I feel bad for you...

...because I am certain that the potholders I received are way better than yours.

No, seriously. I love them a lot. But all kidding aside, thank you to the hostesses and all the lovely potholder makers. This was so, so much fun!

Hot Pad Heaven!

This has been one of the best swaps ever. It was fun, creative and a treat to have 5 wonderful creations from five different people. The pads are from Nova, Bridget, Aimee, Jenny and Nann (I think). Thank you each one and to Adrian, Maritza, and Maryse!

Margene

my beautiful potholders

These were waiting for me when I got home last night. I love them all! Thanks so much everybody, and especially thanks to the organizers, what a great swap this has been!

Center: Debbie L
Top left: Elizabeth
Top right: Priscilla
Lower left: Lacey
Lower right: no tag :(

Thanks, ladies, for all your hard work.

the mail's here!

Here are the hot pads + potholders I received in the mail! I think they're all beautiful and have been gazing at them since they arrived. Thank you to fellow swappers Tiffany, Abbey, Scott, Tatiana, and Jenna! I had so much fun participating in this exchange - it was absolutely worth my efforts!

I forgot to put my name on the tags I sent out, so if you get a piece which has a linen backing with a rose embroidered on it, that's from me, Annri - enjoy!

Thank you Adrian + Maritza for the great hot pads! and potholders swap!

what a treat!

Look at these georgeous potholders I got in the mail from the swap. I feel completely spoiled! What amazing little jewels!

From left to right: Ardian, Reve, Maritza, Dawn, and Erin

Thanks ladies! And a special shout out to Adrian and Maritza for putting this wonderful swap together.

Loveliness Abounds

I got mine!!



They're so sweet! I love all of them; the large cotton one on the bottom right will go beautifully with my new kitchen and the rest are going to see lots of use, too!

Thanks to Sherie, Lacey, Celiae, Tiffany, and Karen--you all did such lovely work.

Also, thanks to Adrian and Maritza for putting this all together! You guys rock!!

PS: Who got mine? I'm dying to know. :)

Love them!

Wow! This swap has been so much fun; I loved seeing all the beautiful potholders everyone made. More info and better photos are available in my blog post.

I was lucky to receive these wonderful hotpads (from left to right, top to bottom) made by: Beth (buhnuh on Ravelry), Lynda (littleloops on Ravelry), maryse, Dawn, and Reve (on Ravelry). Thank you!!


Many thanks to everyone for making this enjoyable, and especially to our coordinators and helpers, Adrian, Maritza, and Maryse! : )

Thanks Everyone!

I got my hotpads and love them all! Thank you for such a fun swap, these really brighten my kitchen.

Talented ladies clockwise from top left: wendy g., emilee, deadkat,emily & bridget

Truly touched,

jennifer (jennyknits on rav)

Hot Pad Love!

I got my hot pads last night - how wonderful and beautiful they all are. I love, love, love them.

Clockwise, from top left, these wonderful beauties were crocheted by: Leila R, Emilee, Denise R, Angi, and the center one by Debbie C. Thank you all for your delightful work - these will bring much joy to my home.

This was my first swap, of any kind, and I learned a lot, and really enjoyed doing it. I hope all of the other swappers enjoy what they made and received.

And, again thank you so much to Adrian and Maritza for organizing this, and to Adrian, Maritza and Maryse for the swapping and packing of all these delights to over 100 of us participating in this swap!

So, what's next? :-)

I got my potholders!

Woohoo-they're awesome! Thank you Adrian and Maritza-what a lot of work but what a lot of fun!


















Angharad

Got 'em

I got my potholders yesterday, and they're great! This was such a fun swap, and I'm so happy to have been a part of it. :)

My potholders came from Stacie, Susan, Amy, and two others that didn't have names on them. :(
I'd love to know if I have one of yours, though!

My Computer is Acting Up

I have ended the previous post 3 or 4 times, and I keep getting an "HTML error" message, refusing to print it with that post, and so I am posting again separately to wrap up what I had to say:

Oooops! So, if you get a mystery PH (variegated yellow with green stripes and a daffodil), that would be me (smiling sheepishly). So sorry.
And to my mystery PH swapper (who made the pretty tan, brown, and olive green one in the pic above), leave a comment so I can properly thank you.
And a proper thank you to Birdsong, Donna, Melissa W., and Sue! They are soooo lovely, and I know I will smile every time one of them catches my eye in the kitchen, and again when they protect my hands and counters and tabletop.
I hope everyone gets their pkg. soon. Mine only had to travel from Mass. to Maine, so that's why so quick. I can't wait now for the posts sharing all the lovely PHs.
WendyBee

Lucky Me! PotHolder Delivery has Arrived!

Oh My! I have been trying to control my impatience waiting for this package to arrive. So I told myself to put it out of my mind 'til at least Friday, and lo and behold, they came today. And to think they sat in my mailbox for a few hours only about 30 yards away! What a delight of patterns and colors. They are all cotton (as I sent cotton). All are double-layered. All had labels or tags of some kind, with fiber content, care instructions. 4 of the 5 identified the crocheter by name, website, or e-mail. I haven't been able to identify #5. (yet)

This was my first-ever swap of any kind. I guess I've learned a little bit by this experience. What I learned was that I shouldn't have agonized so much over choosing a pattern and materials. I lost a lot of time and ended up rushing at the last minute. Wasn't able to take pictures, (was putting the last stitches in as my husband drove me to the first of two post offices). I think it was probably spelled out for me somewhere, but I didn't get the message that I should label my entries.

