Egg or Avocado

Currently I really love playing around with yarn trying to knit coasters or potholder in the shape of foodstuffs. These are quick and fun projects that get you a sense of achievement and leave you with cheerful piece for your kitchen.
These egg-shaped pieces are knitted flat and all in garter stitch. They use a combination of intarsia and short rows, which means that they look good(-ish) on WS as well. The pieces can be used as potholders or coasters.

Here's a pattern the to knit a coaster in shape of a hard-boiled egg (written and as a chart) and the chart for the avocado coaster as well as a few explanations on how to knit it.


This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.






Materials

• about 20 grams of DK weight cotton yarn (for the egg coaster in white and yellow, for the avocado coaster in brown, light green and dark green)
• 3.5mm needles
• scrap yarn and crochet hook for provisional CO
• tapestry needle to weave in ends

Techniques and Notation

• Provisional CO: My favorite method for a provision CO is the crochet provisional CO - it is shown in this Youtube video by New Stitch a Day.
• Short rows with wrap and turn (w+t) - as shown in this YouTube video by Very Pink Knits.
• Grafting in Garter Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam - this technique is shown in this YouTube Video by knittinghelp.com.
• Intarsia: Changing colors with the intarsia technique - as shown in this YouTube video by knitwithpat; or this YouTube video by Francoise Danoy. That way you don't have to carry long strands on the WS. The picture below shows the RS and WS of the piece.
• Throughout the written pattern, the following notation is used:  C1 (k4), C2 (k10, w+t, k10), C1 (k to end) means, knit 4 stitches in C1, change to C2 and knit 10 sts, do a wrap and turn, knit 10 stitches and then change back to C1 and k to end. I.e. color is indicated before the knitting instructions for that yarn and the knitting instructions for that yarn are given in brackets after the color.
  The use of intarsia technique means that the piece looks good on not only on RS but on WS as well (see picture below).
  
  
  

Size
One coaster / potholder is about 18 cm high and 14 cm wide.


Charts
Below you find the charts for both the egg and the avocado coaster.
Each row stands for one ridge (i.e. two rows of garter stitch), and each square for one stitch of this ridge. Each color stands for one color of coaster.
During the first half of the piece, the chart must be read from bottom to top - knitting section A three times, then sections B, C and D once each. For the second half of the piece, the chart needs to be read from top to bottom starting with section E, F and G (which need to be knitted once each) and continuing with section H that's knitted three times. The piece is finished by grafting in garter stitch.
The pink dotted lines are just counting aids. They are placed after every 5th stitch - starting from the end of a row.

Egg Chart - click to enlarge

Avocado Chart - click to enlarge

Instructions for the Egg-Shaped Coaster

C1 = white
C2 = yellow

Important: if a stitch is knitted in one color on RS, it will always be knitted in the same color on WS. The WS stitch might be an increase or decrease, but the color will not change.

Provisionally CO 13 sts
Setup Row: C2 (k8); C1 (k5)

Section A
Ridge 1: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (k6, w+t, k6); C1 (k5)
Ridge 2: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (k2, w+t, k2); C1 (k5)
Ridge 3: C1 (sl1, k2, w+t, k3)
Ridge 4: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (w+t); C1 (k5)
Ridge 5: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (k4, w+t, k4); C1 (k5)
Ridge 6: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (k8, TURN, sl1, k7); C1 (k5)

Repeat section A twice more, i.e. you have knitted section A a total of three times.

Section B
Ridge 1: C1 (sl1, k4), C2 (k6, w+t, k6), C1 (k5)
Ridge 2: C1 (sl1, k4), C2 (k2, w+t, k2), C1 (k5)
Ridge 3: C1 (sl1, k2, w+t, k3)
Ridge 4: C1 (sl1, k4), C2 (w+t), C1 (k5)
Ridge 5: C1 (sl1, k4), C2 (k4, w+t, k4), C1 (k1, kfb, k3)
Ridge 6: C1 (sl1, k6), C2 (k8, TURN, sl1, k7), C1 (k6)

Section C
Ridge 1: C1 (sl1, k5), C2 (k6, w+t, k6), C1 (k6)
Ridge 2: C1 (sl1, k5), C2 (k2, w+t, k2), C1 (k2, kfb, k3)
Ridge 3: C1 (sl1, k4, w+t, k5)
Ridge 4: C1 (sl1, k6), C2 (w+t), C1 (k4, kfb, k3)
Ridge 5: C1 (sl1, k7), C2 (k4, w+t, k4), C1 (k5, kfb, k3)
Ridge 6: C1: (sl1, k9), C2 (k8, TURN, sl1, k7), C1 (k10)

