Felted Coasters

These little coasters are made from felted crochet circles with a queen anne’s lace motif needle felted in. You don’t need too much to make these — just some wool yarn, a crochet hook, and a needle felting tool. I did all of the needle felting with yarn rather than roving because I’m a firm believer in not buying extra materials if you don’t have to! If you have roving on hand, though, feel free to give that a whirl as well.

This tutorial assumes basic crochet and needle felting knowledge.

Materials

– worsted weight wool (MUST be 100% wool!) yarn in apple green (A), olive green (B), and white (C)

– J/10 (6mm) crochet hook

– needle felting tool

Crochet the Coaster (x4)

Round 1: Using yarn A, create a slip knot. Ch1 through the center loop and then ch2.

Dc through the loop 12 times and slip stitch to join the round. Pull the tail end of the slip knot’s loop to close the center.

Round 2: Ch3. Dc twice in the next stitch, then once in the following stitch. Continue alternating until the end of the round. Slip stitch to join.

Round 3: Ch 3. Dc twice in each stitch until the end of the round. Slip stitch to join.

Round 4: Ch3. Dc once in the next stitch, and then twice in the following stitch. *Dc once in the next two stitches, and then twice in the following stitch. Repeat from * until the end of the round. Slip stitch to join and finish.

Weave in loose ends.

Felting the Coaster

Place the coasters in a mesh laundry bag with a few tennis balls for agitation (old towels or jeans usually work as well). Run through a wash cycle with hot water and a very small amount of detergent. This will cause the fibers to interlock. Check on your coasters throughout until they’ve reached the amount of felting you desire. The amount of felting is up to you, but you want to get them at least to the point where the double crochet stitches don’t separate from each other anymore.

Once your coasters have felted, roll them with a towel to remove excess water. Shape them as uniformly as possible (don’t be afraid to stretch them — felted wool can take a beating) and place them on a towel to dry.

Needle Felting

Once your coasters have dried completely, you can start to add the queen anne’s lace motif. From yarn B, cut sixteen 2-inch pieces of yarn. Four of these will be used on each coaster to comprise the stem. For each stem, place three in a series of nesting “V”s, the outer “V” being the widest. The final piece of yarn will run through the middle and off the edge of the coaster. Needle felt each piece of the stem into place.

Two “V”s complete, one to go, plus the center stem.

With yarn C, cut several 3/4 inch pieces of yarn and unravel them down to individual strands. Each little piece of the strand will be a flower bud, about 3 per stem. Ball them up with your fingers and then needle felt them in.

long strand (left) becomes 3/4 inch bit (center) and then you ball it up (right)

Once you’ve needle felted all of your flower buds, you’re done!… with that coaster. Now go do it again!