Red and White Potholder - 1953

This week's project is the Red and White Potholder from Coats and Clark Quick Crochet. I chose this because I thought the stripes made an interesting pattern.
The pattern uses one ball each of white and red size 3 thread, a No. 2/0 hook (3.5mm), and a bone ring. There is a gauge given of 5 single crochets and 5 rounds to one inch.
I didn't have white, so I went with the best contrasting colors I had: light blue and dark blue.

The pattern is good at describing how to change colors at the end of the row to make sure you keep the striping consistent. The one spot I had difficulty with was getting the hook into the chain two spaces two rows below, beyond the first round that had puff stitches. The puff stitches obscure that little space, and I had to pull them apart a little and make sure I was getting between the puff stitches and not into one of them. My gauge was a little tighter; I had 6 stitches per inch instead of 5, and that might have contributed to the problem. 
The pattern has you do a front and a back the same way and then join with a row of single crochets through both pieces. I didn't have enough of the blues to do a second side, so I just have one side to show you.

I love how this turned out and if I don't come across a better pattern before the county fair I might get enough thread to do two potholders and submit them.

Scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. 1.0
If there is a gauge, could I match it? No. I could have tried harder and switches to a bigger hook but I didn't think the gauge was that important. 0.5
Does it look like the photo? Yes. 1.0
Would someone use this? Yes. 1.0
Did I enjoy making it? Yes but this was a hard on my hands and finding that spot for the puff stitches was a little annoying. 0.75
Total 4.25