I had a fun Memorial Day weekend celebrating the book launch of my friend and writing critique partner Eric in Palm Springs. And you might just be thinking, what in the world does that have to do with hot pads?

Well, let me explain. The following is a picture of me with my friends Eric, Naz and Kathryn. They are my writing critique partners and we have been together for 4 years. (I happen to have this crazy dream of getting a middle-grade fiction story published.)

We meet every two weeks on a google hangout to discuss and critique each other’s writings. (Not pictured is our partner Charlie, who lives in Michigan and wasn’t able to come to California this weekend.)

It’s amazing to me the friendships that can develop between people who randomly enter your life. Four years ago, all of us met at a children’s writing conference.

On the first night of the conference, there was an opportunity to have the first ten pages of my manuscript critiqued by random people I had never met before. I took a deep breath and went to this meet-up with my first-draft, middle-grade fiction manuscript in hand. Not to mention a whole bunch of nervousness too! I had just started learning how to write stories.

Eric, Naz, Charlie and Kathryn are those random people who I met that night! We sat in a circle, each of us taking a turn reading our manuscripts aloud. All I can say now is that we clicked. We left that night by exchanging email addresses and a date to meet again in 2 weeks via google hangouts.

And we have been meeting ever since.

Eric had already published one memoir about his childhood before we met and this book we went to celebrate is his second memoir about his high school and college years.

He is an incredibly talented writer, but also a good friend. (You can click here to check out his book.)

He generously subscribes to my newsletter, to be supportive, (I’m pretty sure he’s not into crochet) and often emails me to tell me that my blog posts really touched him, or that they were awesome. So I really wanted to crochet him something that he might use, but something to give him a handmade hug from me.

Because that’s what we essentially are doing right? Aren’t all our blankets, sweaters, hats and mittens little handmade hugs for one another? I like to think so.

All my love and best wishes to my friend Eric.

I made Eric’s crochet harlequin hot pad with black and white 100% cotton yarn and for this sample I used white and blue. (Black, I am learning, is really hard to photograph and show you what the stitches look like.)

I put together a post for my stitch account on Instagram and you can see each row illustrated with a visual in this post here.

A video will follow at the end of this post if you prefer to watch and learn.

Okay onward to the pattern:

Materials

I Love This Cotton Yarn (100% cotton, 3.5 oz/180 yds)

1 skein Blue, 1 skein White

Size G/4.00mm hook, scissors, tapestry needle

Stitches

Single Crochet (SC): Insert your hook, yarn over (YO) and pull up a loop, YO, pull through two loops.

Double Crochet (DC): YO, insert your hook, YO, pull up a loop, YO, pull through two loops, YO, pull through remaining two loops.

Double Crochet 3 Together (DC3TOG): *YO, insert your hook, YO, pull up a loop, YO, pull through two loops. Repeat from * over next 2 stitches, YO and pull through all loops on hook.

Double Crochet 6 Together (DC6TOG): *YO, insert your hook, YO, pull up a loop, YO, pull through two loops. Repeat from * over next 5 stitches, YO and pull through all loops on hook.

Half Double Crochet (HDC): YO, insert your hook, YO and pull up a loop, YO and pull through three loops on hook.

Pattern

Chain 41 with white. (Pattern repeat is 8 plus 1.)

Row 1: In the 5th chain from the hook, work [3 DC, 1 CH, 3 DC], skip 3 ch’s, 1 SC in the next ch, *skip 3 ch’s [3 DC, 1 CH, 3 DC] in next ch, skip 3 ch, 1 SC in next ch, repeat from * to the end of the row.

Row 2: CH 3 and turn. Skip first SC, DC3TOG over next 3 DC, *CH 7, skip 1 ch, DC6TOG over next 6 DC (leaving the SC between unworked), repeat from * ending with DC3TOG over last 3 DC, 1 DC in the top of the last ch.

Row 3: CH 3 and turn. 3 DC in the first space (hole that formed between the DC3TOG and DC) from row below, *1 SC around the ch 1 space of the row below, (enclosing the 7 ch’s), [3 DC, 1 CH, 3 DC] in the center space of the DC6TOG’s, repeat from * ending 3 DC in top of last DC3TOG’s, 1 DC in top of the turning chain. (Pull through with new color, blue)

Row 4: CH 4 and turn. Skip first DC, *DC6TOG over next 6 DC (leaving the SC between unworked), ch 7, skip 1 ch, repeat from * ending with ch 3, 1 SC in top of the turning chain.

Row 5: CH 1 and turn. Skip first SC and the ch 3’s, *[3 DC, 1 CH, 3 DC] in center of the DC6TOG’s, SC in ch space one row below, (enclosing the 7 ch’s), repeat from * ending with 1 SC in the first of the 4 turning chains pulling new color through (white.)

Repeat rows 2 – 5 until there are 5 completed diamonds. End work on a row 5.

Now we will square off the hot pad by filling in the valleys.

Chain 3 and turn, (chain three counts as first DC.) *In the top of the next 2 DC, HDC. In the top of the last DC, SC. Skip over the chain space. SC in next DC. In the next 2 DC, HDC. DC in the SC. Repeat * to the end of the row ending the last DC in the turning ch.

Tie off and weave in the ends.

Back of Hot Pad

With Blue, chain 37.

Row 1: In the third chain from the hook, HDC. HDC in each ch to the end of the row.

Row 2: Chain 2 and turn, (Does not count as an HDC), in the first space from the hook, and in the back loop, HDC. Work back loops with HDC in each stitch to the end of the row.

Repeat row 2 until same size as other square. 

Joining Squares

Tip: Pin the two sides together with a few stitch markers and match the stitches together to make it turn out as even as possible.

Chain 1, insert hook through corner of the back and the corner of the front and work a SC. SC around the entire hotpad with the front facing away from you (the harlequin stitch side, have the blue face you.) Work 3 SC’s into each corner space.

When you return to the beginning corner, work 2 SC, and join, CH 14, SC in the 2nd chain from the hook and each remaining chain, slip stitch to any of the SC in the corner to secure, then form a loop and secure with another sl stitch into the corner.

Pull loop to leave a 9 inch tail and cut. Weave in the ends, using the tail to secure the loop around the base a few more times. weave in and hide all the ends.

Here’s a video I recorded for this stitch:

Thank you all so much for stopping by! I hope you’ll come join me on Instagram! I bet I’ll be turning this stitch into a baby blanket sometime soon. It’s too beautiful and such a classic. I’d love to explore new colors and different yarn types.

Share your finished project to my facebook Daisy Farm Crafts wall if you’d like me to share to the group! It’s fun and you’ll get lots of love, I promise. Use #daisyfarmcrafts on Instagram and I share those pictures when I can up in stories. Facebook is the best for sharing though.

Have a wonderful day,

Tiffany

Click here or on image below for printable pattern