As I mentioned before I joined the Lancaster Guild. They have a pretty large, active group and a newsletter called Woolgathering which has interviews with members, some informational articles, calendars and a bunch of other weaving and spinning updates. Some of the group has been growing and harvesting flax!

I noticed they are having a virtual holiday gathering and having a pot holder contest. There are three categories:

• Made on a traditional potholder loom
• Made on a traditional potholder loom with a holiday design
• Your choice (quilted, continuous weave, braided, whatever)

My husband and I both had the same idea—make a novelty sized pot holder rug with my giant pot holder loom! I’m not sure if it was they had in mind but why not. Since my husband is Jewish, we celebrate both holidays so I thought it would be fun to make a Hanukkah themed one.

I went to a large Goodwill out in the county and really lucked out, they had 3 XL plain bright blue shirts, a bunch of white ones with minimal writing and some large blue shirts that basically matched. It was about $16 for 7 shirts. I cut them up (inside because it was cold!) and luckily the next day was sunny so I weaved them right up.

I was making an apple crumb cake and was able to weave the whole rug in the 55 minutes it took to bake. I think I’m going to do the cutting and weaving separately next time I make a rug again. Doing it in one day is very tempting but it’s actually pretty physical and tiring. It takes me a lot longer to cut out the strips than it does to weave. Weaving it is a lot of leaning over and stretching. I wish I had an easel I could prop the loom up on. It’s very large and heavy, I barely can balance it on our huge outdoor table.

I wove the rug alternating blue and white for the warp and alternating double rows of blue and white for the weft. Then to really make it look like a pot holder, I looped in the inner part of a plastic embroidery hoop like you would with a real pot holder to hang it up.

I think it’s super cute! I hope a novelty sized pot holder is okay as an entry. I don’t have to submit it until around Thanksgiving so I can always change my mind. I need to figure out how to photograph it so the scale is more obvious. Below it is fresh from the loom.

I even have some big loops left! I’ve also been saving all the cut up sleeves and smaller extra scraps from all the rugs and have the ton. I’m not sure what to do with them yet. They aren’t big enough for the rug unless I chain them together and I think that would be too lumpy. I have seen people weave rugs with pot holder loops with a floor loom so that might be worth looking into.