Swappin

The top two potholders are a couple that I sent to my friend Claudia in Houston as part of our 3 potholder swap. The top pattern is Potholders by Bea Aarebrot and the second one is the Gehaekelte Topflappen by Creadoo. I also sent a fish potholder from a pattern I made up a couple of years ago. Below are two more she sent my way as a "thank you" for helping her a little bit with getting started on her blog. The pattern is one she created and the pattern can be found on her blog, Delights-Gems.

Another potholder!

Finished today, another Gehaekelte Topflappen by Creadoo. It is written in German and I translated it a few months ago with a lot of help from many different sources! I am still not sure it is the EXACT pattern, but I even got a translation from someone who reads German, and my translation below which is basically:

"Ch 6, join to make a circle, then Row 1: ch 3, 11 dc into the ring (12), Row 2: ch 3, 1dc in same space, 2 dc in each dc around (24). Row 3: ch 3, 1dc in same space, 2dc in ea dc around, (48). Row 4: ch4, 1dc in same space, *sk 2 dc, 1 dc, ch 1, 1 dc in next sp*, follow from * to * around. Row 5:ch 3, 1 dc, ch 1, 2 dc in same space, *sk 2 dc, 2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc in same space*, follow from * to * around. Row 6: same as row 5. Row 7: ch 3, 2 dc, ch 1, three dc in each ch 1 sp around Row 8: same as row 7. Row 8: dc 8 in each ch 1 sp around. Row 9: sc through both sides in each stitch across top of flower, sc, ch 1, sc, ch1 all the way down then back up and continue this around each petal. "

was pretty accurate from what I can see. However, I have seen several other different "modified" translations lately that I think I like better. This time I used a magic ring instead of the ch 6, join. This one is a little larger than I like to use, even though I used an F hook to make it this time. I will most likely make more, but I really like the look of the ones that Kudepihha made and the ones made for the potholder 2010 swap, by bluej (both in Ravelry).

Gehaekelte Topflappen

!!!Happy Dance!!!! I finally broke my crochet drought! It actually started as a puzzle..... I found this pattern on Ravelry, written only in GERMAN! It appeared that NO English translation was available.....so I did what any detective would do, and set to work trying to solve the problem. First I cut and pasted the text into a free translation website, then copied the very oddly resulting translation to a word document. Then I modified it with this translation of German crochet terms. After that, I found some information on various people's projects that filled in the rest of the gaps. Once I had a semblence of a pattern, I rewrote it for my own ease of "understanding". As a backup, I have a friend at work who's Mother is from Germany, so if my translation failed, I asked if she might mind translating for me. Happily, it appears that I did fairly well on my own! I plan to finish the final "flower outline" row tomorrow. After this I plan to try to "tweek" my pattern to resemble this lovely version of the topflappen. Unfortunately this person lives in Estonia and HER blog appears to be written in..........RUSSIAN! :)