Crochet a little

Over the past winter and spring, I decided to try and teach myself how to crochet.  Evidently I felt I needed yet one more iron in the fire!  I at least had the sense enough to start small and stay small.  After learning a few of the basic stitches, I came up with the idea to make cotton coasters from left over yarn.  (I like to knit cotton washcloths, too!)  With four kids, I am constantly on the go, getting them to and from school and other activities.  I usually try to grab my yarn bag when we leave the house so that I have something to work on when I have to wait.  These, like the washcloths, were small and very portable.

Once you get going, they are super easy to make and work great under your glass of summertime iced tea!  Here’s how I did mine – I adapted this a little after I wasn’t always consistent in my finished size.  Mine certainly aren’t perfect, but they were fun and fast to make!  If you have never crocheted before, and think you might want to try, check out About.com's crochet site.

Crocheted Cotton Coasters

Using a cotton, worsted-weight yarn,  Chain 4.

Round One:  Make 11 Double Crochet (dc) into the fourth chain from hook.  Slip stitch to join.

Round Two:  Chain 3.  Double Crochet into the slip stitch used to join the previous round.  2 Double Crochet into next dc, continue dc’ing in each dc around the circle, ending again with a slip stitch to join.

Round Three:  Chain 3.  Now this is the round I sometimes had to adjust as I would get “waves” and needed to use fewer dc’s.  I think it all depended on the particular yarn and my tension – the yarn tension, that is!  Adjust as you go along, knowing each one might be different.  DC into slip stitch.  *DC into next dc, 2 dc into each of the next two dc, dc into next dc, 2 dc into next dc.  Repeat from * around entire circle, ending with slip stitch to join.

If you have really small cups/glasses, you might want to end after round three.  I wanted mine on the larger size, so I went with one more round.

Round Four:  Chain 3.  DC into slip stitch.  *DC into next dc, 2 dc into next dc.  Repeat from *  Join with slip stitch.  Fasten yarn and weave in ends.

The colors make me happy,and they coordinate well with my small collection of Fiestaware, too!  :)

Elizabeth