Jewel Heptagonal How-to

This purpose of this page is to serve as visual support for the Jewel Heptagonal Pattern as found on a previous blog page.

A final potholder using this pattern is seen in the photo above. The one with the black trim is a completed two-sided potholder. The potholder with the green trim is the front side only and is the one pictured step-by-step in the series of photos that follows on this page.

On this page you will be guided by:

1. photos of yarns and tools used to make the green edged potholder front

2. photos of the step-by-step process

3. general explanations and insider tips about the steps

For the exact pattern, go to the Jewel Heptagonal Pattern page.

Photo 2

Yarns: The yarn used for the main body of the potholders is Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton."* The lighter of the two here is called Ivory Print. The darker is High Sierra Ombre. Other possible cottons for the main body that will give a jewel-like look to the finished potholder are: **1.) Lily's Sugar 'n Cream color Jewels which is an ombre in purples, blues and green. 2.) Lily Sugar 'n Cream color Painted Desert, which is an ombre very much like the Ivory Print but not as much of the lighter, ivory color. Other yarns used to complete the potholder: J&P Coats Black Royale Fashion crochet thread size #3; Hobby Lobby "I Love This Cotton" (black), and any matching cotton color for the center such as other colors in "I Love This Cotton," Paton's Grace or Omega Sinfonia.

*It is important to make potholders of cotton or felted wool. Acrylic can burn, melt and smell badly if exposed to intense heat.

**If you use one of these heavier cottons, the pattern and hook sizes are different. Email me for the adjustments.

Tools: Crochet hooks size F and G, two blunt-nosed needles (one large and one smaller) and scissors, of course.

Let's get started.

Photo 3

Chain 5 and make a loop. Then either make 2 rows of hdc's around (increasing as necessary) or one round of tr crochet.

Photo 4

This photo shows that you are going to make long sc spike stitches over the previous row or rows by going down through the center and back up to complete your sc. You can see about a third of the piece is covered with spike stitches in this photo.

The purpose of the spike stitches is to make the center have dimension to look a little like a jewel.

Photo 5

This photo shows spike stitches all around. It could have more of them to cover the round beneath. You can see how the center puffs out using this stitch.

Photo 6

Using the thinner crochet thread (size 3) and going into the front loops only of the previous round, crochet either a row of hdc or dc. You will not want to make this round lie flat; it should cup. In the next round it will fit perfectly.

A good number of stitches to complete this round is 42.

Photo 7

The next row of black will be crocheted in the back loops of both the black and the lime green. Just sc through both the black and lime colors. This will make the first round of black stand up and form a raised ring around the center green color.

The purpose of the two black rounds is to make a "setting" around the green "gem" center.

The raised black also adds interest to the potholder so that it is not just flat.

Photo 8

I like to have 42 st when I finish the black. This is perfect for starting the main ombre color. The potholder is a heptagon, a seven-sided object. The first segment of the main color will have seven st's: six hdc's followed by a ch sp. By having 42 st from the previous row I will crochet *2 hdc's in the first st, then 1 hdc in each of the next st's, then a ch sp and repeat from * around. This will make a total of 49 st's for the round. Note: I use the smaller hook on this first round because of the smaller black crochet thread used in the previous round. I crochet loosely with this hook so the st's will accommodate the larger hook for the next round. Mark your row starts with a safety pin, as shown in the photo here. Because you will not be making a sl st to end the row with chains up to start the next round so you will need to know where you began.

Photo 9

Once you are into the main color, the potholder goes very fast. After your ch 1 space, crochet 2 hdc's into the first st of the next round. All you do is crochet 2 hdc's in the first and last st's of each heptagon segment with a ch between segments. You will have 7 hdc's in each segment on round two of the main color plus the ch sp; 8 hdc's in each segment on the next round; 9 hdc's in each segment on the next round; 10 hdc's in each segment on the next round. Then there is a change: 2 hdc's in the first and last stitches of each segment PLUS 2 hdc's in the middle of each segment so that the total number of stitches in each segment of this round numbers 12 (plus the ch 1 sp).

The above photo shows the start of the shaping round. There are three shaped segments here and four segments still to be shaped thusly: sc in each of the next 2 st; hdc in each of the next 2 st; 2 dc in the next st; 1 dc, 1 trc, 1 dc in the center st; 2 dc in the next st; hdc in each of the next 2 st; sc in each of the next 2 st. Ch 1.

Photo 10

Using the large blunt-nosed needle and starting between the st at the top of a valley, embroider a line of chain stitches down to the center raised round. Once you have completed all seven lines , secure all of the loose ends in the back.

Photo 11

Then sc around the entire outer edge.

Steam press on the backside only for a nice flat finish. Caution: use a damp cloth on the backside and steam with the iron just by setting it straight down momentarily. Do this three times to cover the entire surface. Be careful not to press too hard or to slide the iron. You want to preserve the crispness of your stitches. While you want your potholder to lie flat, you do not want flat stitches.

