneously!

PS: In case you are wondering, UFOs are UnFinished Objects! :)

Have a lovely Sunday. Take care.

Love xxx 

Kitchen Kompanion

Hi friends, How are you? I hope all of you are in the pink of health. The last few weeks really proved to me that Health is indeed Wealth.

A warm welcome to Mor Lotte at Familien Geleff Fonnesbech  and Rita Ataide (Rita, if you have a blog please let me have a link to it).

Now that I am up and about, I am happy to be back in my kitchen. Takeaway dinners are fun only when it is not compulsory, isn't it? So to celebrate I made one more potholder to  brighten my kitchen.

I really liked the centre of this potholder. What starts out as DC shells ends up as small circles which then form petals of a bigger flower.

This pattern is once again from Best free crochet. I am sorry I don't have a link to the pattern directly. It is a vast site with hundreds of patterns but not user friendly and finding your favourite pattern sometimes takes ages. But all the patterns are really cute and lovely.

Here are the potholders I made so far.

So, how do you like my kute kitchen kompanions?

Right now I am working on this Golden Evening Purse but I am not sure about the kind of handles I can add to it. Next time I will upload pictures of the handles I have and maybe you can give me your suggestions.

So cheerio until the next time. Happy hooking and hope you have a lovely week.

Love xxx

New Things

Hello there, How have you been? It is almost a week since I posted and I am hoping you missed me, I sure missed you all. Well, let me tell you what I have been up to.

But before that let me say a warm hello to Glor from Crochet Galore, Sharon at From my Front Porch, Begonvilliev at Crochet at Begonvilliev, Daksha from Daksha's Vegetatian Recipes World , Maggie from Flowers in the Window and Massasad1. Welcome aboard, everyone.

A new month, new ideas, new thoughts, new patterns, new projects and new yarn. This month will also bring a new year for my dear hubby.  Because his birthday is in August...yay!!

In this post I showed you the new yarn I had ordered from Mumbai. And since I was sure that you are fed up with my coaster run I decided to try the new yarn and a new pattern.

The yarn is Laura Knitting Cotton and it produces a thick fabric. I have used a 3.00 mm crochet hook. I decided to go for a small project at first to get a feel of the yarn and made these potholders.

 

Aren't they just spiffy? They came out quite thick so I did not make a backing for them, and I think they will work well as hotpads too. Maybe hanging them up as kitchen wall decor would be a good idea, I wonder if I will actually use and spoil them.

The patterns for these potholders are from Maggie Weldon's site Best Free Crochet which has 100's of free patterns for potholders, dishcloths, home decor, afghans and more.

I have already started my next project with this yarn. It is a Granny Mandala (or circle) in rainbow colours. Here is a sneak peek,

The balls show the colours yet to be added. I just can't wait to complete it and see how it turns out. Would you like to see the finished mandala? 

We had a good downpour yesterday (long awaited) as you can see from my balcony. 

Here is my poor feathered friend, all drenched and looking for shelter.

I have some exciting news, but I will reveal it tomorrow. What.....you want a hint? Okay the hint is that "I was expecting...". And No, it does not mean THAT..... come on, I am too old for babies.

So see you soon...haha.

Love xxx

One month old!!

Yes!! my blog has crossed the one month mark. I had hoped to write atleast two posts per week and maybe get a few visitors. Now with eleven posts, twenty two comments, eleven followers and nearly seven hundred pageviews later, I am feeling great. Things do move very fast in Blogland! Well, I will definitely try to post a little faster now.

This post has been a long time in coming as I was busy with a custom order. It is the pen tablet cover which you had a sneak peek at in my last post. I have been experiencing a tingling sensation down my left arm due to my cervical spondylosis, so work was proceeding at a very slow pace. Finally it is done and I have handed it over to its owner who, I may add is quite pleased with it. As I have not uploaded the pics I will give you the deets next time.

Blogging makes the world seem like a small place. When I see visitors from different parts of the world, it seems as if they are visiting me at home and chatting with me. If only we could share a virtual cup of tea... that would be great! I have discovered so many new blogs by following my "Followers". So, a Big Thank You to all my readers/visitors out there for making me feel welcome.

Okay, so now you know that I enjoy blogging and making friends and blah, blah ... let us get on to the crochet stuff. This is a potholder I made recently from a pattern called Raised Rose potholder which can now be found in the wayback internet archive. I have tried this pattern three times with beautiful results each time. The first two which were made with a pink and cream combination are now with Aruna and Madhuri, my two closest friends. I decided to make a third one just to practice the pattern again, but the colors I chose this time are not as pretty. But anyway here it is;

I just love the rippling edge don't you? So there it is, a lovely pattern made in not so lovely colors. Maybe I will just make one more with some better colors this time.

Would you like to try this? Here is the link to the pattern at Ravelry. Hope you enjoy making it.

See you soon.
Love xxxx
P.S. If anybody out there knows that crochet and cervical spondylosis are not compatible, please don't tell me, and definitely don't talk to my dear hubby.... ha ha, just joking!