Potholder: pattern reading

Many of the pictures of woven loop potholders are taken when the work is still on the loom. This makes it easy to see the order of the colored loops by looking at the colors on the pegs. For plain weave potholders, this is all the info needed to recreate the pattern.

Photo description: potholder on the loom in light green and dark green, the vertical loops have 9 alternating colors, which then repeat, giving two light green loops in the center and light green on the outside. The horizontal loops switch this, with the dark green doubled in the center and on the outside.

Since the loom was out, and there were still loops left, I had to give this neat directional pattern a go.

Potholder: alternate cast off

It bothered me that the cast off for my last potholder was so tight, so I did up another diagonal line weave and tried something different. I used the same method of weaving, working from one corner and hooking pairs of loops together at a ninety degree angles.

Photo description: potholder loom with purple loops on one side and the start of a rainbow on the other, showing how the loops wrap around each other in order to achieve a sharp return to the edge peg

To finish, I tied a new loop to a corner loop, by chaining them together, then threaded this longer strand through the loops on the side of the loom.

Photo description: finishing a potholder by running loops tied together through the loops on the pegs of the loom

This method of finishing does produce a softer edge, but it doesn’t have the neat, crisp look of a crocheted edge. It also makes the potholder one “row” bigger as it is essentially weaving an additional row on each side.

Photo description: two loop woven potholders using a diagonal method, left square finished off with traditional crochet chain, right square finished by threading tied loops through the edge

I did get my center twists all going the same way in my second attempt. Yay.

Throwback Thursday: potholders

This is more of a craft Throwback, rather than a picture from the past. The potholder loom was a craft I did when I was young. All those loops! I bought two sets for my kids years ago, and they sat unused. I was recently scrolling Pinterest and saw a diagonal design that used a technique I had never seen. I had to try it. I dug out a kit from the craft closet and set to work figuring out how to do it.

Photo description: laying out brightly colored knit cotton loops on a standard potholder loom, laying on loose loops.
Photo description: weaving started on the potholder loom with purple and red loops that twist around each other and are hooked at a 90 degree angle instead of straight across. Harrisville Design box as the background.
Photo description: weaving finished and showing a strong diagonal line with green, blue, and purple on one side, and red, orange, and yellow on the other
Photo description: same potholder with the edges finished and removed from the loom showing a definite cup effect from the extra tension added by the 90 degree twist. This potholder later relaxed and laid flat.

This is a neat technique. I did learn that I need to pay attention to which way I twist the two colors around each other and keep it consistent. I switched directions a couple times in the project and it can be seen in the final product as an inconsistent line.

Visible mending: jeans

I’ve been collecting visible mending pins on Pinterest, so when my eldest tore her jeans, I sent her to my Pinterest board to pick a pin.

Photo description: preparing to mend the hole in the knee of a pair of jeans with a scrape of knit denim colored fabric, white thread, needle, and scissors
Photo description: back side of the sewn patch after trimming shown next to a white cereal bowl that I used as a sewing support
Photo description: front side of the jeans with five stitched spirals holding the patch

I quite like visible mending, it is a chance to add a little flair and do good.

Throwback Thursday: play mat

Now we are getting into the children years for Throwback Thursday, at least digitally. Maybe someday I will flip through my pre-digital era, but for now now, we’ll just move forward. In January of 2006 my first child had started to crawl, so I attempted a large play mat with animals, tracks, and habitats.

Photo description: large cotton sheet with drawings of a bear, beaver, deer, duck, rabbit, and squirrel on the left, and corresponding tracks leading to drawings and f habitats on the right

I took some unbleached cotton fabric and made iron-on images with my printer. The idea was cute, but the thin cotton didn’t hold up well to a new crawler, and all of the images washed out when I laundered it. I still have the fabric, it became a drop cloth for art projects.

As an interesting note, my eldest is now in college with a major in wildlife. Hm.