Dressing It Up without Costing a Fortune! - Stash busting alert!

Here's a recently finished project for the home that was desperately needed. Realized I didn't get it up when finished (just got back into blog--hooray) and so it's a little faded from washings.

My counters are about 30 years old and showing it, but Darling Groom and I are working to pay off debt and agree that right now renovations are not in the budget. It's okay, crochet hook tot he rescue! Anyway, if you have some cotton yarn (balls or cone) this is a great project to use that up!

Kitchen Counter Mat

~ Cone of cotton yarn (or quite a few balls). I believe this yarn is Peaches 'n' Cream
~ Size H or I hook
~ Stiches used - ch, hdc, sl st

(Since your counter space might not be the same, I won't write this out in traditional pattern speak, but will tell you what I did, you can adjust as needed for your space.)

I chained 99 then turned. In second chain from hook I made half-double crochet (hdc), in the next ch I slip stitched. I alternated these two stitches all the way across. At the end of the row, I chained one then turned and repeated (beginning in first stitch with hdc). For the top piece, I don't remember how many I chained in, but you can see, I stopped mid-row, and began a new row to make that little top piece to fit around the jars. NOTE: If you do this alternating pattern, use odd number starting point on your chain, like mine was 99. That way, you always start each row with hdc and end on a slip stitch. (end of row chain does not count)

I really like this pattern because the alternating stitches have a great texture--especially for kitchen use like this mat or dish cloths. It's so easy to do and looks neat.

Here's another example, of the mat I made for the top of the microwave to dress it up too!


You can see the pattern really well in this pic. For the finish on this mat, I went around in single crochet all around, then did a second round of picot stitches to dress the edges up a bit easier.

So, as you can see, while money may be tight, I was able to make the kitchen a little more comfy and dress it up a bit without breaking the budget. In fact, since then, our local Walmart had a yarn clearance sale and I was blessed enough to get another cone of matching yarn for $2!! I'm hoping to make another counter mat (this one without the top piece) so that if I don't get this one in the wash ASAP we'll be okay, lol.

Craft On!