Think of potholders as very small quilts or scarves. You can knit a colorful potholder in an evening using two strands of a cotton dishcloth yarn and the lowly garter stitch. For the one in the picture, I used a red strand and a variegated strand. Cast on as many as you want width-wise and bind off when it looks like you can grab a cookie sheet without burning your hands. The snowman potholder is hand-appliqued. No, I usually don't do such timing consuming stitching, but this was for a model for a class on potholders and it was one of the ones I taught. It is from a great book, 101 Potholders. It has a layer of cotton batting and a layer of Insul-bright. The Insul-bright can turn most any ordinary fabric into a heat/cold insulating product. I like having a chunk of it on hand to make a quick potholder or two. No need to buy those store bought icky ones! The last potholder is made from the back part of an old pair of jeans. But, you already knew that. Anyway, the denim, plus a layer of cotton batting, and a layer of the Isul-bright, makes a very heat resistant potholder. I suppose I could stick my hand in the pocket to get a better grip, but I just usually grab the cookie sheet quickly and place it to cool. Don't you have some yucky potholders that need to be replaced? Start the new year with some cute ones! JerilynnTuesday, December 28, 2010
A Collection of Homemade Potholders
Think of potholders as very small quilts or scarves. You can knit a colorful potholder in an evening using two strands of a cotton dishcloth yarn and the lowly garter stitch. For the one in the picture, I used a red strand and a variegated strand. Cast on as many as you want width-wise and bind off when it looks like you can grab a cookie sheet without burning your hands. The snowman potholder is hand-appliqued. No, I usually don't do such timing consuming stitching, but this was for a model for a class on potholders and it was one of the ones I taught. It is from a great book, 101 Potholders. It has a layer of cotton batting and a layer of Insul-bright. The Insul-bright can turn most any ordinary fabric into a heat/cold insulating product. I like having a chunk of it on hand to make a quick potholder or two. No need to buy those store bought icky ones! The last potholder is made from the back part of an old pair of jeans. But, you already knew that. Anyway, the denim, plus a layer of cotton batting, and a layer of the Isul-bright, makes a very heat resistant potholder. I suppose I could stick my hand in the pocket to get a better grip, but I just usually grab the cookie sheet quickly and place it to cool. Don't you have some yucky potholders that need to be replaced? Start the new year with some cute ones! Jerilynn
OK...love these. I have some Insul-bright and I tried to make my daughter a zipper or velcro type bag to take leftover pizza in to school....I think I'm going to have to add more to it!! Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteThey say on the package that a layer of cotton (not poly!) batting helps the Insul-bright. I just treat it as regular batting - you can make any type of bag, potholder, etc., and just use that as the batting. For a food bag, though, I think I would add a layer of vinyl so that it could be wiped down. You can either get an iron-on vinyl, or some vinyl by the yard and treat it as another layer of fabric. Let me know what you make. Fun!
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