This Christmas I decided to go 100% handmade. The reasons are many, but money is certainly a part of it. As a graduate student in the sciences, my budget is beyond tight. I am fortunate enough to share my life and home with my favorite man in the world, who is also a grad student and thus equally broke. I am not sure if the general public is aware of how little we get paid for many many hours of research. But at the end of the month, buying Christmas gifts for a big family is not an option.
I say a big family because the boy has a large and fantastic family distributed around Texas. Mainly next to Austin. But they all gather around the table for Xmas. This was my second Xmas with the family and I really wanted to show the love. Making handmade gifts saved me lots of $ and allowed me to make things for everyone. Including my family, in Spain. Since Austin doesn’t get a lot of rain or snow or cold in the winter, making hat and scarves sets isn’t really an option. So for my ‘mother-in-law’, I made a set of watermelon coasters. Because she loves coasters and the summer.
In case you’re wondering, you can make this set for about 2$ of cotton yarn. Probably a bit less. Not too bad for some cheerful coasters. Want to try? Follow this step by step photo tutorial and you’ll be done in no time!
WHAT-A-MELON coaster set pattern
With a 4.25 mm hook and 100% cotton yarn. I used Sugar n cream.
Round 1: Chain 4, join to form a ring, chain 2 (counts as dc here and throughout), 11 dc in ring (12 dc)
Round 2: Chain 2, dc in same stitch, 2dc in each stitch around. (24 dc)
Switch to white, chain 2
Round 3: dc in same stitch, dc in next two stitches *(2dc, 1dc)* around. (36 dc)
Switch to light green, chain 1
Round 4: *(1sc, ch1, skip 1 stitch)* around
Switch to dark green joining at the stitch after the last stitch of the previous round, chain 1
Round 5: *(1 sc at ch1 space from previous round, chain 1)* around
I hope you give this easy pattern a try. It will bring a bit of summer to your winter table.