Five loves at first sight!

I received my five exchange potholders, and I absolutely love them!


Beautiful creations from Maritza, Pam, Reve, Beverly, and Maryse!

More details and pictures on my blog!

P.S. If you received one of my potholders, I'd love to know! I know the orange/red/teal one ended up with Beverly, but what about the other four?!?

They're Here!

What a fun mail day! I was thrilled to open my package and find such a pretty array of potholders!

Thank you to (from top left to right) Erin, Kathy, Lynda, Javalulu, and Susann...and of course to our fabulous hostesses!

Beverly

Potholders, potholders and more potholders!

want to know what close to 500 potholders look like?

imagine 3 times more than what you see here.

anyway, i hope you all had a great time making your potholders and that you'll be happy with the ones you receive in return.

Thank you!

Wow! You guys rock! I couldn't believe my eyes when we were done opening all the packages at Adrian's yesterday. There were potholders everywhere!

It was great seeing all of your handiwork in person. Thank you all again for participating in this swap! You've all made it a lot of fun.

The Swap

Maritza, Maryse, and I got together to swap all the potholders yesterday and wow, 500-ish potholders is a lot! After opening all the packages and admiring all the potholders for a good while, we got down to the business of sorting them by fiber (cottons got cottons and wools got wools) and started swapping and packing.




There were so many amazing potholders of all varieties. Many thanks to all who participated in the swap. Special thanks for following our instructions about envelopes and postage so well. You really made it all quite painless!

I'm going to be taking down the names on all the packages so that if something got lost in the mail either getting here or getting back to you, we'll at least know. The US potholders will ship back to you tomorrow. Non-US swappers, I'll be figuring postage and emailing you tomorrow. Thanks, everyone!

Maryse and Maritza, post photos!

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

I'll be heading out to Adrian's to help her and Maritza distribute potholders. I hear they're gorgeous!

Good work people!

Here are the potholders I made for the Swap! I am happy with the way they turned out and that they are done in time! I'm the type who will take full advantage of a deadline extention, a procrastinator of epic history. "Good under pressure" is what some folks call it. wink, wink! They'll start their journey to Swap headquarters later this morning. Thank you to Adrian + Maritza + all my fellow swappers for this challenging and fun opportunity!

(Don't worry, there are 5!) I finished last week, but the extra few days were very welcome due to moving and traveling at the end of the month.

I learned SO MUCH with this swap -- the only things I've crochet before are amigurumi. So I learned: double crochet, triple crochet, folded triple crochet, standing stitches, puff stitches, bobble stitches, turning chains, working in rounds instead of spirals, and working around the posts of stitches. Whew!

It was fun to pick a pattern. I had a hard time settling on one at first. Hexagons have a lot of corners to keep track of, and most of the squares I found were either hole-y in the corners or ruffled once I got to 5 rounds. I ended up using a scalloped pattern from Ravelry. I was worried that it would be too unoriginal, but my husband pointed out that anything with lots of projects probably turns out pretty well! So I gave it my own little twist by using bobbles and triple-crochets around the post of the stitch two rows below in the fourth round becuase I LOVE BOBBLES AND PUFF STITCHES!!! Ahem.

Then I made two more potholders for us. And I might make two more as part of a wedding present. But I might take a little break first.

Everybody's crocheting is so beautiful -- I can't wait to see what I get in the mail!

Finished!

My potholders are packaged and on their way to Shelburne Falls! I really enjoyed this return to crochet. I spent a lot of time swatching, trying out color combinations and new stitches. I'm a little concerned that the outer round may be too open, but I'm hoping the double thickness will ensure that these will be functional.

Enjoy! I cannot wait to see what arrives in my mailbox!

Beverly

My Contributions!

I fear they aren't nearly as nice as some of the gorgeous ones I've seen on here, but I am proud of them. The swirly ones allowed me to learn a technique I'd been curious about; now I am about to make some for myself! (I want to felt some, too--I bet the pattern would look super cool!)

This was a great stash-buster. All of my yarns came from my stash, and it feels nice to have used up so many half-balls and stuff. The potholders are double-sided, except for the marled pink one, which has two strands held together.

Now all I have to do is tag 'em, pack 'em up, and send 'em out! SO GLAD the deadline was extended. I was killing myself on the last one. :)

Hi, all! This is Adrian, but I'm posting for Robyn (check sidebar for link).

This is the first swap I have taken part in. It has been great fun watching as the group tested out different patterns, chose their colours, etc if not a little scary – who knew there could be performance anxiety for crochet! As I started to test out some problems I realised that I had a problem. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was younger, but I lived in Australia then. All the patterns I tried didn’t look right and it took me a while to realise that the same terms mean two different stitches in Australian and American patterns! I finally settled on my Pattern (Felted Colourful Coasters from the Coats and Clark website). I added a few rounds and skipped the felting. I was going to crochet a plain back but liked the concentric circles on the back so they may be better suited as hot pads for your table than to take hot pots out of the oven. I had a lot of fun and can’t wait to see what pot holders come my way!