The picture above is the original pot holder that this pattern is based on. It's a vintage one, probably made in the 40's, maybe earlier. My sister's neighbor brought it over to show us during a yard sale. This was during a time in my life that, for some reason, I thought it was a great idea to crochet 100 thread pot holders. The neighbor wanted to show us one she had, and we were very impressed. She let us keep it awhile to figure it out.

Well, we just thought it was an amazing pattern, one we'd never seen and we dubbed it THE PICASSO, a real work of art! Since putting the pattern on my website several years ago, a couple of ladies sent me pictures of versions of the Picasso, so I guess at one time in history, people were making these.

It's an easy pot holder to crochet, but it's a little tricky getting it together. But, if I can do it, you can do it. The rounder you can get it the better. I just crocheted a circle for the back. It needs that other layer to be servicable. With wrong sides together I simply stitched the back to the front with sewing thread.

The Picasso

#10 Crochet Cotton and #7 hook

You make 3 strips. The strips are worked with single crochet (sc) in the back loops of the previous row. This makes it stretchy like ribbing in a sweater.

Row 1: Ch 2, 3 sc in 2nd ch from hk, ch 1,turn.

Row 2: Sc in same place and in each st across, ch1, turn. (3 sts)

Row 3: 2 sc in the same place, and in each st across, ch 1, turn. (4 sts)

Row 4: Sc in same place and in each st across, ch1, turn. (4 sts)

Row 5: 2 sc in same place (back loop remember) and in each st across, ch 1 turn (5 sts)

Continue in this fashion (repeating rows 4 and 5) until there are 14 stitches, then work even until the strip is about 9" long. Then break the thread and finish it off.

The edging goes on the edge where the increases were made. edging:

Row 1: Working evenly along the side of the strip (I put my sc in the low part of the rows) sc, ch 3 and repeat to the end of the strip.

Row 2: sc in the ch 3 space, ch 3, sc in the 3rd st from hk (making a picot), ch1, sc in next ch 3 sp. Do this to the end, break thread and finish off. Actually any pretty little edging would work.

Now, sew the three large ends of the strips together with sewing thread. After that, wrap the strips making the pot holder as round as possible. Sew with thread.

The back is just a circle of double crochets. I stitched the back to the front hiding the stitches under the edging. Even if the front isn't exactly round, the round back can be eased on, press it, and it will be fine. Cover a ring with single crochet, and attach it for hanging.

TIP: With red sewing thread, gather the straight side! It will curl right up in the position you want. After sewing a strip on, take out the red thread.