Gauge doesn’t matter so much here. I just used a smaller needle than recommended so that the fabric would be denser and more insulating.

I knit two Grandmother's Favorite dishcloths and backstitched them together through the eyelets formed by the yarn overs to make a nice, thick potholder.

On the dishcloth pattern, you end up with 4 stitches to cast off. Instead of doing that, I knit:

k1, k2tog, k1

on the top layer piece. Then I started knitting a three stitch i-cord until it was the length I wanted.

After sewing the two layers together, I sewed down the end of the i-cord to the bottom layer’s corner.

Note: I also sewed the two pieces together with the garter stitch ridges rotated 90°: this is to keep the finished potholder from stretching out of square.