fried egg coaster free pattern

 I really enjoyed writing yesterdays introduction in amigurumi. I am going to keep these tutorials going and part two will be up soon (later today if I get all my pattern writing for work done). I thought I would whip up a quick free pattern to go along with yesterdays starter lesson so there is a fun quick project to make to practice your new skills.

The first post is here if you want to recap before having a go at this.

In it I talked about the first part of an amigurumi pattern were you are increasing by 6 stitches every round. If you do this you get a flat disc and so I've written this pattern for fried egg coasters which shows this technique nicely. There are some handy hints about colour changing and finishing off after the pattern.

 You will need

white and yellow cotton yarn DK weight

3.5mm crochet hook

wool and embroidery needle

white felt

white thread

Abbreviation

dc - double crochet (single crochet in US terms)

sts - stitches

Starting in yellow yarn make a magic ring and work 6dc into the ring. 6 sts

 

Round 1: 2dc into each st to the end. 12sts

Round 2: (dc in the first st, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 18sts

Round 3: (dc in the first two sts, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 24sts change to white yarn now.

Round 4: (dc in the first three sts, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 30sts

Round 5: (dc in the first four sts, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 36sts

Round 6: (dc in the first five sts, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 42sts

Round 7: (dc in the first six sts, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 48sts

Fasten off. Weave in and cut off any loose ends.

Cut a circle of white felt the same size as the coaster and sew in place to the back for insulation.

                                 **************************************************

So there are two things in this pattern I didn't cover yesterday so I'll talk you through them now. The first is changing colour.

Have your new yarn colour ready when you start the round where you will change colour at the end. You will be changing colour on the last stitch of this round. 

Work this last stitch as a normal dc -hook into stitch, pick up yarn, draw through stitch - now instead of finishing the stitch with your first colour you are going to pick up the new colour on the last part - lay new yarn over the hook and pull through the two loop son the hook.

There is no need to know the yarn together just cut of your first colour leaving a length of yarn you can sew in later.

I'll talk more about changing colour when we get to stripes in a later tutorial but for now that should be all you need to learn.

Finishing off

I usually end a pattern with the words "finish off, weave in and cut off any loose ends." To finish off all you want to do is cut of the yarn you are working with leaving a long tail. Use your hook and draw the yarn through the loop on your hook and pull to close the loop securely.

Quick tip - whenever you are changing colour or finishing off always leave a long tail of yarn (about 15-20cm more if you want to. It just makes it easier when you are sewing in the ends and nine times out of ten you can use these tails when you are sewing amigurumi dolls together

easy peasy amigurumi tutorial one

For this months love crochet magazine cover project I was asked to create a pair of dogs but the really wanted these to be a beginners pattern for people who are new to amigurumi.

I came up with these colourful dogs which are full of character but really easy to create.

I thought it might be nice to do a series of tutorials in how to start in amigurumi. These will go hand in hand with some magazine work I'm doing and take you through how to make these and other amigurumi patterns like them.

If you can crochet the first stitch you'll learn after chain is double crochet (single crochet in US terms) and that is the only stitch you need to make these dogs. I've left out all the more complicated shaping and striped this pattern back to amigurumis simple roots.

So if you can work double crochet you're away.

Next up is starting out in the round you can use the magic ring method and there is a great tutorial on how to do that here
I use the much simpler method of chain 2 and work 6dc in the 2nd chain from hook.

ether way is perfectly fine and I will be doing some lovely tutorials that show these methods that will hopefully be featuring in a crochet magazine soon.

However you get there you start out with six stitch in a circle this is your first round.

The next thing you need to be able to do is crochet in the round. For this you need a stitch marker, I use a piece of yarn about an inch long in a contrasting colour, like the pic above.

Place the stitch marker over the stitch nearest your hook before you work the first stitch. You then work the round as per the pattern and finish on the stitch just before the marker.

A normal amigurumi pattern starts off like this...

Starting in (colour) yarn and make a magic ring and work 6dc into the ring. 6sts

Rnd 1: 2dc into each st to the end. 12sts

Rnd 2: (dc in the first st, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 18sts

Rnd 3: (dc in the first two sts, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 24sts

Rnd 4: (dc in the first three sts, 2dc in the next st) repeat to end. 30sts

So lets have a closer look at what we are doing her. This start out is an increase by 6stitchs every round and this will give you a flat disc that we use to get the first shape to the desired size before  shaping into a sphere.

Some people really don't like reading crochet patterns and find them really difficult to understand and this next bit if for them. If you are happy with reading patterns skip this bit.

Ok so we have started out already and have our six stitches in a round so the first line we have covered.

So Rnd 1: This jusr means round one.

Place your stitch marker at the beginning of the round

Read what the pattern tells you to do next out-loud. (This might sound a simple tip but I use a lot and it really does work if your getting mixed up)

So for the first round we are asked to work two double crochet stitches in each stitch. At the end of the round you will have 12 stitches.

