Kiwi Coaster Pattern

Kiwi!

I can't think of an introduction to this post other than my boyfriend loves kiwi, and he eats it without peeling off the hairy skin. WTF right?? He says he eats the skin as well because it's nutritious, but I still don't understand how he manages to eat them without getting itchy or something. But we all have our own quirks right? So I don't judge him (I just occasionally make fun of him for that, which is all cool with him, or which he already got used to, hehe).

So this is my third coaster pattern, and it basically uses the same pattern as my watermelon and grapefruit coasters, but with different color changes and I think one less row as well. Hopefully next post I'll be doing the list of coaster patterns I made and used before. Next Monday, maybe? I'm thinking of posting stuff regularly, and so I'm currently deciding which day of the week is best - currently deciding between Monday and Tuesday - what do you guys think? :)

Anyway I said I won't be doing much introduction but I got derailed but now I'm back on track and here it is now, without further ado, the pattern!

Orange on kiwi! Not sure why I did this.

Materials
Hook: 4mm crochet hook
Yarns:
Gantsilyo Guru Light Cashmere Blend White
Gantsilyo Guru Milk Cotton Light Lime (green)
Creme de la Creme Fudge Brown
Some black yarn

Note: Again, I would recommend using the same type of yarn throughout the project, to get the same gauge and thickness and all that in all parts of the coaster.


Stitches Used
ch (chain)
dc (double crochet)
sc (single crochet)
sl st (slip stitch)
magic ring


Kiwi Coaster

Using white yarn, make a magic ring.

Row 1: ch 2, 12 dc in the ring. Join with a sl st to the first dc (12 sts).

Row 2: Change to green yarn. Ch 2, 2 dc in each st around. Join with a sl st to the first dc (24 sts).

Row 3: ch 2, *1 dc in next st, 2 dc in the next* repeat around 12 times. Join with a sl st to the first dc (36 sts).

Row 4: ch1, *1 sc in next 2 sts, 2 sc in the next* repeat around 12 times. Join with a sl st to the first sc (48 sts).

Row 5: Change to brown yarn. Ch 1, *1 sc in next 3 sts, 2 sc in the next* repeat around 12 times. Join with a sl st to the first sc (60 sts). Fasten off.

For the seeds, kiwi seeds aren't really that random, so what I did was on the second row (first row of green), I stitched between the st and dc spaces (not sure if this makes sense) all around. It's a bit hard to explain, but you can refer to the image below to get a better idea of what I'm trying to say. You can also choose not to follow how I put the seeds there, and do what's easy for you (and make sure to share your technique in the comments below!) :)

For a more realistic kiwi look, I would suggest using a brown fuzzy yarn for the skin for a more hairy look; I remember my boyfriend asking me, "why doesn't it have hair?" when I showed him the kiwi coaster. He's passionate about kiwi. And the nutrition it brings. Did you know there's a lot of vitamin C in a single kiwi? Like, enough (or more than enough) for you daily vitamin C requirement? His kiwi passion has rub off me. And I am making fun of it again (I'm sorry! haha!).

So there you have it, kiwi coaster! Very simple. And nutritious. And helpful. Like your feedback and questions and reactions if you leave them in the comments section below ;) Anyway, as always, enjoy crocheting AF! \m/


This pattern is free and not for sale. Please credit and link back to this site when sharing, using for business, etc. Thanks! :)

Watermelon (and Grapefruit) Coaster Pattern

Last weekend, I was teaching my mom the different kinds of crochet stitches and how to read crochet patterns. My mom actually already knows the basic stitches such as chain and single crochet, but she doesn't know that they are called as such. When she was younger, she used to crochet stuff to earn extra on the side (like mother, like daughter!). She would be given a finished product, and she would copy how it's done based on its stitches. Without a pattern! How crazy is that? I mean, sure, we can copy stitches based on a finished product but imagine if the yarn used was fine, and you had to count how many stitches are in a row, and then count how many rows there are, etc. etc. So hands down to my mother and all the people out there copying a finished product's stitches. And thank you to those who "invented" crochet patterns and for all the available patterns now in the world that make my life and many people's lives a lot easier. :)

Anyway as I was saying, I was teaching my mom how to read a pattern, and I also taught her how to make a magic ring, how to change colors, how to make rounds, etc. When I finished teaching her all these, I looked for a simple pattern she can use to practice her newly-acquired pattern-reading skills. I wanted something that involved different stitches, but simple enough to finish in a few minutes. I simply googled, "basic crochet pattern" and a bunch of patterns came up, but most of them involved only using one or two types of stitches. Most of them are good but I just didn't quite find what I was looking for.

