Archive Crochet | Honeybee*Hill

Oct 3 2009

Fall leaf coasters

This is a super quick and easy crochet project. I found a pretty ball of Lily Sugar’n Cream Naturals in Terra Firma while I was at Meijer the other day (of all places!! For those who don’t know, it’s similar to a WalMart or Target store). I liked the color but I had no idea what to do with it. Well yesterday I noticed that we really don’t have any coasters for the fall season, so I picked up the yarn and started crocheting! That’s what’s so awesome about knowing a craft like that. Once you know what you need or want to create, it’s no problem either wing-dinging it yourself, or going to the internet to look for a pattern.

These don’t really have a “pattern”. They are concentric circles of eveningly increasing single crochets. Crocheting in the round is something I learned from amigurumi. I happen to find it a beautiful technique and would much prefer everything crocheted this way rather than fiddling with slip stitches and joining. If you’ve never done it before, you need a safety pin or stitch marker to use. I use “jewelry” safety pins — that is, it’s a bag of pins I found in the “jewelry findings” aisle at Hobby Lobby. They don’t have a ring opposite the clasp, so there’s nothing to get caught in my yarn. I put a little bead at the end to make it cheerful.

Use a 4mm hook (G). I made a magic ring (which I absolutely can’t teach you how to do because I’m a hack at it myself! Google it!) and then sc 6 in the ring. At the end of each round I place my marker in the last stitch so I don’t lose my mind trying to count those stitches! Each round increases evenly by six. If you don’t know what that means, here is how I made mine:

Make a magic ring.
R1 – 6 sc in ring, place marker – 6
R2 – 6 sc inc, place marker – 12
R3 – sc inc, sc – repeat around, place marker – 18
R4 – sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 24
R5 – sc inc, 3 sc – repeat around, place marker – 30
R6 – sc inc, 4 sc – repeat around, place marker – 36
R7 – sc inc, 5 sc – repeat around, place marker – 42
R8 – sc inc, 6 sc – repeat around, place marker – 48
R9 – sc inc, 7 sc – repeat around, place marker – 54
R10 – sc around, sl join to previous row – 54
ch 10, sl join to next sc to form loop

The little lip fits nicely around a regular size coffee mug. I added a little leaf embellishment with some cotton from Hobby Lobby that I had scraps of. I don’t know a good way to write the pattern out so I just drew a chart. I hope this is self explanatory:

Once you sl join at the end of the leaf, just cut off a tail long enough to tie it to the coasters.

As you can see, the coasters have a kind of six-sided shape to them. This is because the way I wrote the pattern above, the increases occur on top of the increases from the previous row. This is just the easiest way for me to make this shape and not have to think or count very much (like when I’m vegging out and watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman on Netflix). But if you want your increases to be more hidden and the rounds to be more… round, you can stagger your increases. Like this:

Make a magic ring.
R1 – 6 sc in ring, place marker – 6
R2 – 6 sc inc, place marker – 12
R3 – sc inc, sc – repeat around, place marker – 18
R4 – sc, sc inc, sc – repeat around, place marker – 24
R5 – 2 sc, sc inc, sc – repeat around, place marker – 30
R6 – 2 sc, sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 36
R7 – 3 sc, sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 42
R8 – 4 sc, sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 48
R9 – 5 sc, sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 54
R10 – sc around, sl join to previous row – 54
ch 10, sl join to next sc to form loop

Now I *think* that might work, but I haven’t worked it up myself, so don’t hate on me if I accidentally didn’t bury those increases more evenly.

One ball of Sugar & Cream made four coasters with enough left over for probably two more. That’s a nice use of $1.50 if you ask me! Oh and here’s another tip, if you want to make a little bowl, just make several more rows of sc after R10. It’ll make a cute little dish and the cotton is quite sturdy! I’m going to get another ball of this yarn next time I’m grocery shopping to make a little box for them.