Random Felted Potholders

I have an aunt who always appreciates hand-crafted gifts so I try to make something special for her each Christmas. This year, since I had some extra Cascade 220 left in my stash, I decided to make her some felted potholders.

Before felting, this is what they looked like. It's a super-easy pattern. I used a J hook and did 50 rows of 40 single crochet stitches. To make the hanging loop, at the end of the last row I made a loop of 20 chains, turned and did 24 sc in the loop. I used the Random Stripe Generator to create the color scheme.

(Actually, I just discovered the Random Stripe Generator and I've been playing with it all weekend. It's a fun and useful script so I've bookmarked the site.)

I threw the giant squares in the washer with a couple of towels and, using the hot water wash cycle only, I got felt! I ended up having to run the wash cycle twice to get fully felted. They have been drying all day. These are large potholders which I really like. They measure 9-inches high and about 8-inches wide.

I've still got some yarn left so I'm going to make up a few more of these for me. An important note for future reference - When using white towels in the washer with the crocheted item, always put the crochet inside a pillowcase. If you don't do this, you will have lot of white lint to pick out of the felt.