Sing with me (to the tune of ‘Shiny Happy People’ by REM):
’Shiny happy plant pot holder, shiny happy plant pot holding plaaaaaaants!’

This project combines two of my manically pursued hobbies of the moment: plants and crochet. And really, what is more profound than a plant pot holder that actually looks like a plant? Practically Plato-esque, if you ask me. This is so shiny and happy it brightens up any boring ol’ plant you put into it.

Kind of a guerrilla project; you can adapt virtually everything about it. You can use any type of yarn, as long as it’s somewhat stretchy, and a bigger or smaller hook. You can make it as wide and/or high as you want (as long as you start with a multiple of four stitches - see the PDF for details). You could make a monochrome ‘flower’ or work a different color for each row of ‘petals’ - which might work especially well on a high, narrow pot or vase. As a matter of fact, you don’t even have to work it around a pot - you could use a vase or a cup or any other cylindrical object you’d like to transform into a flower. My aim was to provide a flexible base idea to play around with. Don’t be shy!

On the other hand, don’t be put off by the ‘anything goes’ hippie vibe either - there are clear, detailed instructions in the pattern on how to achieve an end result that looks like mine.

This particular pot holder was made from repurposed t-shirts, cut into 10mm wide strips and worked with a 5mm hook to get a chunky but tight end result. I love the rawness of the cut-up fabric. It was a lot of work, however. Prepare to use two to three t-shirts for a medium to large pot, especially if using more than one color. If you made it out of worsted weight yarn, I think you’d need one to two skeins. Then again, you could do different rows with different pieces of scrap yarn, too.

For me, the best thing about this is the ‘trash to treasure’ vibe. The mint accidentally sprouted from a bunch I bought from my Moroccan greengrocer; the pot was a leftover from some lupine plants; and the shirts were old campaign shirts from the political organization we share our office with. Nothing makes me feel shinier or happier than creating something cool out of basically nothing. I hope you’ll have fun with it, too!