Once done, crochet a second side identical to the first and then sc both sides together starting in a valley so you can end up in the same location to attach a plastic ring for hanging. Leave about 30-36 inches of your joining yarn at the end of your sc's. With the smaller blunt-nosed needle, secure the plastic ring in place with a few rounds over the ring and into your sc's with your short starting tail. Then make blanket stitches (also called button hole stitch) around the plastic ring in place and over the first rounds that secured the ring in place to hide them. Secure ends. All done!

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

Here are two just completed potholders. To the left is the one made for this pictorial how-to page using the "I Love This Cotton" High Sierra Ombre yarn. To the right is another potholder made using the "I Love This Cotton" Ivory Print. I sent both of these as a surprise Thank You to Lubbockarmadillo, a ravelry friend. Hope you like them, Cindy.

I crocheted one more potholder as a test. Because I listed Lily's Sugar 'n Cream as a possible main body color, I decided to make one using the color "Jewels" to see how the pattern adapted. I had to make some adjustments, namely a larger size hook (H) and fewer stitches (starting with 5 stitches instead of 7 after the black raised "setting" at the center and ending with 10 on the last two rounds). Here is my overall assessment:

1. The Sugar 'n Cream is coarser to the touch.

2. The overall finished size came to 8 inches. I prefer the finished size of potholders to be a little smaller, about 7.5 inches or no larger than 7.75 inches.

3. The Sugar 'n Cream yield was less than The I Love This Cotton. The yield for the Sugar/Cream was one potholder (front and back) but for The I Love This Cotton I squeezed out two (2 fronts and backs). To be fair, there are 2 oz in the Sugar/Cream skein compared to 3 oz in the Love/Cotton.

Conclusion: I like the colors of both yarns but I recommend the I Love This Cotton for this pattern because it is easier to work, feels better and yields more per skein. However, if you have plenty of Sugar 'n Cream on hand and want to use it, go for it. Just make the adjustments or you may have too large of a potholder.

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.

Jewel Heptagonal Potholder

Here is a photo of three stacked Jewel Heptagonal Potholders.

There are two reasons for the "jewel" part of the name. First is that the center color and stitch is reminiscent of a jewel that is inset into a raised "setting." The second part is that yarn used in the main body has jewel-like colors.* The "heptagonal" aspect of the pattern is the shape of the potholder; it is a heptagon, a seven-sided object.

*The prototypes did not have the jewel and raised setting stitches. That was developed by the third potholder.

You are welcome to use this pattern. When sharing your project online or in print, please attribute your completed project to this pattern. Thanks. There are no other restrictions for its use.

Yarns used: Hobby Lobby, I Love This Cotton! (Ivory Print, shown here or High Sierra Ombre on the how-to page); Hobby Lobby, I Love This Cotton! (black); other various color cottons for center; J&P Coats Royale Fashion Crochet thread, size 3 (black).

Gauge: 5 hdc and 3 rows = 1" (Using I Love This Cotton!) The completed size of this two-sided potholder is 7.75 inches.

Yield: I can almost get two full potholders out of one skein of the I Love This Cotton. For sure you will get three sides (two fronts and one back) from a single skein.

Hooks: F and G

Needles: Large blunt-nosed tapestry needle and a smaller blunt-nosed needle.

Hanging ring: 1 plastic 1 1/8" ring per potholder.

Foundation round:

Size F if thinner center color. Size G hook, if thicker cotton.

With a solid color, such as purple, hot pink, or bright turquoise to match the yarn used for the main body, ch 5 and slip stitch to the starting ch.

Round 1:

Ch 2, 10 hdc in the loop, sl st to the top of the ch 2.

Round 2:

Ch2, hdc around (enough to almost lie flat). The total is not important but since the next round will stretch this one, don't be alarmed that it will be cupped.

Round 3

Spike stitch around. (Single chain by pulling up the yarn through the center hole, instead in the tops of the stitches in the preceding round.) The spike st's will cover up both of the hdc rounds to produce a rounded, jewel-like center.

Round 4:

Switch to a thinner crochet thread/yarn and a size F hook. Used here J&P Coats Fashion Royale #3 (black). Work in the front loops of the previous round. Dc around (probably 2 dc per front loop) so that the the finished round is cupped, rather than flat. Approximately 42 stitches. Fewer stitches, if a thicker yarn is used.

Round 5:

Sc around this way: pick up the back loop of black and the back loop of original color and sc. This will produce a ridge that stands up to incase or set the "jewel" center. The number of finished stitches, if you use a thinner crochet thread, will likely number 38-45 stitches. I ended with 42.

