Spring (potholder) fever

You know how I am about weaving potholders. They are quick projects that are both delightful and functional, and I am especially enamored of the PRO size potholders. The loom is 10" square, and once relieved of tension, the finished potholders are 8" square. This is a nice size for actual kitchen use, and also a bigger canvas on which to work colorful patterns.

Harrisville Designs is running a spring potholder design contest utilizing the "pastel" colors in their loop collection. Predictably, this sent me to my loop stash to see what I had. I only had 3 of the pastel colors "in stock," so naturally I ordered the other 5. Then I played with the potholder design wizard (truly an addictive tool) to mess around with some ideas. This is my first potholder (photo taken on a rainy late afternoon so the color isn't great):

This wasn't quite what I envisioned. My original idea was to have this colorful cross floating on a peaceful field of pale blue ("powder blue" is the official color name) ... but I didn't have quite enough loops to do that, so I used powder blue in the warp and the other blue ("robin's egg") as the weft. It's nice, but a bit busy. 

I counted my loops and decided to do the same colorful cross concept on a pale yellow ("daffodil") background instead, since I had enough yellow loops for that. I think this is much better!

I had to make my cross just a little bit wider in order to have enough yellow loops for it.

Then I looked at what I had left, and made this plaid-ish potholder, which only uses 5 colors:

I did not have enough pastel loops left to make even one more potholder, so I stopped. But my mind didn't really stop. Soon I was re-counting and altering the design so I could re-make the first potholder to have a solid background. Can you take potholders apart? Why, yes, you can!

I quickly re-worked that first potholder, and am happier with this result:

While the plaid potholder uses only 5 colors, the other two use all 8 colors in the pastel line, which I think is nice. These are lovely for spring and were perfect for my Easter table this year. If you're interested in seeing what other potholder enthusiasts came up with, check out the #friendlyloompotholdercontest hashtag on Instagram.

And if you are feeling an itch to revisit a common childhood craft, I say GO FOR IT! You're never too old to weave on a potholder loom!