Milla Mia, it's some potholders!

Happy mail is a wonderful thing isn't it?

I while ago I had the pleasure of an unexpected parcel dropping through my door and when I opened it up I found five little balls of the most wonderful colourful yumminess inside.  Cooee!  It turns out that this unexpected and most welcome surprise came to me courtesy of  the kind folks at Love Knitting.  Well, what a lovely treat.

This cotton from Milla Mia has been on my 'yarn I want to try list' for quite some time.  I was initially drawn in, as is so often the case, by the pretty colours.  Having got my mitts on some of the stuff, had a good squeeze and a play with it I have to say that I'd stay for the feel of it too.

Cotton yarn can vary a great deal.  This one has a nice soft and natural feel about it which I like and it has a good amount of drape to it too.  I think it would make a lovely cotton for garments and baby things but I had decided on some other plans for it.

You'll probably be aware of the sweet and talented Annette from My Rose Valley and it was one of her patterns that I had been hoarding that I wanted to try this yarn out on.

She came up with a pattern for some of the cutest little vintage style potholders and I wanted some as soon as I saw them.  So when this yarn rather serendipitously fell into my lap I knew the right time had come. 

These were a joy to make.  In fact, I want to make some more.  The pattern is beautifully set out and easy to follow.  The yarn is lovely to work with, none of the stiffness or difficulty with splitting that you can sometimes come across with cotton thankfully.

It's classified as a sport weight yarn and I believe I used the recommended 3.25mm hook which created a nice malleable fabric.  It would be an absolutely perfect for a doily.  I might make one of those next.  I also suspect that you could easily use this yarn successfully for many 4ply patterns as well.

  

In actual fact, when making potholders, I'd normally use a smaller hook than recommended to make sure of getting a firmer finished product but I don't intend on using these pretties in the kitchen.  No, these are staying right here with me in my crafty Little House, playing the part of oversized coasters.

I tend to bring a few supplies up here when I want to sit and tap away or sew for a bit and I've taken to bringing up a large jug of water with me.  It's a good way to keep refreshment on hand and saves multiple trips back to the kitchen for refills.   So I simply adapted the pattern ever so slightly to miss off the hanging hook than Annette had cleverly incorporated as I didn't need that part for mine.

I actually made these potholders cum coasters when the weather was a little warmer and I was putting ice cubes in the water, so they were doing an admirable job of soaking up trickling drops of condensation too.  That's not much of an issue at the moment of course, but who knows, maybe I'll think of something nice a cozy and warm to keep in my jug soon and then the little coasters will be indispensable for reasons of practicality as well as prettiness once more!

: :

Yarn:  Milla Mia Naturally Soft Cotton
With many thanks to: Love Knitting

Pattern:  Vintage Potholders
By
Annette Ciccarelli of  My Rose Valley

S x

♥

SUBSCRIBE: