Thoughts on making hot pads on the knitting machine

My Mum in law used to knit hot pads.  All her life she was a wonderful seamstress, knitter and crocheter.  She made the most delicate of doilies, knitted and crocheted many, many afghans and blankets and made most of her own clothes.  She was a marvel.  In her latter years she couldn't manage the finer work so she made hot pads and little doilies.  She spent the last 5 years of her life in a nearby nursing home where we could visit her every day and she would always have a supply of hot pads and doilies to hand out.  She was very prolific.

This is her hand knitted hot pad pattern:-

She used two strands of worsted weight (Double knitting) yarn

All done in garter stitch

Cast on 3 sts
K 1 row
K1 inc 1 st in next st, K to end of row
Continue increasing at beginning of every row until 40 sts
K 1 row
k2, K2 tog, K to end
Continue decreasing at beg of eack row until 3 sts
K 1 row
Cast off

I only ever hand knitted one, that was a couple of Christmases ago. I vowed never again as it seemed to take forever knitting in garter stitch.  I told my neighbour she now owned the one and only hot pad I would ever hand knit lol.

When I try it on my SK155 bulky machine I plan to use Bulky #5 yarn as my machine will knit that and just move two sts out by one needle at the beginning of the increase rows and likewise move two stitches in one needle on the decrease rows.

Here are some my Mum in law made, still in daily use but I thought I would give them a go for Christmas stocking stuffers.  Maybe try some striped ones instead of the variegated which she favoured.