Potholder

A potholder is a piece of textile (often quilted) or silicone used to cover the hand when holding hot kitchen cooking equipment, like pots and pans.

When made of textile fabric, potholders typically have an inner layer of a material providing thermal insulation sandwiched between more colorful or decorative outsides.

Evidence in art points towards hooks that were used to carry hot-handled pots in ancient Greece, but it wasn't until the Antislavery Bazaars of the mid-19th century that equivocally the first home-made potholders were made.

By creating such a political craft, which shares similar dimensions and fabrication with the contemporary potholder, women who may have never associated with the abolitionist movement had the opportunity to do so.

Since their genesis as standard household items, potholders have been largely associated with home crafting, and crocheting has long been the leading method in this strain followed by knitting and patchwork.

[6] Needlework patterns in the 1950s were often impractical and over-designed with holes and elaborate spacing that would burn the user or wear out the holder quickly.

According to Food Service Technology 2.2, research has shown that Potholders are one of the sole culprits of cross contamination in the kitchen.

[7] Pot holders need to withstand temperatures over 400 degrees Fahrenheit to protect skin from hot dishes and make a potentially harmful task harmless.

[12] This provides an even greater protective quality with the wool's low ignition temperature and the inability for flames to spread throughout the fiber.

In the early days of "do it yourself" reliance and domestic craftwork, projects like quilting, sewing, knitting, and crocheting were used for both labor and leisure.

[4] Patterns to create potholders at home were first seen in the United States in pamphlets and magazines, including periodicals like Workbasket, whose primary target audience consisted of the middle and working classes.

They were featured in magazine and newspaper ads for kitchen appliances, usually providing protection between a woman's hands and her pot or pan of freshly cooked food.

A typical advertisement would show a young, smiling woman using potholders to remove her freshly cooked bread from the oven.