The full stop at the end of a line of pattern is actually really important, this marks the end of the instructions for this round. There should never be more than one full stop in a line of pattern.

After the full stop you get your stitch count. This tells you how many stitches you should have now.

Remember when you finish a round to move your stitch marker to the start of the new round.

On round two we are come across brackets for the first time. () Brackets group together stitches that are then meant to be repeated by the amount of times we are told after the bracket.

On round two we want to increase by six stitches again so we are going to increase in every other. Without the use of brakets the instructions for this round would look like this.

Rnd 2: 2dc in the first st, dc in the next st, 2dc in the next st, dc in the next st, 2dc in the next st, dc in the next st, 2dc in the next st, dc in the next st, 2dc in the next st, dc in the next st, 2dc in the next st, dc in the last st. 12sts

As you can see its gets a bit long winded and its easy to mess up where you are as it all looks the same. So we use brackets to keep it simple. The bracket tells you what we have to do and the we just repeat it till we are told to stop.

At the end of round two you will have 18 stitches in your round.

If your with me so far them round three should be pretty easy. Again we are increasing by six stitches and will have 24 stitches at the end of the round. It continues in the same way on round four and at the end of this first part you will have 30 stitches in a round.

From this small beginning all amigurumi patterns start and when you cracked this starting point everything gets very easy.

Six years ago this was the first amigurumi I every made. If I can do it so can you.


Update - If you want to practice increasing by 6 stitches to form a round I have written a lovely fried egg coaster free pattern for you to try here

Part two coming soon shaping, stuffing and decreasing

jam jars and pretty flowers

Its been a while since my last post. I've had a long project on that'll be coming out at Christmas this year. Now its finished I'm really happy with it but it has been a real slog to get it made and stolen most of my crochet mojo.

I've a bit to catch you up on first up for the latest Love crochet magazine I was asked too design a couple of dinosaurs.

This was the sketch I can up with. I was going for a cartoon look rather and I wanted them to be a similar body shape so that the pattern wouldn't be to long for the magazine.

I used the Rico essentials cotton aran again mainly because I have lots of it in stock now and I'm always really happy with the results you get with it.

I love these little guys they worked out just how I wanted and look great on the cover of the magazine.

The fairy that you can see in the top corner is also my design and can be found in this issue.

I really wanted a full skirt on this fairy so I tried out a few ideas with mixed results but in the end I adapted the pattern for the 3row scarf and I've wrapped it around and around to give the look of layers of fabric. It makes it a really easy way to make something that looks quiet complicated.

Next up is Craftseller I've missed a couple of these so we'll start with my fave.

This was a bit of a strange project I was asked to create a breakfast motif that would be attached to a 1950s style apron. I had just been doing a lot of fruit and veg patterns so it didn't seem that crazy. The hardest part was making everything flat when I'm so used to making things 3d.

This is the breakfast plate before it was attached to the apron. I think the bacon is my favorite bit :)

In this months issue of Craftseller i go a small quick project to do as they asked for a glasses case.

I've made a few glass cases before for my mum but for this one they wanted it to be a granny patch work.

This is another of the rico cotton ranges its the baby soft and its a great one as the colours are nicely muted and give a faded retro look.

Last offI just what to show you something i've been collecting. When I start playing around with new stitches I usually make a little jam jar cosy to see if I like the new stitch and to see how it will look worked in the round.

 Most of these were stitch I've used on shawls and tops but The heart one at the front is going to be used on a tea cosy :) All the flowers are from my garden which is looking lovely at the mo and making me very happy.

Cal likes the flowers too.

I have some more news coming soon so I'll try and post a bit more often


happy crocheting
liz xxx

My garden

This is quite a long post and there is very little crochet in it, its about my other love xxx

I've been living in my little house for two years and a half now. When I fist moved here I left behind my beautiful garden that I created with my partner before he died.

This was my old garden as seen from the above. It was where I spent most of the short time I had with my wonderful Andy and being forced to leave it behind was heartbreaking.

When I left I tried to take as many plants that had some meaning to but a lot got left behind.

As soon as I moved to my new home I started work on the little garden here. It was just a postage stamp of patio with a little lawn and a pond at the back but I knew I could work my magic and have it looking lovely in no time.

The pic above is from my first spring in this house that patch is the sum of planting I'd done so far. Its also as far as I got. Two things I didn't plan on happened. First I got shed loads of crochet work all at once and it completely consumed my time. Secondly I just didn't love gardening anymore and couldn't find the will to do it, I'd even stopped watching Gardeners world.

I know most of us have gone through the horrible grief process when we lose someone we love. We all deal with it differently and its only now I'm starting to feel more like myself I can look back and see it made me completely numb. I functioned but it was more auto pilot than anything else. I concentrated on my crochet work and nothing else. I was a human robot. I could respond well enough to pretend to be ok but I was far from it if you scratched the surface.

