Wooly Lamb Potholder

Here is a one-of-a-kind potholder I crocheted for "Stashes" as part of a potholder swap. Stashes is her ravelry name; her real name is Joyce. I received a message from Joyce that she received the potholder today so now I can post this photo and share a little about it and the swap.

First, a little explanation of the Dazzling Dozen Potholder Swap: There are twelve members in our particular section of the swap. Each month one of the members is the recipient of 11 other potholders, one from each of the other members. Joyce is "Miss June, 2010." I will be the very last recipient in this swap--April of 2011. When the swap member's month comes up, that person tells a little about his or her preferences. (I say "his" or "her" because we are fortunate enough to have one guy in our group. Cool!) Anyway, back to this specific month. Joyce told us, via group postings, that she lived in a log house and likes lambs/sheep. In fact her avatar on ravelry.com is a little crocheted lamb. She mentioned "country colors" and green, as one of her colors.

Because you only need to send one potholder per month and because you know some preferences about the featured member, you can conceivably crochet something special for that person. At least this is how I think of it and so the Wooly Lamb Potholder was my potholder for Joyce.

About this potholder: The potholder is 100 percent cotton. It double sided but the back is plain white--nothing fancy. The front is crocheted using Paton's Grace in blue and green. To assimilate a field, in a few places I used the spike stitch to make occasional blades of grass.

The Lamb: The body of the lamb is a an oval that is made up of hdc's. Once made, I attached the base body to the front. Then I embroidered dozens and dozens of French knots using Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton" to make the lamb appear wooly. This kind of yarn is soft and worked well for the effect. The little pink head was next with separate white ears that stick out a little for more dimensionality. More French knots filled in around the head. I embroidered the face using crochet thread. The legs came next and only on a whim I decided to make the lamb leaping and bounding.

Butterfly: I had to ask myself, "Why is this lamb leaping?" And then it came to me, "Because it is chasing a butterfly." Now for a butterfly. I made a tiny little black butterfly base and attached it. I embroidered yellow markings on it after it was in place because it would have been too difficult to embroider otherwise. I wasn't sure it looked enough like a butterfly so I asked my husband if he knew what it was and he did so I figured others would know, too.

Final Touches:There are a few little flowers in the grass. I embroidered these with size 10 crochet thread. The flowers are the chain stitch in a circle.

The front and back are attached together with sc's around and then a second round is a scalloped edge. Finally I added a plastic ring for the hanger. The ring is covered tightly with the blanket stitches so you can't even see the plastic underneath.

Here is what Joyce wrote after receiving this potholder, "When I opened your package I could not believe it. Thank you so very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely love it. I can hardly wait to show it to my knitting group tonight."

Here is what Deb, one of Joyce's friends shared the next day, “I am a close friend of Joyce’s and was sitting beside her last evening when she presented her potholder to our Knotty Girls group. I have never seen OR HEARD such a fuss over a knit item. I wish you could have been there to witness/enjoy it. Joyce is 'over the moon' in having received your potholder! BTW, she is one special gal.”

Isn't that nice? Well, Joyce and Deb, it was my pleasure to share this—a delight to make and even more delightful to share with "Miss June 2010."

Copyright 2010, C. Lowman/Delights. All Rights Reserved.