Crochet, knitting, astronomy & life in general.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Star Trek Pot Holders Free Pattern



I created these for my friends who were getting married. I knew they were Star Trek fans, and pot holders are a useful kind of thing for a newly wed couple, so this seemed perfect. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an appropriate chart, so I made my own! I believe this is the Next Generation logo, but I could be wrong, since I'm not much of a Trekkie myself.

This is my first experiment with double-knitting, so if my instructions seem unclear, this is a pretty decent tutorial, and I'm sure you could find all sorts of instructional videos on YouTube. Basically, double-knitting creates two pieces of fabric at a time with their wrong sides together. If there were no colour work in this pattern, you'd be able to separate the two pieces of fabric to make a bag. In fact, Kory Stamper, in this article for Knitty's Fall 2006 issue, suggests using the double knitting technique to knit two socks at the same time inside each other (that just sounds dirty). It's an amazing technique that you should probably check out (I know it's on my to-try list).

Anyway, without further ado, here's the pattern!

Materials
- 2 balls of worsted weight cotton yarn in contrasting colours. I used 1 ball of Lily's Sugar 'n Cream (109m/71g) in Ecru and 1 ball in Bright Navy.
- 4.0mm (US 6) straight needles
- 5.0mm (H) crochet hook
- tapestry needle

Gauge
15 st and 22 rows per 4"
Gauge is not very important for this pattern, but with my gauge, I ended up with approximately 8" square pot holders. Note also that your gauge will tend to be looser when double knitting than indicated on the ball band with the recommended needle size.

Abbreviations
k - knit
p - purl
ch - chain
sc - single crochet
sl st - slip stitch
st - stitch

Instructions

1. Cast on 30 sts using both colours of yarn held together. This will give you 60 sts in total. Make sure that the colours stay in the same order as you're casting on (in my case, it looked like one ecru stitch follow by one navy stitch, one ecru, one navy, and so on).

2. Follow the chart, working right to left on the odd rows and left to right on the even rows. To double-knit, you k one colour (this will be the colour that shows on that side) and then p the next (it will show up on the other side as a k st), each time bringing both strands of yarn between the needles. When changing colour, simply k the contrasting coloured yarn on the front side and p the other colour of yarn, being careful not to twist the strands together.



3. After you've finished knitting up the whole chart (46 rows), you should have the image on one side and an inverse-colour mirror image on the other side. Bind off loosely in pattern by passing two strands of contrasting colour over the next two strands of contrasting colour. That is, you'll k one colour and p the next, and then pass the previous two k and p sts over the ones you just knit.

4. Weave in the ends.

5. With crochet hook and one of the yarn colours, make a sc border around the pot holder, making one st every two rows for the sides, one st for every st on the top and bottom, and increasing by one at the corners. Alternately, you can crochet a patterned border like those found here. I didn't try it myself, but I think it might be kind of funny to have extra-frilly Star Trek pot holders.

6. Ch 10 and turn, sl st in 1st sc. This will create the loop for hanging up the pot holders. Cut yarn and weave in ends.

Repeat for the second pot holder, only use the other colour of yarn for the sc border.

And voila! Pot holders for the extra-nerdy Suzy Home-maker in your life!

31 comments:

  1. How cute! This could be made into any pattern that requires squares. Wouldn't this make an ideal lapghan for the true Trekky fan?

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  2. How wonderful--I like to knit this for a dear friend. Thanks for sharing...if you are interested do check out my blog at http://www.melindatai.com

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  3. Amazing!!!! For creating your own chart, and as a Trekkie myself, I would say you do one hell of a job!! Thank you for your post. I can not WAIT to make these myself!!!!

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  4. just too cute! love the potholders and your blog is cute too.

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  5. Wow, these are fabulous! I have to make these! I just clicked over from Craft where they caught my eye. I would love to link to them in my next Geek Craft Roundup if you didn't mind.

