# Easy to make hot pad, perfect for homespun yarn!



## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

I got a new knitting book awhile back, and it had a neat pattern for trivets and hot pads. Looked easy, so I thought I'd give it a try - and I finished one this weekend in about 3 hours, and it is awesome! So, I'm sharing ... it would be a great quick Christmas gift, and since it's not a 'guage-fussy thing', you can easily use up some hand spun oddities.

Here's the plan:

Knit a big garter stitch square. I used 35 stitches on 5.5mm needles, and used two handspun singles held together. You want the yarn to be fairly bulky, and it should be all or mostly wool, as it needs to stand up to the heat of it's life as a hot pad. If your yarn is thin, just hold two strands together while you work.

When you have a square (easy to test by folding one corner up ... when you get a triangle, you're done), cast off.

Now, the neat part:

Figure out your right side (if there is one) and lay the piece right side down on the table. Now fold all the corners into the middle, making sort of an envelope, and stitch the edges together (you will have a diamond shape with a cross in the middle). If you leave long tails when you cast on, you'll have what you need for sewing when you get to this part.

Flip it over, and you have a hot pad that looks like it was knit on the bias, and it is double thick so it'll protect the table from the heat. If you used a thinner yarn, you could pad the inside with a bit of carded wool, too (I was going to, but it was thick enough with the handspun Icelandic I used).

The one in the book had heat-resistant buttons sewn on the top side along the edges as decorations, but I just left mine plain.

You can use up leftover bits and singles this way, you don't even have to weave in the edges if you change yarn at the start of a row (just tuck the tails inside when you stitch up the envelope). I figure if you give it a hot / cold wash, it will probably full a little and look neat that way too.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Thanks Frazzle! What is the name of the book you bought? I bet you could maybe wash them to 'full' the square and then it could be a pot holder, maybe?!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

The book is Simple Knits, by Barbara Albright.

The pattern has a modification for a pot holder, just made a little smaller ... and yup, I think washed & fulled would probably work really well!

I had so much fun making it I think I'll make another from some of the colourful yarn I have around here.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

I was thinking about this pattern. I bet you could knit it out of roving (unspun) for those of us who have a hard time spinning chunky yarns. It would be a good way to use up roving that you may not like spinning.


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## meganwf (Jul 5, 2005)

Pictures? Pictures? Pictures? 

Sounds great!


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