Then I remembered my watermelon coaster. Had I posted this pattern before, I would have used this to teach my mom how to read patterns. Ha ha!

Materials
Hook: 4mm crochet hook
Yarns:
Gantsilyo Guru Light Cashmere Blend Coral (pink)
Gantsilyo Guru Light Cashmere Blend White
Gantsilyo Guru Milk Cotton Light Lime (green)
Some black yarn

Note: I would recommend using the same type of yarn all throughout, but I only had these in hand so I made do with them. Also, it can be anything, really, as long as it's for a 4mm hook.


Stitches Used
ch (chain)
dc (double crochet)
sc (single crochet)
sl st (slip stitch)

Watermelon Coaster

Using pink yarn, make a magic ring.

Row 1: ch 2, 12 dc in the ring. Join with a sl st to the first dc. (12 sts)

Row 2: ch 2, 2 dc in each st around. Join with a sl st to the first dc. (24 sts)

Row 3: ch 2, *1 dc in the next st, 2 dc in the next* repeat around (12 times). Join with a sl st to the first dc. (36 sts)

Row 4: ch 1, *1 sc in the next 2 sts, 2 sc in the next* repeat around (12 times). Join with a sl st to the first sc. (48 sts)

Row 5: Switch to white yarn. ch 1, *1 sc in the next 3 sts, 2 sc in the next* repeat around (12 times). Join with a sl st to the first sc. (60 sts)

Row 6: Switch to green yarn. ch 1, *1 sc in the next 4 sts, 2 sc in the next* repeat around (12 times). Join with a sl st to the first sc (72 sts). Fasten off.

For the seeds, you can randomly sew in black yarn around the pink part. But as you can see in my coaster, they are not very random, because I have some difficulty randomizing things like these (hahaha!). So what I did here was: *sew in one seed in row 3, skip 2 sts, sew in one seed in row 2, skip 2 sts* and repeat that all around. I think this will not be exactly symmetrical, but it would make the seeds somewhat evenly spaced. Alternatively, you can also randomize, it's really up to you. :)

Question: My coaster looks like it has corners (made by the increases), instead of a perfect circular shape. Do any of you guys know how to get rid of those corners? Please do let me know in the comments section, I would love to know your suggestions!


Grapefruit Coaster

I used the same method for my grapefruit coaster, only using different colors, of course. I used Gantsilyo Guru Milk Cotton Light Old Rose, the same white yarn with my watermelon, and Gantsilyo Guru Milk Cotton (light) Sunshine. The adjustments are as follows:

In the beginning, use the Old Rose yarn until row 4.

In row 5, switch to white yarn as well.

In row 6, switch to yellow yarn.

For the division, I simply attached white yarn from one part of the white row to the center, then to the opposite side, three times to achieve six divisions.

The coaster measures up to 4 inches in diameter. The grapefruit measures bigger, because the old rose yarn I used is slightly thicker than the coral one for the watermelon. If you want to resize your coaster, you can simply add rows to increase size, and skip/remove rows to decrease size. Easy peasy. :)

For my recommendations, as I've mentioned earlier, I would prefer to use the same kind / weight / ply of yarns in all the rows, so the stitches will be even, and the size, too. But if you don't have the same kind, it's also just fine, as long as you can work them all with the same hook size. Also for the grapefruit, you can use a different shade of yellow for the outer row, maybe something paler. You can also sl st across the grapefruit to make the divisions, for a "more attached" version (because in this version I made, the white strings tend to loosen up and might get entangled, or something like that. You get it, I know (: ).

By the way if you didn't notice, I included a list of stitches used in this coaster, so you can already decide early on if this is the type of pattern you want to use, especially if you want to teach someone how to read a pattern (like I did with my mom, I had to find a pattern that uses different kinds of stitches). One time I was halfway through a project I was doing when I encountered an unfamiliar abbreviation in the pattern, and at that time I was reluctant on learning a new stitch, because I am lazy. Haha! So I think it's important to list the stitches used especially for beginners. I'm sorry I did not do this in my previous posts, but I will now from this post on.

Lastly, because I got inspired by teaching my mom how to do basic stitches, I made a page with the basic stitches here. I also plan to make a page for the different techniques I use (e.g., magic ring, changing colors, etc). I will post it once done!

That's it for this post, you know the drill - leave your questions, comments, suggestions, praises, what-have-you, in the comments section below. And as always, enjoy crocheting AF!


This pattern is free and not for sale. Please credit and link back to this site when sharing, using for business, etc. Thanks! :)