Cotton crochet coasters in Orla Kiely style colours

These coasters take around 20 minutes each to make up and use the magic circle technique (MC), chain stitch (Ch), slip stitch (ss) and UK treble crochet (tr).  Scroll down for my free tutorial and printer friendly pattern.

I am a HUGE fan of Orla Kiely's design patterns.  So when I decided to purchase a selection of cotton yarns from the wonderful Wool Warehouse I was pleased to see that the colour options available from their Rico Essentials Cotton (DK) range provided me with plenty of Orla homage choices.  At £2.49 for a 50g ball, it's also well priced.

This drinks coaster project uses 91 Beige for the main colour and small amounts of 72 Red Brick, 63 Banana, 65 Hay, 33 Turquoise, 93 Erica and 15 Berry for the trims.  I used a size G 4.00mm Clover Soft Touch hook, a small wool needle and sharp thread scissors.

Time to complete: 2 hours
Cost of yarn used: £1.80

Instructions

Note: Keep all chain stitches loose

Foundation Round One: Magic circle, Ch2, 12tr
(you could make a 6 chain foundation ring instead of a magic circle if you wish)

then pull circle closed and ss into top of Ch2 (12 stitches) For the purposes of this tutorial, only count the treble crochets as stitches

Round Two: Ch2, 2tr into each tr of previous round (24 stitches), ss into top of Ch2

Round Three: Ch2, *1tr, 2tr* repeat 12 times around (36 stitches), ss into top of Ch2

Round Four: Ch2, *1tr, 1tr, 2tr* repeat 12 times around (48 stitches) then prepare to change yarn colour.

Insert hook into top of Ch2, yarn over in new colour and pull through to create a slip stitch

Round Five: Ch2, *1tr, 1tr, 1tr, 2tr* repeat 12 times around (60 stitches), ss into first treble crochet of the round and fasten off

Pull the magic circle tightly closed and weave in all the other ends (there should be 4 in total)

And here is the finished coaster servicing my Orla Kiely mug :)

For a neater finish, rather than slip stitching, use the invisible join technique to seamlessly join the last treble of round four to the first treble of round four.  I've found this explanation of the technique helpful.  I finished the remaining coasters using an invisible join and they have a cleaner edge than the original blue one.

The finished coasters have a lovely flat finish with no blocking required (I don't do blocking!)

Printer friendly instructions - just copy and paste into your application of choice and print:

Foundation Round One: Magic circle (OR Ch6 foundation ring), Ch2, 12tr, then pull magic circle closed and ss into top of Ch2 (12 stitches)

Round Two: Ch2, 2tr into each tr of previous round (24 stitches), ss into top of Ch2

Round Three: Ch2, *1tr, 2tr* repeat 12 times around (36 stitches), ss into top of Ch2

Round Four: Ch2, *1tr, 1tr, 2tr* repeat 12 times around (48 stitches) then prepare to change yarn colour

Insert hook into top of Ch2, yarn over in new colour and pull through to create a slip stitch

Round Five: Ch2, *1tr, 1tr, 1tr, 2tr* repeat 12 times around (60 stitches), ss into first treble crochet of the round and fasten off (OR use invisible join)


Feel free to print, make, gift and share, where appropriate giving credit for the pattern to The Little Crochet Stop.

Enjoy x