While economists might not consider potholders a durable good, in my household, they are.

This is particularly true of two dreadfully ugly potholders I purchased many years go. I did not like them when I bought them, but they were on sale, and because they were/are ugly, I did not fear using them and getting them burned or dirty.

They were, in my mother’s lexicon “good enough to use” which is, as my regular readers know, the opposite of something that is “too good to use.”

Couple that with the the fact that when something works, it’s hard to give it up, no matter how awful, and you have a have two ugly potholders old enough to be entering the fifth grade.

But today, as the month of July draws to a close and the promise of August arrives, I have decided that I am going to make myself potholders that can be left out on the counter and don’t need to be hidden from sight in the nearest cupboard or drawer.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have a lot of yarn at my disposal, and, as the result of a massive purchase over a decade ago, I still have a sizable quantity of Classic Elite Waterspun yarn, and after my success using it to make this felted pet mat for my dog Clooney:

I decided it would be the perfect yarn to make two felted potholders that will be “too good to use,” but which, defying a half-century of habit, I will use anyway.

Not wanting to reinvent the wheel from a crochet pattern perspective, I decided to go with what works, and using this test swatch turned cat mat that I made when I was working on a Frank Stella inspired throw as a color guide:

along with a 5.0 mm hook and an assortment of suitable colors from my stash of Classic Elite Waterspun (a one-ply felted merino roving), I got to work.

Because gaps in potholders can be hazardous to the user, I modified the design so that there were no gaps.

I started with red for the first pot holder and began to work my way out the rainbow:

while for the second, I started with violet and worked the same colors in the reverse order:

I continued with my crochet, and got this far before stopping to eat dinner:

and then managed two more rounds on each before the sun set:

By lunch tomorrow I hope to be finished with the crochet part of this project and ready to move onto the felting portion — and with any luck, I have to eat lunch at 5:00 pm to make that schedule.