For a while now, at least three times a day (likely more), as I go to reach for a hot pad, I vow to soon make new ones. I don't know how it is that I'm so hard on them - I swear, I remember my parents having the very same ones for my entire childhood (and still). My grandparents too - the very potholder pattern that I included in my book Handmade Home was inspired by one that was handed down to me from my grandmother. Handed down! I am lucky to get five years, it seems, judging by the publication date of that book and the last round of them that I must have made for it. It must be all the extra cooking I do (I try to tell myself), but I don't know, maybe I'm just hard on these things. Maybe it's my husband who sneaks them out of doors for use on the firepit or the evaporator? Hmn. Regardless, the state of mine was rather upsetting to look at so many times a day and after thinking that thought for what felt like the thousandth time, I finally spent a night fixing it. Ah. So much better now - a fresh stack, clean, bright and free from burn marks and grease stains. The rectangular ones are just pieced and quilted, while the circular ones are Millie's Hot Pads from my book.
(Why yes, he did cut that hair all by himself!) While I was in front of the machine, quite done with potholders (six seems plenty), but not quite ready for bed, I got to one more thing that had just popped onto my to-make list that very day. A Cozy Sewn Cowl, very recently on the Purl Bee. A little bit of Anna Maria's Field Study on the outside, and a little hemp/organic cotton fleece on the inside. Cozy, indeed. I made the child's size, actually intending this to be for his older sister, but it didn't quite fit, she never knew anyway, and it's purple...so it's in the right hands now, or on the right neck as the case may be. And I'm thinking the next time I'm in front of the machine and not quite ready for bed, I'll be making one for myself. Because, as this storm that's coming our way any minute now tells us, there's still a bit of cowl wearing left in our winter. Why not make something special to carry us through it?
Enjoy your day - your sewing, your storm, whatever it may be - today, friends!
