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! :)
