This was a fun little project inspired by a design from Brazilian crochet artist Helena Maria Caldas of http://helenacc.blogspot.co.il/

I love Helena’s colorful and cheerful designs. These trivets are made by crocheting half-double crochets in a spiral, then slip-stitching around from the middle in an accent color. When you get to the edge, you switch to double crochet. It sounds simple – and it is! But Helena’s designs always have that little magic something to them – in this case, notice how the slip stitch accents the spiral pattern, but at the same time fills in the gaps between the stitches to create a firmer fabric. The slip stitches cover a bit of the stitch, making it shorter, but when you switch to double crochet, more of the stitch is exposed. The result is an organic-like increase in stitch height as you reach the outer row.

Since I don’t understand Portuguese, it took me a bit to figure out how this was made.  I made the purple-and-yellow one first, trying and retrying until I figured out that little bit with the stitch height… And when I got it, I just had to make another one!

In case you don’t speak Portuguese either: It says on Helena’s blog that you can hang them in your kitchen as decor, and if you make them from thinner strands of yarn, you can use them as pot-holders too (assuming I got what Helena meant, with a little Spanish to help me out).  These are made from pretty thick fabric yarn, so they won’t work as pot-holders but I already checked and they are good for keeping the pot warm and the table safe.

One note: Make sure you have high cotton fiber content in your “yarn” – you don’t want synthetics coming in contact with a hot pot base!

Conch photo credit:  https://flic.kr/p/69YNnC