Make pot holders

For my give-away I made this set of pot holders. They are not difficult to make, they can be as colourful as you like and they are really useful, since they're doubled and therefore nice and thick.

For making them, you need around 100 grams of 4 ply cotton in different colours, a circular needle size 3 mm (size 2) and 40 cm (16 inches) and a crochet hook, size 3 mm.
I prefer knitting them in the round, since there will be fewer ends to weave in, no purling and strands from the fair isle knitting all around, making the thickness even.

Decide on any kind of pattern you like, as long as it could be knitted in a fair isle way, and remember to add as many patterns as possible. The fair isle knitting and the strands will give you the nice thickness.
Cast on 53 stitches. Join, place markers before 1st stitch and after the 53rd stitch and knit whatever pattern you like for 65 rounds. Cast off.

Finishing: Weave in ends. Crochet border, first a round of single crochet. For the cast on and cast off edge, I did 3 crochet stitches in every 4 knitted stitches. For the sides (be careful to fold the pot holder exactly right for the edge of the pattern) I made 2 crochet stitches in every 3 knitted stitches.

In a top corner, make around 15-20 chain stitches for a loop.

Second row: make a row of picot edging, making *1 single crochet, 3 chain stitches, 1 slip stitch in the first chain stitch, skip 1 stitch*, repeat from * to *. When making the loop, make a slip stitch in each chain stitch.
Weave in ends and make another one.

Fun, isn't it? Now you have some very nice gifts! (I still need to make a pair for my own kitchen...)