Have you ever burnt your finger? If so, you know just what it is like, and you don’t want me to tell you how it feels! When you have once had a burn or a scald, you are very careful not to get another if you can help it, and you won’t want anyone else to burn themselves, I know.

Has Grandmamma a kettle holder? She certainly ought to have one, because it is really a nasty thing to pick up a hot kettle without a holder. You just want to drop it at once! Suppose you start right away to make a kettle holder. I mean a really pretty one, of course, that will be delightful to look at, as well as useful.

Here is a lovely chance for you to do some Berlin Woolwork. This is done on Penelope Canvas. You have already learnt to work cross-stitch designs on Penelope Canvas, haven’t you? so you have not so very much that is fresh to learn here. When you did the work before, however, you pulled the threads away afterwards, but here you do not pull any away, but you cover the whole of the canvas square with some pretty pattern. It may be alternate rows of two colours, or it may be a little square pattern, or it can be the “upstairs and downstairs” pattern that you see in the kettle holder on this page.

The easiest kind of kettle holder to start with would be one like the mat on page 103—in green and purple—working a row of green crosses, and then a row of purple crosses. When you are working several crosses in a row, you do not finish each cross before going on to the next. You make the halves of the crosses all one way, and then go back and cross them all. You will see what I mean by the top illustration in the picture on this page, showing the stitches.

You will want some Penelope Canvas, and some purple and some green Berlin wool—J. and J. Baldwin’s English-made Berlin wool is the kind to get, as we all like to buy things that are made in England, don’t we? You also need a piece of thick serge or cloth to line the kettle holder, and a pretty cord to finish the edge.

To start the kettle holder, take a piece of canvas, about 7 inches each way. Before you commence the pattern, thread your needle with wool, and take over-and-over stitches all round the edge to keep the canvas from fraying out while you are doing the pretty work.

Now, starting half an inch in, work the cross-stitch, first doing a row of purple and then a row of green, leaving half an inch all round the edge. This will give you a worked square, 6 inches by 6 inches.

Having finished the cross-stitch, turn in the edge all round as far as the work, and tack it. Take your piece of cloth, turn in and tack the edge of that all round to the same size as the kettle holder. Place them together with the wrong sides facing, and hem the lining to the holder, not letting the stitches show through on the right side.

The only thing to be done now is to sew the cord to the edge. This finishes the kettle holder very prettily, and at one corner it can be twisted up to make a loop to hang the holder up by, as you see in the picture on page 100.

Do you see the little piece worked in squares at the bottom of the picture on page 101. This is a lovely design for a kettle holder. You see nine crosses are worked in light wool and nine in dark wool alternately.

The “upstairs and downstairs” pattern is just a little bit more difficult, but even this only requires careful counting. You start in the top left-hand corner, and work six crosses in a row. Then take four downwards, then four more in a row with the last one down, then four more down, and so on. When you have worked from one corner to the other in this way, you start filling in the space at each side of that diagonal line, working two rows in each colour. Light and dark green would look very pretty for this. The kettle holder worked in this design is shown hanging cornerwise, but of course it has to be worked straight, as in third specimen in the picture on page 101.

There is another thing that Grandma would find very useful, and that is a mat to stand on the table for her hot water-jug. You can make this in the same way as the kettle holder, with just two little differences. When the work on the front is finished, turn the canvas on the wrong side over a piece of cardboard before tacking it. Then line it with a strong piece of sateen. The cardboard keeps it firm, and it will then be quite a useful mat to stand the jug on. Then you do not make a loop to hang it up, as you did the kettle holder, but you simply finish the edge with a straight piece of cord.

If you have a thicker wool, or use the wool doubled, you can work the design in half crosses only, that is to say, just take a half stitch and do not cross it. You will see what I mean by the second little specimen in the picture on page 101.

Does Grandma knit? If she does she will need a strong bag to keep her work in, as steel knitting needles have an aggravating way of poking their heads through the corners of a bag that is not very strong. You will see how to make a bag on page 11, and a way to make it extra strong is to work a strip of Berlin wool-work and sew it to the bottom of the bag, so that when you join up the seams of the bag, you sew in the strip of wool-work at the same time. Isn’t that a sweet bag on page 102. This is made of pretty grey material, and the work at the bottom is done in several lovely colours, purple, green, black, yellow and white, and you would hardly believe how lovely they all look blended together. The ribbons to draw up the bag, and the feather-stitching, are of a beautiful purple colour.