Round 6:

Here is the theory of this round. You will be starting your seven-sided potholder on this round using the main color. Each of the seven sides will contain 6 hdc and 1 chain (7) to total 49 stitches. (7 x 7 = 49)

First begin by counting the final number of stitches from Round 5. Still using crochet hook F for THIS ROUND ONLY, change to the ombre/variegated color. If you have 42 stitches from round 5, you will need to increase once stitch per each of the seven of the heptagonal sides. Here is an example of what to do if you have 42 stitches: chain 2 (to count as first hdc) and hdc in the same stitch. Hdc in each of the next 4 st. *Ch 1, 2 hdc in the next st and 1 hdc in each of the next 4 st. Repeat from * around ending with a ch. DO NOT sl st to the top of the ch 2 that begins the round.

Now STOP. Pin a little safety pin just below the start of the round so you will know the beginning of each round because you will NOT be making a sl st and then a ch 2 at the beginning of each round.

Round 7:

Switch to size G hook.

Here is what is happening with this round and in the next three rounds: You will be crocheting 2 hdc in the first and last st's of each of the heptagonal sides followed by a ch 1 between sections.

Here is the exact procedure for this round: *Hdc twice in the beginning st of the first of the seven sides, 1 hdc in each of the next 3 st, 2 hdc in the last st of this section. Ch 1. Repeat from * around. You will have 7 st in each of the seven sections, plus the ch between each section for a total of 56 st's. (7 x 8 = 56). It is more important to count your stitches in each section than to count the total st's around. In this round if you count 8 per section and a ch between, they you will have the exact number of stitches.

Round 8:

*Hdc twice in the beginning st of the first side of the heptagon. 1 hdc in each of the next 4 st, 2 hdc in the last st of this section of the heptagon. Ch 1. Repeat from * around. You will have 8 st's in each of the seven sides plus the ch between each for a total of 63 st's.

Round 9:

*Hdc twice in the beginning st of the first side of the heptagon. 1 hdc in each of the next 5 st, 2 hdc in the last st of this section of the heptagon. Ch 1. Repeat from * around. You will have 9 st's in each of the seven sides plus the ch between each for a total of 70 st's.

Round 10:

*Hdc twice in the beginning st of the first side of the heptagon. 1 hdc in each of the next 5 st, 2 hdc in the last st of this section of the heptagon. Ch 1. Repeat from * around. You will have 10 st's in each of the seven sides plus the ch between each for a total of 77 st's.

Round 11:

THIS ROUND IS DIFFERENT because you will be adding another increase in the center of each of the seven sides.

*Hdc twice in the beginning st of the first side of the heptagon. 1 hdc in each of the next 3 st, 2 hdc in the next st, 1 hdc in each of the next 4 st's, 2 hdc in the last st of this section of the heptagon. Ch 1. Repeat from * around. You will have 12 st's in each of the seven sides plus the ch between each for a total of 91 st's.

Round 12

This round will make the final scalloped round to give the potholder its distinctive shape.

Each heptagon side: *1 sc in each of the first 2 st, hdc in next 2 st, 2 dc in next st, (1dc, 1tr, 1dc) in next st, 2 dc in next st, hdc in nest 2 st, 1 sc in each of the last 2 st. Ch 1. *Repeat from * around. Sl st to end round and end of color.

Remove the safety pin marker.

With the black, thicker cotton and a tapestry needle and starting at the outer edge in one of the "valley" between the "peaks" of the potholder, insert your needle between the front and back loops. Make a line of chain stitches** between each of the seven sides down to the raised row around the center color. It is easy to see where to make this line of ch stitches because it has been defined by the ch 1's on each round. Secure the yarn ends of each black chain in the back of all seven sides.

**Note that chain stitches in embroidery are similar to crochet chain stitches in their look but are executed differently.

Round 13:

Using the F hook and the size 3 black crochet thread, sc around the entire potholder. The only increases you will need are near the tops of each scallop. 2 sc in st just before and just after the center top of each of the seven sides.

Now, make a second potholder side. Before attaching the front and back sides, lightly steam both sides on the BACK sides, only. Use a wet dish towel to place on the back side of the potohlder and when the iron is heated (cotton setting) press down in a few spots for a very short time to steam. Lift up and press down about 3-4 times. Do not slide the iron around. Just a few straight on placements of the iron for only a second each and not too heavily. If you steam with full weight, you will flatten the stitches too much.

Round 14:

Finally pin both finished sides together and sc around, starting on top of one of the black separating lines (between scallops). Leave a 12" tail before beginning to use when making the hanging ring after the sc chain around. Leave a 30-36" tail of the size 3 crochet thread.

Plastic loop: Place the plastic loop at the start of your sc around in the space between two of the seven sides. With the shorter blunt nosed needle, thread the short 12" tail and secure the loop in place with this tail. Thread the long 30 plus inch tail and go around the plastic loop with the button hole stitch. Make the stitches close and tight. Go over (cover) the secured thread with the button hole stitch. Secure the ends and hide.

All done!

Photos of some of the steps of this potholder have been added to another page of this blog.

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