Citrus Fruit Potholder

This "fruity" potholder will brighten up your kitchen and bring a summery atmosphere to your home. Since it's done in intarsia technique, the WS is presentable as well. It is worked flat and in wedges of short-rows.
I always think that potholders, washcloths or other really small items are best if you'd like to explore new knitting ideas or to just try out a new technique. It only takes some leftover yarn and a few hours to try it out, but if it works, these newly acquired skills can be in your next big project. For this little potholder quite a few interesting techniques are used - form a provisional cast-on, over short rows and intarsia, to grafting in garter stitch. Alternatively, this piece can be used as coaster or washcloth.

This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.






Materials

• about 30 grams of DK or sports weight cotton yarn in two colors - of color 1 you need two skeins or to put yarn of color 1 on a separate bobbin
• 4mm needles or a needle that fits your yarn (I used small dpns, since you only ever have 21 sts on a needle)
• a tapestry needle for grafting and to weave in ends

Techniques

• Intarsia: Changing colors with the intarsia technique - as shown in this YouTube video by knitwithpat; or this YouTube video by Francoise Danoy.
  To knit this piece in intarsia technique you need two skeins of color 1 - see photo below.

• Short rows with wrap and turn (w+t) - as shown in this YouTube video by Very Pink Knits.
  Since this washcloth is knit in garter stitch, you don't have to pick up your wraps - except in two rows, i.e. the rows where the wrapping color is different from the color of the wrapped stitch. These rows are indicated in the pattern. Here's a YouTube video that shows how to pick up your wraps (also by Very Pink Knits).
• Throughout the pattern, the following notation will be used: "C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k13, w+t, k13); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)" means "knit 2 sts with skein a of C1; change to C2 and knit 2 sts with C2; change to skein b of C1 and knit 13 sts with this skein, wrap and turn, knit another 13 sts with this skein, change to C2 and knit 2 sts with C2, then change to skein a of C1 and knit 2 sts with it".
   I.e. color is indicated before the knitting instructions for that yarn. the knitting instructions for that yarn are given in brackets after the color and color changes are indicated by a semicolon.
• Provisional CO: My favorite method for a provisional CO is the crochet provisional CO - it is shown in this Youtube video by New Stitch a Day.
• Grafting in Garter Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam - this technique is shown in this YouTube Video by knittinghelp.com. 

Instructions

With scrap yarn provisionally CO21 sts.
Setup row: C2 (k19), C1a (k2)
Ridge 1: C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k13, w+t, k13); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)
Ridge 2: C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k9, w+t, k9); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)
Ridge 3: C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k5, w+t, k5); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)
Ridge 4: C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k1, w+t, k1); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)
Ridge 5: C1a (k2); C2 (k1, w+t, k1); C1a (k2)
Ridge 6: C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k3, w+t, k3); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)
Ridge 7: C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k7, w+t, k7); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)
Ridge 8: C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k11, w+t, k11); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)
Ridge 9: C1a (k2); C2 (k2); C1b (k15, w+t, k15); C2 (k2); C1a (k2)
Ridge 10: C1a (k2): C2 (k to end, turn, sl1, k18); C1a (k2)
Now you've finished the first "wedge".

Repeat ridges 1 to 10 ten more times (i.e. you have now 11 "wedges").

For the last (12th) wedge, knit ridges 1 to 9. Remove the scrap yarn of the provisional CO and catch the stitches on a knitting needle. Your piece should look similar to the one in the photo on the right.

Graft the last row in garter stitch: 2 sts in C1, and the remaining sts in C2.

Weave in ends.


Chart
In addition to the written instructions above, here's also a chart that shows how one wedge is knitted.
The first number written in orange is the number of stitches with skein a of C1, the number written in black is the number of stitches knitted with C2 and the second number in orange is the number of stitches knitted with skein b of C1.

Chart - click to enlarge

This post was featured at Oombawkadesigncrochet's 192nd Link and Share Wednesday, at Ouichrochet's Fiber Tuesday Link Part #111, at Myhusbandhastoomanyhobbies.com's Brag about it Link Party #21-17, at the Linky Ladies's Community Link Party No. 104 and at Sewcando's Craftastic Monday Link Party and at Reviews, Chews and How-Tos Awesome Life Friday #114.  Thank you :)