Wasabi pot holder!

Now I have two pot holders. Didn't know until recently that I needed some. Plain old dishcloth did the trick so far. People! Crochet takes forever! In the foreground you see the Bosnian crochet pot holder, which was my first one. In the background is the one I just did single crochet, which was only slightly faster.

At some time during crocheting along, there was this chant formed in my head: wasabi-wasabi-wasabi-am I done yet?

Both pot holders were crochet as pouches, and crochet shut on top, and in the end a loop was formed.

Specifics about the smaller pot holder:

pattern: decorative hot pad by Nancy Nehring from the book Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of crochet (Leisure Arts publication)

yarn: Patons Bumble Bee Baby Cotton, 100% cotton, 50g/123yds, used 1 ball exactly, with a couple of inches left over.

hook: 3mm

size: 6"x6"

I made a lot of mistakes, it doesn't look like the one in the book, bares just a fleeting resemblance with it. The instructions, though for beginners, where totally confusing to me. I was about to give up, when I found ONE other entry about it, when I googled for it. The person, though not finished, and complaining about how slow it was going, did make one thing clear to me with her picture. The pattern was visible in the inside of the pouch. So I started over and as soon as I had about an inch, I turned it inside out, so I could see the pattern on the outside. I mentioned in an earlier post, that you only have to be able to count to ten. Let me tell you, it's not that easy. I could not pick it up and continue working on it, unless I stopped at ten, and knew it. If I was interrupted counting, and crocheting, I had to rip back where I changed the crocheting from back loop/front loop. Anyway, it sounds confusing, even though the actual crocheting is easy. The math in the instructions didn't make any sense to me. I was looking for errata, but couldn't find any.

The finished fabric is tight, and thick, great for hot pads/pot holders though. It will be the only one I ever made.

The second pot holder (since you need two, I had to make another one), I wanted to go faster. I chained the same amount in the beginning, but it came out 2 inches larger, because single crochet is not as tight as just slip stitches. Here I could put it down whenever, and pick it up and continue. It still took longer than I thought. I used 1 1/2 balls for this one. I made it as pouch as well, it's about the same thickness, a bit handier, because of it's size: 8"x8". I'm glad it's done.

Of course, being that color, which reminded me of wasabi, led to the chop sticks, and fortune cookies. :o)

Now I have only the Queen Anne's lace shawl on my needles, but I found something to make today, which I did NOT know I needed either. It's Tracy's fruit sock. But it will be a fast in-between knit. Getting right on it.