Old Timey Potholders aka Vintage Climbing Trellis Potholders

I was so distressed with one of our readers contacted me to say that the pattern I’d linked to for the Vintage Climbing Trellis Potholders in our Stitchin for the Kitchen post several years back was no longer available on the internet! Oh noooooo!  I really really loved that pattern!

Luckily, I’d kept the two potholders I’d created from it to match that pretty vintage apron that Emily made me. After pawing through my cotton yarn stash and putting on my strongest readers, I began to count stitches on those babies in order to attempt to reverse engineer the pattern. I am apparently the ambassador to save vintage patterns, since I had the same desperate sort of scramble for the Almost Lost Washcloth pattern!

With 20% of my eyesight sacrificed and a tangle of cotton leftovers created, all’s well that ends well and I came up with the pattern! (U.S. crochet terms used)

I made these in sport weight cotton. I think you could certainly make them in worsted weight cotton with less rows, or with crochet cotton thread, by adding a few rows. Either way – these old timey potholders are easy to do and must be saved. Teach your daughter! Show your granddaughter! Tuck the pattern away in your diary if you must but let’s not lose these lovely old needlework recipes.

Materials: Sport Weight Cotton, Size E, (3.5 mm) crochet hook

Instructions: Create a magic ring or ch 5 and join in a circle

Center Motif:

ch 3, 23 dc’s in ring. Join to first ch 3 with slip stitch

ch 3, dc in next 3 stitches, ch 2, [4 dc, ch 2] 5 times. Join with slip stitch to first ch 3.

Round 1: slip stitch in ch 2 space just behind yarn, ch 3,  [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space] 5 times, 3dc, ch 2, 2 dc in next ch 2 space. Join to first ch 3 with slip stitch to finish round

Round 2: sl st in next ch 2 space, Ch 3, 3 dc in same ch 2 space. [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space; 4 dc in next ch 2 space] 5 times, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, join with sl stitch in first ch 3 of round.

Round 3: sl st in ch 2 space. ch 3, dc in next 4 dc’s, dc in next space, [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, dc in next space, dc in each of next 4 dc’s, dc in next space] 5 times, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, join in first ch 3 to finish round.

Round 4: sl st in ch 2 space, ch 3, dc in next 6 dc’s, dc in next space, [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, dc in next space, dc in each of next 6 dc’s, dc in next space] 5 times, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, join in first ch 3 to finish round.

Round 5: sl st in ch 2 space, ch 3, dc in next 8 dc’s, dc in next space, [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, dc in next space, dc in each of next 8 dc’s, dc in next space] 5 times, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, join in first ch 3 to finish round.

Round 6: sl st in ch 2 space, ch 3, dc in next 10 dc’s, dc in next space, [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, dc in next space, dc in each of next 10 dc’s, dc in next space] 5 times, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch 2 space, join in first ch 3 to finish round.

Hexagon Backing  available in original post 

With wrong sides together, single crochet the solid hexagon to the design motif. I also chained 12 to create a loop for hanging.

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