Section D
Ridge 1: C1 (sl1, k9); C2 (k6, w+t, k6); C1 (k6, kfb, k3)
Ridge 2: C1 (sl1, k10); C2 (k2, w+t, k2); C1 (k11)

Ridge 3: C1 (sl1, k8, w+t, k5, kfb, k3)

Ridge 4: C1 (sl1, k5, w+t, k6)

Ridge 5: C1 (sl1, k3, w+t, k1, kfb, k2)

Ridge 6: C1 (sl1, k8, w+t, k9)

Ridge 7: C1 (sl1, k12), C2 (w+t), C1 (k9, kfb, k3)

Ridge 8: C1 (sl1, k12), C2 (k4, w+t, k4), C1 (k13)

Ridge 9: C1 (sl1, k12), C2 (k8, TURN, sl1, k7), C1 (k13)

Now you've finished half of your piece - from now on you basically will be knitting the same sequence backwards.

Section E (i.e. section D backwards)
Ridge 1: C1 (sl1, k12), C2 (k8, TURN, sl1, k7), C1 (k13)

Ridge 2: C1 (sl1, k12), C2 (k4, w+t, k4), C1 (k13)

Ridge 3: C1 (sl1, k12), C2 (w+t), C1 (k8, ssk, k3)

Ridge 4: C1 (sl1, k8, w+t, k9)

Ridge 5: C1 (sl1, k3, w+t, ssk, k2)

Ridge 6: C1 (sl1, k5, w+t, k6)

Ridge 7: C1 (sl1, k8, w+t, k4, ssk, k3)

Ridge 8: C1 (sl1, k10); C2 (k2, w+t, k2); C1 (k11)
Ridge 9: C1 (sl1, k9); C2 (k6, w+t, k6); C1 (k5, ssk, k3)

Section F (i.e. secion C backwards)
Ridge 1: C1: (sl1, k9), C2 (k8, TURN, sl1, k7), C1 (k10)

Ridge 2: C1 (sl1, k7), C2 (k4, w+t, k4), C1 (k4, ssk, k3)
Ridge 3: C1 (sl1, k6), C2 (w+t), C1 (k3, ssk, k3)
Ridge 4: C1 (sl1, k4, w+t, k5)
Ridge 5: C1 (sl1, k5), C2 (k2, w+t, k2), C1 (k1, ssk, k3)

Ridge 6: C1 (sl1, k5), C2 (k6, w+t, k6), C1 (k6)

Section G (i.e. section B backwards)
Ridge 1: C1 (sl1, k6), C2 (k8, TURN, sl1, k7), C1 (k6)
Ridge 2: C1 (sl1, k4), C2 (k4, w+t, k4), C1 (ssk, k3)
Ridge 3: C1 (sl1, k4), C2 (w+t), C1 (k5)
Ridge 4: C1 (sl1, k2, w+t, k3)
Ridge 5: C1 (sl1, k4), C2 (k2, w+t, k2), C1 (k5)
Ridge 6: C1 (sl1, k4), C2 (k6, w+t, k6), C1 (k5)

Section H (i.e. section A backwards)
Ridge 1: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (k8, TURN, sl1, k7); C1 (k5)

Ridge 2: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (k4, w+t, k4); C1 (k5)

Ridge 3: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (w+t); C1 (k5)

Ridge 4: C1 (sl1, k2, w+t, k3)
Ridge 5: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (k2, w+t, k2); C1 (k5)
Ridge 6: C1 (sl1, k4); C2 (k6, w+t, k6); C1 (k5)

Repeat section H twice more, i.e. you knit section H a total of three times.

Put the stitches from the provisional CO on the second needle - cut your yarn.
Graft in garter stitch - 5 stitches in C1 and 8 stitches in C2.
Use the C2 tail to close the hole in the middle of the piece.

Differences for the Avocado-Shaped Coaster
For the avocado the you'll use three colors instead of one, i.e. C1 = dark green, C2 = light green and C3 = brown.
The total number of stitches of each ridge in each section is the same as for the egg pattern. The first two stitches of each ridge are knitted in C1, and the last 5 stitches (counted from the end of a complete row) are knitted in C3, of course they may not be reached when the short row is turned earlier. The stitches inbetween are knitted in light green - all increases and decreases are done in the light green part of the piece, this means that if a stitch is knitted in one color on RS, it will always be knitted in the same color on WS. The WS stitch might be an increase or decrease, but the color will not change.

Egg and avocado with other food-themed potholders - pumpkin and orange