A Blooming Potholder

Man, I just love girly stuff.  Pink roses, lace tablecloths, fresh cut lilac in a stoneware pitcher on the bedside table, and ruffles.  RUFFLES.  I love ruffles.  My wedding dress had layers of ruffles and not coincidentally, the curtains I want to buy for our bedroom are ruffly.

I also love flowers, with my absolute favorites being fresh cut lilac, zinnias, french marigolds, carnations, and pink and peach roses.

Keeping this in mind, when I saw this adorable crochet pattern called Fanciful Flowers Potholder, I kind of did a super-giggly-flip on the inside.  And oh-my-stars it is so easy!  If you have experience crocheting in the round, it will be a snap.  This pattern was really easy for me because I have so much experience crocheting round rugs and the base of the pattern is the exact same.

Potholder from the front.

A view of the back.

Now, the first question I had for myself was, "Is this a practical design for a potholder?"  It's certainly thick enough when it's doubled over, like when you're holding it in your hand.  So that's not a problem.  But I think for this to be used practically, your pan or baking sheet needs to have handles so you can get a good grip.  When I made my dinner rolls yesterday, I used glass pie pans.  One pan didn't have any handle and the second one only had a very shallow lip of a handle.  This potholder didn't work so well for that, but it did make an awesome hot pad for setting the pie plate on top of!

Thick and cushy when doubled over.

Even if you personally think this potholder isn't the most practical, it really does serve well as a great hot pad or trivet.  And it's so stinking cute and so easy to make, that it would be beautiful hanging on your kitchen wall or turned into some stocking stuffers at Christmas time.

Another great thing about this potholder is that you can do any color for however many numbers of rows you want.  You could do a rainbow flower if you wanted to.

This pattern calls for cotton yarn in DK weight.  I didn't have DK weight yarn, so I used some Sugar 'N Cream cotton yarn that I had on hand and some of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton Yarn.

I wish I could take credit for such a darling pattern, but I can't.  Go HERE for the full pattern.  Enjoy!

Work In Progress: Elliott's 4th Birthday Blanket

I've decided to start a new tradition for my children.  For each birthday, I would like to make them a special blanket.  It may be a little over-ambitious, so it may not happen exactly as I plan.  But the thought is nice, correct?

My oldest, sweet 3-year old Elliott, will be turning 4 towards the end of this month.  Back in January I got on Ravelry to pick out a pattern - or 50 patterns - and decided on this very simple, classic shell stitch pattern called the Beachcomber Baby Blanket.

He's not a baby, so I'm making his much larger.  I will go into more details later, but for now here is a preview of how it's turning out - enjoy!

The decided to go with blues and a tan that reminds me of the color of sand.  In 2013 we took him to the beach for the first time and this blanket is going to serve as a memory of that.

The biggest booger about this blanket is that you change colors every row - oh man, do you see all those loose ends to weave in?  That's going to take me a week at least.

At this point I'm only about 25% of the way done.  Moving into our brand new home AND having a new baby has really put a damper on my crochet time.  Oh well - one of these days I will be an old woman sitting in my rocking chair every morning and then, yes then, I will have plenty of time to crochet.