Project Notebook: Irish Coasters

St. Patrick’s Day is such a fun holiday, and it’s a great time for crafters because working some bright green into your wardrobe or decor this time of year is a welcome change from the drab colors of the end of winter.

I like really quick and easy projects for the “smaller” holidays like St. Patrick’s Day, because it’s not a holiday you get to keep your decorations out for over a long period of time. They can come up after Valentine’s Day (or Mardi Gras, in my house) and go right back down in favor of Easter decor.

One great way to infuse your home with a little St. Patrick’s Day cheer is to knit simple coasters in Irish colors or with shamrock shapes. They add a bit of color even when people aren’t using them, and they make keeping your table clean a lot more festive.

I whipped up a couple of versions that you can find over on CraftBits. There’s a solid color version with the shamrock worked in Reverse Stockinette Stitch, and versions showing the same pattern worked all is Stockinette in green and white. It only takes an hour or so to knit each one, so you can have a stack in no time.

While I was working on those, I was thinking about some red, white and blue coasters I made a long time ago and thinking about knitting some in the colors of the Irish flag. I decided to go with the same striping that’s found in the flag, and did both Garter Stitch and Stockinette Stitch versions, which you can find over at About.

Have you done any knitting for St. Patrick’s Day? I’d love to hear about it!

Next Pattern:

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]

Next Pattern:

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