Penta-Coasters
a leethal quick knits pattern
by Lee Meredith leethal.net! see the quick knits section of leethal.net for more patterns using under 15 yards of yarn! and to learn about the leethal quick knits club!
for personal use only. please do not redistribute the pattern or sell your coasters without permission, and link to leethal.net if blogging about it. thanks! This textured coaster is thick enough to keep water off your tabletop by either being felted or being knit super tightly with bulky yarn. Choose a $100\,\%$ wool yarn (not superwash) in a worsted weight for the felted version, or a bulky weight yarn in any fiber type for the larger one. Choose your own yarn/needle size combination depending on if you want to felt. lf felting, knit with a bit of a loose gauge, keeping in mind you'll be shrinking it - my samples were knit with worsted weight yarn on size US $10^{\prime}s$ (darkblue+brown) and 10 $1/2^{\prime}s$ (light green+blue). if not felting, you need a very tight gauge, so choose a bulky yarn and use smaller needlesthanyounormally would - my sample was knit with Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick on size ${10^{\prime}}s$ :(1 am a tight knitter, adjust needle sizes if you're a looser knitter.) Cast-on 45 stitches onto double pointed needles Join around and knit 1 row Purl 1 row Knit 1 row Repeat [k6, skp-rpr] around 1 row Purl 1 row Knit 1 row Repeat [k4, skp-rpr] around 1 row Purl 1 row Knit 1 row Repeat [k2, skp-rpr] around 1 row Purl 1 row Knit 1 row Repeat skp-rpr around 1 row Purl 1 row Cut yarn, thread through stitches, pull tight and tie.
The only abbreviation you need to know is my decrease 2 stitches method skp-rpr $=$ SKP (slip, knit, pass) decrease immediately followed by KRPR (knit, return, pass, return) de- crease (without the K because it's already been done), so: slip, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over, return knit stitch to left needle, pass next stitch over knit stitch, return knit stitch to right needle by slipping it purl-wise. Now you can felt (or full) it if you want - 1 like to felt items this small by hand instead of in the washing machine, so I can control the size and shape. 1 do this by filling a large bowl with hot water (as hot as your hands can handle, for me this is as hot as my faucet gets) with a little dish soap (might as well clean it while you felt) and setting it right next to the sink. Dunk the coaster in the hot water bowl and agitate vigorously, as if it's super dirty and you're trying to clean it, rubbing it against itself and against your hands. (To avoid splashing water everywhere, mostly switch between dipping it in the water and rubbing it above the water.) Once it's been agitating in the hot water for a bit, turn the sink on as cold as it goes and dunk the coaster under the running faucet, still rubbing it vigorously. Switch between hot and cold, paying attention to the size and shape once you see it starting to shrink and felt. You can control the shape by pulling it and molding it as you're agitating in the water. When it's the shape and size you want, simply squeeze the water out, press it in a towel to dry it as well as you can, then lay it flat to dry.
