Blog | Hello Yarn

2013 Potholder Swap

on February 5, 2013

After a one-year hiatus, the potholder swap is back and we couldn’t be more excited! We’ve changed some things around, so be sure to read the rules thoroughly.

THE RULES:

Signing up:
There’s no need to sign up or notify anyone in any way that you intend to swap. Have your potholders at the destination below by April 1 and you’ll be swapping. If you don’t have them there on time, they’ll be returned to you. Feel free to participate in the Flickr and Ravelry groups, but it’s not a requirement.

Your Potholders:
Each participant is required to crochet (and only crochet) 3 potholders in the same pattern. Please do vary the colors as you see fit. We don’t want you bored to tears! Please be sure your hot pads and potholders measure between 6 and 8 inches across and are double thick. THEY MUST BE WITHIN THESE SIZE PARAMETERS OR THEY WILL BE RETURNED TO YOU. To make a double thick potholder, crochet the same pattern twice, or do a fancy side and a plain side, then join at the edge. Please make your potholders at a reasonably tight gauge. We don’t want burned fingers!

We’ll be using 100% cotton yarns exclusively. No blends, please.

Label each pad/holder with maker and care instructions. Feel free to include yarn and pattern info. Affix the label with a safety pin or tie it on. No straight pins, please. We had a lot of trouble with labels coming off during the first swap. We don’t want to accidentally send you one of your own potholders.

These are absolute requirements and if you don’t follow them, you won’t be able to swap.

The Actual Swapping:

After the potholders are received, your hosts are going to get together and have a grand time looking at all of your gorgeous work and selecting 3 different beauties to send back to you.

The goal of this swap is to produce and receive little pieces of crocheted art. Use beautiful yarns, color combinations, and patterns. Don’t feel pressured to use teensy little crochet cotton. Thicker cottons like Tahki Cotton Classic, Rowan Cotton Glace, and Elann Sonata make great potholders. Have a ton of fun.

Postage + Envelope:
US participants need to include a self-addressed, postage-paid, large First Class Envelope. You will have to provide your own Self-Addressed Stamped (Non-Priority) envelope. The current first class rate for a large envelope weighing up to 13 oz. is $3.38. We will make sure all packages stay under 13 oz. so that we’re sure your postage is covered. You will have to purchase the stamp(s) to cover this. Postal regulations have changed since the last swap, so to be sure you receive your package, we require first class envelopes only. People have trouble every year with a postal employee trying to be helpful and telling them to do something different than what we are saying to do here. PLEASE buy a large envelope (Bubble wrap-lined is good, and so is Tyvek. Those heavy ones filled with paper pulp are bad because they will put you in Priority Mail territory with their weight alone), address it to yourself, put $3.38 worth of stamps on it, and include it with your potholders. DO NOT SEND PRIORITY MAIL TYVEK ENVELOPES.

Non-US swappers, the only way for us to collect postage fees from you is PayPal. We expect packages to weigh under 10 oz., so postage should be between $8 and $14, depending on where you live. You must include your email address ON the outside of your package, with your address, so that we may email you for your postage fees. If you don’t, we won’t be able to contact you and send your package back.

We’ll need to receive your potholders by April 1. Please mail them to:

Hello Yarn
P.O. Box 19
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370

Inspiration + Patterns:

We’ll create a thread in the Ravelry group for pattern and yarn suggestions. Please add to it!

Keep us abreast of your progress, both on Ravelry and in the Flickr group. Talk about yarns, show your in-progress hot pads, and tell us about patterns. This will be a blast! There’s also a really nice group on Flickr for showing off potholders. It’s great for inspiration.

Questions?:

Feel free to contact me using the button in the upper right hand corner.

Hickory Mittens: Choosing Colors

on January 11, 2013

It’s easy to grab a bunch of yarn with colors that sing to you, but when you’re doing colorwork, particularly colorwork with fine lines, small stitches, or many colors, knowing the value (relative lightness or darkness of a color) is important, too.

Taking a black and white photo is a great way of finding out the values of the yarns you’re thinking of using. The person who chose the yarns below is good to go. She’ll be able to create a wide variety of color combinations in her mittens that will contrast both in color, which she can tell by eye, and value, which is seen in this photo. I think this photo trick is great because you might be surprised by what colors have really similar values.

The reason you can see a gnome in this mitten, with its million sts. per inch, is because Cheryl used colors with different values. See?

For the Hickory Mittens, I definitely like a lot of contrast between the values of the main color and the second main color (the motif outliner). As for the contrast colors, there are some different, wonderful, options.

You can see that in this pair, that there is a darker value outlining each motif, and separating medium value colors from each other:

Would you ever guess that the blue, gold, and orange were so similar in value?

In this pair, there are two with dark values (charcoal and maroon) chumming it up in the diamonds, but note that the outlining color stands out against the background, and check out that cream:

In David’s pair, there are similar values right at the center. It creates almost an optical illusion of depth at the center of the mittens:

I think they’re all great combinations. Take note that there are differences in values in each pair, just that you don’t need to have a certain number of each to make awesome mittens.

I know that people at Mitten School had iPhone apps that took b&w photos, but I can’t remember the names. The new Flickr app has a filter that works well. Very handy for in-store comparisons. For these photos, I turned my DSLR to B&W and just looked at the screen. Works a treat!

3 Comments

New Pattern: Hickory Mittens

on January 9, 2013

I designed a new mitten!

The Facts:
Yarn: Cascade 220 solids and heathers
Pattern: Hickory Mittens (straight to Ravelry with you!)
Needles: size 3, 4, or 5 US or size needed to get gauge
Gauge: 28 (26, 24) stitches and 28 (26, 24) rows = 4” [10cm] in colorwork pattern. Finished mitten size is determined by gauge/needle.
Size: Unisex adult S (M, L)

The Yarn:
I used Cascade 220 for these because it’s a fantastic sturdy yarn for mittens and because chances are, you have some of it laying around. The motif outlining only requires 50 yards and all the contrast colors less than 40 yards, so chances are, you can find the yarn in your stash or you’d only need to buy the main color skein.

The Chart:
The chart for these mittens is in black and white, using symbols for the colors, which means that if you have a set of markers or colored pencils, you can have a grand old time coloring in the chart and testing color combinations.

The Knitting:
It’s a little bit of a challenge, and a whole lot of fun. There are up to four colors per round, which means they’re not a good first colorwork pattern. That said, if you can strand two colors, you can do four. It just requires a little organization of balls or butterflies (check out this video) of yarn. Take special care to make nice loose floats and you’re good to go.

No Lining:
For once, there’s no lining! These mittens don’t need it. They’re plenty puffy and warm with all the stranding that’s going on inside.

Thanks, everyone! Let me know if you have any questions that aren’t addressed on the info page.

1 Comment