Potholders

For the past few years, I've made potholders for Christmas gifts. People really like them & I guess because they're handmade, you can't get anything like them in the stores. Will take a picture & post it, so you all can see them. I'm also interested in trying out these potholders, which are a long time family handcraft, handed down through the years for this blogger.

Mom's told me she thinks the potholders I've made with cotton & wool loops are better than the ones you can buy in stores. Isn't that a nice compliment? These are the ones that as kids, I made on plastic looms, and you pull loops over each other, then crochet the ends together to make potholders. The ones from Harris are lovely, and the loops are perfectly matched, so that you don't have all those horrible ones that are either too long, too short, and are torture to put together.

But the one from the My Little Kitchen blogger looks really interesting. I may try it. Scroll down to Crochet: Old Fashioned Potholders. I think the first blog entry that comes up is a little silly (the underwear potholders, for a bridal shower, my goodness!) but what an interesting piece of family history.

My family has started making all (or most) of their Christmas gifts for a variety of reasons. We have fun, and it is a very creative activity. My sister gave me two cross stitch pictures (beautiful! more pictures, yes... ) , Mom made polar fleece blankets for everyone, I made food, gave away potholders, and something else that I am forgetting.

Here's something else that is interesting, a link to a blog about a book club. I love their idea of making the books sit with their faces to the wall, if they're displeasing to someone. Bring on the dunce caps!

And before I forget, the picture above is an example of a book with fore-edge painting. It is a scene of Lake Erie, and my two co-workers are holding the book pages bent, so we can see the scene. Isn't that nice of them?