Woven Potholder Valentines
I know the last thing you want to do after all the holiday shopping and gift giving is think about more gifts…it never ends! But I have always loved the tradition of exchanging valentines since way back in my elementary school days, where everyone created and decorated their own valentine mailbox out of a cardboard shoe box. I loved picking out what theme of valentines cards I would give out and what candy to pair with it.
Well I still think its fun to craft my own valentines to gift to friends and family, I just like to be a bit more practical now! Here are a few of the past valentines gift ideas that I’ve shared if you need a few more ideas!
Notebook Valentines Printables
DIY Valentine’s Day Clay Plant Signs
Pink Hot Chocolate Mix (with Valentine Printable!)
This winter season, my cozy hyperfixation craft has been making woven potholders. I saw a few other DIY bloggers that were doing this craft recently and I had to jump on the trend. I know this activity was super popular back in the 90s (maybe?) but, to be honest, I don’t really remember making these as a kid. It is definitely something I would’ve love to do though so I’m glad they are having a moment again!
Because my collection of handcrafted potholders is slowly growing out of control, I thought these cute little woven pieces would make perfect DIY valentines to gift to my friends!
So, despite there probably being a million tutorials all over the internet, I’m going to share how I made these woven potholders, what supplies I purchased, and I’m also sharing a free printable Valentine’s Day gift tag to attach to your potholder to turn it into a sweet (& useful) valentines gift! Enjoy :)
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WOVEN POTHOLDER VALENTINES (& PRINTABLE GIFT TAGS)
Supplies:
White cardstock paper
Scissors
Hole punch
Twine or ribbon (to attach your gift tag)
ETI’s Printable Woven Potholder Valentines Gift Tags (download below!)
STEP 1: First, you want to pick out the color palette that you are going to be working with for your potholder. I really like the pack of loops that I got from Amazon because there is such an assortment of colors and you get a ton of loops to choose from. I also like that the colors and texture kind of vary compared to other packs with really neon looking colors.
There are a lot of different patterns you can look up when it comes to weaving potholders. You can stick with two colors to get a checkered look or you can have no rhyme or reason to your pattern and it will still turn out looking really cool!
For this particular potholder, I tried to stick with two colors (a light mint blueish greyish color and pink) but the shades varied to get this cool haphazard checkered design.
You will need 36 loops per potholder, so for my project, I did 18 mint and 18 pink.
STEP 2: To begin weaving, you are going to loop 18 of your stretchy loops over the prongs all going vertical. For me, this was all my pink colors.
STEP 3: Next, you are going to work prong by prong, adding on a horizontal loop and weaving it over and under and over and under every other vertical loop. And then attach it to the prong on the far side. You may have to stretch the loop to get it to loop over the prong.
Once you add a new horizontal loop, be sure to pull it as tight to the previous loop and try to keep your weaving lines as straight as possible.
Repeat until you have covered all 18 horizontal prongs. For my project, I used all the mint blue/grey colors for my horizontal loops.
STEP 4: Starting in any corner, you are going to pull off the first loop onto the end of your hook. Grab the next loop to the left and use the end of your hook and your fingers to carefully pull the first loop over the second loop. So you will now have only the second loop remaining on the hook. Grab the third loop and pull the second loop over the third.
Repeat that process around the entire perimeter of the loom.
It does get a bit tricky on the last side because all the loops want to fall off the loom prongs, but just be patient and go loop by loop in the order they are woven in.
Once you get to the last loop, just pull it through as normal and pull tight to get a final loop that can be used for hanging up your potholder.
STEP 5: If you want to add a valentines gift tag to the potholder, you can download ETI’s Woven Potholder Valentines Gift Tag PDF above. Print on white cardstock paper and cut out around the edge of each tag. Use a hole punch to punch a hole in the top of the tag then string a piece of twine through the hole and through your potholder’s hanging loop. Tie a bow and add you and your recipient’s names to the gift tag.
And voila! You have yourself a homemade valentine.
Obviously you can stay in the Valentine’s Day spirit with a red and pink color scheme, or try to match the colors with whatever style your recipient likes so they can hang it up in their kitchen or use it on their dining room table.
These potholders would also make great coasters for a tea or coffee drinker in your life, so you could pair the gift with a cute mug or a favorite tea bag for something extra!
I will warn you, once you make one you are never going to stop. They are so simple but so satisfying to weave! The perfect couch craft in my opinion. So save it for your next binge watching session and get crafting.
xo Rachael
