When visiting my step-mother many years ago, she handed me a pillow cover a friend had mailed to her as a gift. She had the pillow form, but she hadn’t a clue how to close up the diagonal opening on the cover.

I was intrigued by the design. I thought it would make a nice potholder. I poked and pulled at it for a few hours and played with some scrap yarn and a hook and took notes, before sewing up that opening.

I immediately began making potholders. The pattern is a cinch and looks so complicated to non-crocheters! Those first potholders were made from acrylic. That was a very bad idea! Acrylic melts when heated and ignites when exposed to an open flame! BAD! So, having no wool, I tried with some Speed-Cro-Sheen I had in my stash. EXCELLENT! I have since made dozens - maybe hundreds? - of them. Most are Speed-Cro-Sheen, but some are with multiple strands of finer crochet threads. ALL are great potholders.

Since I hadn’t yet seen a pattern for it, I had decided that a double-chain hang-loop was necessary before slip-stitching (though the back loops only) the seam closed. It works for me.
The first pattern I had actually seen online was: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/origami-hot-pad ; it was on the South Bay Crochet Guild’s website back then. I’m glad to see it’s been added to Ravelry. I’m certain the pattern has existed far longer than the 1999 date on that link; I just haven’t yet found an older source.

At first, I obsessed over how long to make the base chain. I experimented a lot and did a fair amount of ripping out. My older ones are far more tightly worked than recent ones. Probably none of mine are the same size; I rarely bother to count my base chain. I just guesstimate.

Some are done with the variegated threads, some with solid colours, many with stripes of both or stripes of solids. When reaching for a hot pot, the hand doesn’t care what colour the potholder is! My house and kitchen are not the realm of colour coordination; if it serves its purpose, it gets used.

There is always one in-progress in the bottom of my backpack/handbag, just in case I’ve forgotten to bring my knitting and get stuck waiting.

BEST POTHOLDER EVER!