Knit or crochet a hotpad - PEP BB textile.sand.hotpad

If one wished to crochet a hotpad out of wool instead of knitting one (I like to use Tunisian crochet to make them nice and thick), would one post their 10x10” square in this BB, since it’s a hotpad, or in the “crochet a dish cloth” BB, since they’ve crocheted it (albeit out of wool rather than cotton)?

Since I don't have wool yarn available, I made this hot pad with wool knit fabric. I cut the black wool knit into strips and redyed the fabric yarns. The yarns were bulky so it was pretty fast to knit the 10 by 10 square. The hot pad is also very thick, about 2 cm in thickness and works pretty well insulating heat.

For this BB, I knitted my hotpad with some bulky handspun I made a long time ago.

Yarn and knitting needles.

Knitting in progress. Width is 10.5 inches

Knitting finished. Length is also 10.5 inches.

Felted hotpad measures 8 inches by 9 inches.

I've not done a lot of felting so it was interesting to me that the length and width ended up different measurements. I'm okay with that, and it gives me important information for another hotpad. I'll make the length about an inch shorter next time.

One thing you can do when felting something that's getting too short in one direction, is to get it wet with hot water and stretch it longer that way. You can also roll it like you'd roll dough to make a breadstick (or playdough when making snakes ), and this kind of helps stretch it out more in that direction.

But, even with those tricks, I still often get my potholders turning out shorter than I wanted!

Nicole, thanks for the tips! I'll give stretching a try. I also liked what you did with yours, making it extra long and folding it over to double it. I almost did that, but thought I'd try for the square first! :)

Here is my crocheted hotpad for my BB.

Here is my submission for the Textile - Sand - Knit a Hotpad BB.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
 -  Post a picture of your wool cotton yarn and needles or crochet hooks
 -  Post a picture of your hot pad in progress
 -  Post a picture of your completed hot pad
 -  Unfelted, it should measure about 10 by 10 inches

This is a cotton hot pad using the Tree of Life Potholder Pattern which recommends cotton.  Earlier in this thread, there has been conversation in which Paul said that cotton could be used but would need an insulative layer.  The technique used for this pattern is called double knitting and you make two layers of fabric as you knit across each row.  In a conversation I had with Paul during BB20, he asked if I would be comfortable using this hot pad to remove a cast iron pan from the oven and my answer is, "yes."

Please consider my hotpad submission for this BB.

Decided to put some of my quieter down time to work and help centre myself instead of worrying about everything going on around me...what better way than to get out the crochet hook and some yarn! A couple of years back I was an avid crocheter, so it's great to get back into it with this hotpad, and nice to relearn some stitches I had forgotten. I went with a "Squared Waffle" pattern on Ravelry, and got to work with two Lionbrand Fishermen's Wool (100% wool) balls of yarn.

I chose to knit my hotpad because I've had more practice knitting and just like it better. The label on my wool yarn suggested size 6-7 needles, but I wanted a really tight knit so I used size 2 instead. I made it a long rectangle, folded it, and crocheted two of the sides so that it had a pocket, so it can be used as an extra thick hotpad under something or as a mitt-style hotpad to grab something. Since my wool is superwash it won't felt, but with how tight it's knitted I don't think I'll have a problem getting burnt through it.

Real wool can be hard to come by in yarn shops in Madrid, I've found. Acrylic and blends seem to have flooded the market. After some internet searching, I found a shop that sells Merino wool from sheep that live about 200 mi (332km) from my apartment. What a gem. https://amimu.es/lana-merino-otras/1346-100-merino-autoctona-dlana.html#/2367-dlana-ma_marron I really enjoyed crocheting, had never tried it before. Can't believe how well it came out, a little lumpy but more or less rectangular. I used to knit scarves as a teenager, but I like that you only need one hook for crochet, as opposed to two needles for knitting. With knitting, you keep on your needles the number of stitches that make up the width of the project you're working on, which means lots of counting to ensure you don't accidently loose a stitch or two when you toss it in a bag between knitting sessions, as I used to. But with crochet, you keep one stitch on the hook. Much less counting, much more fun :)