Aunt Martha's Workbasket Vol 2 No 1 October 1936

By 1936 the issues are down to just seven pages. This issue has 7 patterns; a crocheted tie, an ascot scarf crocheted in knot stitch, a three piece knit suit (cover image) and turnip and carrot crocheted pan holders. I decided to try the pan holders. I think that almost every booklet I have from this era has a crocheted pot or pan holder in it. I could easily do one every week from the 1930s and 1940s and never run out of patterns. 

Here is the illustration for the potholders. I'm not sure what's going on in the tiny illustration between the two pan holders though. Is the food on fire?

The pattern says to use a mercerized cotton thread such as Lily's Frost-Tone. You need 20 yds of lavender, 90 yds of white and 5 yards of green and a number 3 (2.1mm) steel hook.  The pattern starts out at the bottom of the turnip and works in rounds with double crochet stitches. It switches to white and single crochet in rounds for a while and then asks you to start turning the row and leave an opening on the side. The green top is just loops of chains.

This pattern was pretty easy to make but I was a little confused about it's use. The photo below is the finished pan holder. It's 5.5 inches tall (not including the green) and about 4.5 inches across at the widest spot.

I slid it on to the handle through the open side to use it. I'm not sure how effective this is. Using it like this means the fabric is only one layer and using a 2.1 mm hook meant that the stitches aren't super tight. I don't think this would protect from the heat and it doesn't give any extra grip on the pan either.  I'd reach for this as a pan holder as a last resort and expect my hand to get a little toasted.

Here's the scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. 1.0
Does it look like the photo or illustration? Sort of. My version seems a bit fatter and if it was done in all purple it could easily pass for an eggplant. 0.5
Would someone use this? I think it's pretty unlikely to be used as a pan holder. Should I sew it up and stuff it to make a weird stuffed vegetable? 0.0
Did I enjoy making it? Yes. It went pretty fast and it had enough different stitches that it wasn't completely boring. 1.0

Total Score = 2.5