Here’s a gem of a craft project that we were just clued into by a friend, Star Trek pot holders. Ok, so maybe you’re saying, “Why do I care about knitting?!” Well, if you’re thinking that…look at the pretty Delta Shield and then click one of our Life After Trek podcasts and amuse yourself with something more your style. However, I happen to know that many of our fans DO like to knit and crochet and this article is specifically for them. In fact I think our crafting friends have been sorely overlooked and we’d like to extend an invitation to them. If anybody makes these we’d love to post them as updates to this article. Just contact us and let us know. Now without further ado…*drum roll*…I give to you, the 24th century in yarn!

Complete with instructions and pattern, this could definitely be an awesome free time project for you knitting Trek fans out there.

Check out the project description excerpt below (source Off The Hook Astronomy)

I created these for my friends who were getting married. I knew they were Star Trek fans, and pot holders are a useful kind of thing for a newlywed couple, so this seemed perfect. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an appropriate chart, so I made my own! I believe this is the Next Generation logo, but I could be wrong, since I'm not much of a Trekkie myself.

This is my first experiment with double-knitting, so if my instructions seem unclear, this is a pretty decent tutorial, and I'm sure you could find all sorts of instructional videos on YouTube. Basically, double-knitting creates two pieces of fabric at a time with their wrong sides together. If there were no colour work in this pattern, you'd be able to separate the two pieces of fabric to make a bag. In fact, Kory Stamper, in this article for Knitty's Fall 2006 issue, suggests using the double knitting technique to knit two socks at the same time inside each other (that just sounds dirty). It's an amazing technique that you should probably check out (I know it's on my to-try list).

To get your hands on the instructions, check out the Off the Hook Astronomy Blog here.