My First Potholders and a little tutorial

there has to be a First for everything, right? after I made doilies and felt like a granny at the age of 31, I thought potholders could do no harm. after I finished this blanket, I figured what to do with the left over yarn. I always wanted to try the fabulous pattern of the Maybelle Crochet Flower by the lovely Annette from the pretty Scandinavian Homespun blog My Rose Valley. 

after I finished the dark blue flower I instantly had to make another one, boy is this pattern addictive! and then I had two beautiful flowers + not too many yarn left. what to do? I really saw only one solution: to make potholders of them. because after all, every blanket needs matching potholders, no?

I went back to Annette's blog and found this tutorial on how to make a square around the flower. that pattern is so well done and well thought through, it really defines the flower more than anything. it's gorgeous don't you think?

ideally I would have used one colour for both backsides, however I was using scraps and had to come up with a multi colour solution to get the second one finished. there literally is no single centimetre of yarn left, I used it to the last bit to be able to finish the second potholder.

in case you are interested, here's a little write up of how I made these potholders with Drops Paris yarn:

front: follow the pattern for the flower here and for the square here.

back: make a chain of 20 stitches, add 11 rows of double crochet. then add a row of double crochet all around the square: along the top and the bottom, one dc per stitch. along the sides, 2 dc per dc. in the corners, 4dc.

edging: put the front and back of the potholder together, by starting at a corner, making single crochet in every stitch all around and picking up only the inside loop of each stitch. that way your edge is not getting super thick and I like the way it defines the stitches from the last row of double crochet. at the end when you're back at the corner, make a loop of 12 chain stitches (or as long as you desire your loop to be), turn and make 18 single crochet around the loop, or as much as needed to cover the chains.

I hope this last picture gives you a little bit of reference to their size, they are quite large measuring 17 square centimetres, or 7 square inches. I love this size when I am using them in my kitchen, however if you like them to be smaller just use a lighter weight yarn and they will turn out smaller.

thank you so much my dear Annette for writing up this beautiful tutorial for the Maybelle Crochet Flower pattern and square, I adore it and will for sure make more of them in the future xx