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  6. Dear Ilana,
    Your pattern is brilliant! I had made a simple star trek pattern like yours without the circle but I never saved the pattern. I went looking this morning on Google and found yours. Wow! Your talent is amazing. Creating a pattern does take time; I've only done it once but how rewarding. Thank you so very much for sharing it with the rest of us! Teri

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  7. Ilana--
    Thank you so much for posting this pattern. I've been hanging on to it for a little bit until I finally had a chance to crochet for myself. Since you showed the chart you made for it, I was able to do it in crochet since I don't knit. I've got a picture of my finished hotpad at my blog at http://amylynn98.blogspot.com/2010/12/little-something-for-me-today.html. Since I crocheted it, it turned out a little longer than your potholder, but I love it and now you've inspired me to create some patterns of my own.

    Thanks again!
    Amy Lynn
    Virginia

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  8. HAHAHA! I am passing out this pattern at my knitting group on Leonard Nimoy's 80th birthday! This is awesome! Thank you!!!

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  9. I love this!!!! Is there any where this pattern is written out for knit?

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  10. Can someone please answer the above question? I also would like to know... I got about half way done, and realized it was only in purl. I followed the instructions perfectly, too.

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    Replies
    1. What do you mean it was only in purl? Did you make sure to move both strands forward and back between each stitch?

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  11. Yes, I did that. I tried about three times, and it was always only purl. At first I thought I would be able to turn it inside out (the other side was in knit), but where the symbol is, it was knitted together. I started with knit, moved the strand, purled, moved the strand etc. It was perfect other than the fact that it was only purl. I knew how to switch colors, and everything. On the second try I tried starting with purl, then knit, etc. but it was still only in purl. Is there any way someone could upload a quick video of the process where it turns up as knit? I've been trying to figure out how to knit with two colors for a while, and it's clear I'm doing something wrong. :( Any help is greatly appreciated.

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    Replies
    1. I wrote out a fairly detailed tutorial on double-knitting with lots of pictures on the happy seamstress here: http://www.happyseamstress.com/knitting/the-magical-wonderful-world-of-double-knitting/ Please do check it out. I'm sure if you go to YouTube and search for "double-knitting tutorial", you'll come up with some helpful videos. I would point you to some, but I'm on my work computer which doesn't allow me to watch videos.

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  12. Awesome, thank you so much! I will give it a try. :)

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  13. Simply want to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity in your post is Simply cool and i could assume you are an expert on this subject. Well with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please carry on the rewarding work.
    Adventures in Fiber Optics Kit

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  14. These Star Trek potholders are AWESOME!!!! Wonderful idea! I have some crochet Star Wars potholders I designed at http://cgli.us.

    These are terrific! Thank you very much and may you live long and prosper. :) :)
    _______
    Lee Ann
    My blog: Crochet...Gotta Love It!

    Crochet...Gotta Love It!

    *********
    My website: Crochet...Gotta Love It!
    Crochet...Gotta Love It!
    *********

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  15. I made two of these for a huge Trekkie fan friend. I know that once I give them to her that others will be interested as well, would I be able to sell my finished pieces so long as the pattern itself is not sold and that I provide information as to where to find it?

    Thank you,
    Melissa

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I don't mind you selling the potholders, as long as you aren't selling the pattern itself and credit me with having designed it.

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    2. Thank you so much for your reply. :)

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  16. llana,

    Awsome pattern you created. Could you possibly create a knitted potholder pattern for the US Voyager?

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    Replies
    1. Alas, I've been too busy to create more patterns these days... but it's really easy to create a chart on your own! You should give it a try!

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  17. Thanks, I will use the logo for my knitted sci-fi easter egg set.

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  18. I cannot tell you how happy you have made me!

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  19. I just love this idea! I created a similar potholder pattern, put in crochet. Check it out.

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  20. Ohhhh this is just wonderful! *happy dance*

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  21. For the life of me i cannot figure out the color change :(

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    Replies
    1. I'm sorry to hear that. I posted a tutorial on double-knitting at my friend The Happy Seamstress's website: http://www.happyseamstress.com/knitting/the-magical-wonderful-world-of-double-knitting/

      I hope that helps~

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  22. I wanted to share what I used your pattern for... not sure if this link will work but I hope it does :)

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4997298128017&l=5d888b1614

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