Crochet Dishcloth/Hotpad

I wanted to crochet some hot pads and maybe dishcloths, and i found this  pattern i had picked up at joanns. It looked like it would be good for the dishcloths. I used it and it came out bigger then anticipated, so i might scale it down a little. More specifically the width was to wide. I would use less stitches across. Anyways, here is the pattern:

http://www.joann.com/static/project/0706/P148439.pdf

So onto the hotpad. I am using a size G (4.25mm) hook. i want it to be pretty tightly woven, because i've had crocheted hotpads where the stitching slipped and my finger ended up getting burnt. I also wanted the hotpad to be thick enough that it could adequatly insulate my hand. I have used other hot pads that were fine until thirty seconds after i picked up the hot item, and then all of the heat passed straight through them. So in summary This is a dense, thick hotpad.

1. ch. st to desired width of hot pad. (I used 30, some people like their hot pads to be bigger).
2. sc. in second ch. from hook. continue to sc across rest of row.
3. Ch 1 and turn. sc across row, being careful to only pick up the front portion of the loop. Once you reach end of row, turn and continue to sc on the same row, picking up the back, unused portion of each loop (now in front). Continue to end of row.

4. ch 1, and sc picking up the middle portions of the loops (back portion of the front loop and front portion of the back loop). cont. til end of row.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4, until you reach the desired height for hot pad. end on a odd row (like step four).