Let me give you an example. I got Cal my second cat just after Andy died, (in hind-site it was a huge mistake to get another cat at that time and a begal kitten is just a mad ball of fun and energy and not what I was in the mood for. I love her, shes wonderful and I wouldn't be without her now but still it was a bad idea at the time) I remember a time quite a white after Andy died and I was cleaning the kitchen and having a bit of a sing song to myself. Cal got really scared and was howling at me. I thought she must have hurt herself somehow but couldn't find anything wrong and after a cuddle she calmed down.
 It was only later that I realized that was the first time in months I'd sung out-loud. Cal had no idea what was going on as she'd never heard it before and she thought I was in pain and was trying to help me.

I'm not a great singer but I don't care and that not the point anyway. Just ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I sing all the time. I sing jingles or, show intros or just the song thats stuck in my head at the time. Its a part of me, its who I am and for months I had been silent to the point that when I started to sing again it scared the cat.

That was a bit of a shocker to me after all I thought I was coping quite well.

Looking back now it doesn't seem strange that I had no interest in doing anything I'd used to enjoy. I put my head down, worked hard and that was about it.

For more than a year I practically ignored that my little house had a garden. It was something on the long list of things to do when I had lots of pennies which was never gonna happen anytime soon. I made excuses as the grass got over grown (the lawn mower doesn't work, can afford another) and all I could see out of the kitchen windows was cobwebs (I convinced myself there were mock widow spiders webs) and mess (fallen apples and millions of wasps) .

I was convinced I would need help, man power and lots of money to make it into a workable garden again but at the beginning of this year I decided it was time to make a start and clear it.

14 bags of straw, weeds and rubbish, a lot of swearing and a day on the sofa after hurting my back later and I had it clear.

This is the first photo I took of my garden from since taking the one above just after I moved it. I'm proud of this photo. I've dug over where I want the new beds to go and cleared most of the area. I know how much work when into getting the garden to this state so this pic makes me happy.

It was mainly grunt work at first. I was lucky I had a few quiet week as far as crochet work was going so I could crack on. As I cleared thing I found that old plant friends where still in there and I hadn't lost any of my special plants.

 While I hadn't been physically gardening. I had been dream gardening in my head and planning what I would do eventually. I really liked pictures I saw on wine bottle edging and thought I'd give it a go.

A lot of research when into the best way to cut the bottles down and I got a bottle cutter and everything but I gave up and in the end just dug bigger hole and buried the bottles whole. The finished border catches the light in the most beautiful way and when it rains the water pooling in the bottom of the bottles and makes the most wonderful sound.

 Getting there in this photo. I got my first few bags of gravel. I went for a Yorkshire flint stone gravel. I know its probably wrong to love gravel but I fell for this as first site and those feelings are still going strong :)

The weed proof membrane was pretty easy to put down but I found out the next morning it wasn't cat proof as I found this little girl merrily ripping it up.

This is Cleo she is my gardening cat, she lives next door. I have to keep my two indoors now but it is nice to have a cat friend to talk to when I'm in the garden.

 As well as clearing and redesigning outside I started planting seeds inside.
I've always grown a lot from seed before, its the cheapest way to get lots of plants and its fairly easy if your happy to wait. Cal does have a habit of trying to eat them mind and I don't think Cass was to happy as slowly all the windowsills got covered with propagators and there was nowhere for her to sit.

The half way point. It was slow going as I could only get to the shop that sold the gravel once a week when my mum came through and we could only fit so many bags of gravel in with the shopping.

My goal was to get it finished for the Harrogate flower show in April so I could buy some lovely plants there in the end I got it finished just after my birthday at the end of March.

I got gravel as my birthday present and it was one of my favorite birthday presents ever. 

That was the hard landscaping done. I still had a patio fill with bags of garden rubbish that I could only get rid of a couple bags at a time every two weeks in the green bin and lots of planting to do.

I had my first bbq the first bank holiday weekend of the year. Sure it was only me and my friend Richard cause I only have two chairs and Richard had to google how to light a bbq cause he's a big geek but it was lovely to be out in the sun.

I would like to point out that I am sat down taking this sneaky photo of the camera dodger and Richard really isn't as tall as house. He does make my garden look very small mind.


I had the bug back now and I spending hours looking at planting websites and watch old eps of gardeners world. I was a gardener again and I wondered how I'd managed to live so long without a hobby that was such a huge part of me.

With the hard work done I had a garden I could potter in once again as everything started it green up and the first roses came out.

Finally I got the patio clear of rubbish just in time for a downpour to wash it clean.

Pretty things started to emerge and everything put on a growth spurt as spring carried on.

 I tried my had a aquatic planting and had a happy moment when the first leaf of the water lily finally reached the surface of the pond

 I took lots and lots of photo as the garden bloomed. Insert pretty flower pics :)

Then last week my mum brought me a old table over and some more chairs and for the first time the weather was consistently good enough that I could start taking the laptop out and doing some crochet work outside.

 So if you want me this summer, I'll be crocheting...

in my big silly hat, with my sunnys on, listening to my tunes...

 in my garden

love
Liz xxx