CROCHET A HOTPAD

Here it is. My first craft on my Crafty Mowens Blog. Today I'm going to give you instructions on how to make this hot pad. I love this project because it is made with something that if thrown into the trash without disposing of it correctly, it can be a danger to our animals in the wild. Our landfills have wild animals foraging in them for food and if one of their limbs or a beak or anything gets caught in them, they surely will not live long after that. So, let's get started on the craft and then I will tell you of an easy way to dispose of these plastic six-pack holder things. (I tried to find out what they are really called, but had no luck)

You start off with the plastic that usually holds six packs of soda together. You cut them apart and then cut of excess so that you have six circles like you see in the above picture.

For the hot pad above, I used varigated cotton yarn. But you can use anything you have on hand. You can make each ring a different color, or just make the rings one solid color and then the edging in another color. There are several possibilities. Just have fun with it.

So, pick your yarn and what you will do to start with, is crochet around each ring with a double crochet.  What you will then have is this.......

The next thing you will want to do is chain 53. Double crochet in the fourth chain from the hook (3 skipped chains count as first dc) and in remaining chains. You should end up with 50 dc.

The next step is to use the dc chain to connect all of your rings together. You will want to overlap the rings and weave the dc chain in and out where they connect like this........

Once you have connected all of your rings, shape it into a circle and stitch the two ends of the dc chain together. Once you have everything shaped into a circle you are ready to go around the edge and sc (single crochet) evenly around and where rings overlap, your sc will hold the piece together. Your end result will be the picture that is at the top of this page. Back when I was 19 and didn't have money to buy someone a small gift for an occasion, I used to make these. They were always appreciated. The person on the receiving end likes the fact that you actually took time to make them something.

Now, I told you I would tell you how to dispose of these plastic six pack holders. It really is very easy. Just take the plastic and cut all circles into half circles. This will still leave you with two joined areas that connect the rings. Cut thosse also. Cut all areas where it is joined. The best thing to do would be to take it one step further and cut it into small 4 or 5 inch pieces. Once you see th.at an animal or bird can not get caught in it, it is okay to throw away.