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Shrunken Hot Pad

PATTERN DETAILS

RELEASE DATE:  January 2001 -- This pattern was originally designed for Alpacas Magazine for its Spring 2001 issue.

DESCRIPTION:  This garter stitch hot pad is worked back and forth diagonally from one corner.  It looks the same on both sides if you work it in one color.  It is the best hot pad that I’ve ever used – the garter stitch pattern makes it thick, and the fulling (felting/shrinking) makes it even denser and more heat insulating.  It’s a variation of the diagonal washcloth pattern that I learned years ago, and it’s easy and quick to make for your kitchen or for gifts.  The final size is not exactly predictable, since the degree of felting depends on the yarn you choose, but my hot pads using this pattern have varied from less than 8 to over 9 inches across.

SKILL LEVEL:  beginner

MATERIALS:

• YARN:  Approximately 80 yards of heavy worsted or chunky weight alpaca, wool, or other animal yarn (it has  to be 100% animal fiber or it won’t shrink down to a good hot pad), or 160 yards of thinner yarn to be used doubled.   Do NOT use a machine washable yarn (e.g., “superwash” wool) since that fiber is already preshrunk and so will not shrink further into a dense hot pad. This is a good project to use up partial skeins of yarn (since you can make it easily of several colors), HOWEVER, the degree of felting of different brands of yarn and even different colors of the same brand may vary.  So try to use only one brand & size of yarn per project.  One good thing is that this is a small project, so experimenting with how different yarns shrink/full is not too large an investment in either time or yarn.  If you change colors twice or more, try always changing them on the same side of the work so that the color change rows on each side look the same.
• NEEDLES:   One pair (straight or circular) in size 8 OR 9.  Size is not critical.
• MISCELLANEOUS
  • darning needle to weave in ends
  • stitch markers if you want to use them to help count your stitches.

GAUGE:  Not critical, since it will be shrunk down in the washing machine; but my gauge has varied from fewer than 15 to more than 18 stitches per 4 inches on size 9 needles. My pre-fulling hot pads have measured approximately 10 inches square and post-fulling are 8-9 inches square.

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