Lovedotty Crochet: September 2019

Friday 20 September 2019

Pattern - Mini Donuts

As a nice little accompaniment to my Donut Cushion Pattern I have designed these little mini donuts! You can use them for keyrings or bagcharms, make them into a necklace, or some bunting, or just have some dotted around the house for decoration.

Lets face it, something as cute as these just have to be made even if they will serve no useful purpose! Add a face or keep them plain, up to you!

UK Terminology

Hook - 3.5mm

Yarn - Stylecraft Classique Cotton

Yarn A - 1 Ball of any colour of choice for the top of the donuts. For the donuts in the pictures I used (clockwise) Shell Pink, Wisteria, Tropical Jade (unfortunately discontinued) Hot Pink and Sky Blue

Yarn B - 1 Ball of Wheat

Decoration - oddments of different colours of yarn, any colours of your choice

Face & Cheeks (optional) - oddments of black yarn for the eyes and mouth and Fucshia for the cheeks

Finished donut should measure 5cm (2 inches) across.

This mini donut is made in the amigurumi style, so it is worked a continuous spiral with no need to join at the end of each round. It may be helpful to use a stitch marker to mark the last stitch of each round, moving up to the next round as you work.

With yarn A, make 12 ch and join with a sl st in the first ch
Round 1 - 1 ch (does not count as st), 1 dc in each ch to end (12 sts)
Round 2 - *2 dc in first st, 1 dc in next st*, repeat * to * 6 times (18 sts)
Round 3 - *2 dc in first st, 1 dc in next 2 sts*, repeat * to * 6 times (24 sts)
Round 4 - *2 dc in first st, 1 dc in next 3 sts*, repeat * to * 6 times (30 sts)
Round 5 - *2 dc in first st, 1 dc in next 4 sts*, repeat * to * 6 times (36 sts)
Round 6 - 1 dc in each st to end (36 sts)

Change to Yarn B
Round 7 - Repeat Round 6 (36 sts)
Round 8 - *2 dctog, 1 dc in next 4 sts*, repeat * to * 6 times (30 sts)
Round 9 - *2 dctog, 1 dc in next 3 sts*, repeat * to * 6 times (24 sts)
Round 10 - *2 dctog, 1 dc in next 2 sts*, repeat * to * 6 times (18 sts)
Round 11 - *2 dctog, 1 dc in next st*, repeat * to * 6 times (12 sts)
Round 12 - Repeat Round 6 (12 sts)

Using a whip stitch and with the RS facing, sew together Round 1 and 12 to approximately a third of the way round.

Stuff the donut as much as you can using toy stuffing

Continue sewing and stuffing as you go along, when you finish, fasten off and sew in ends.

Sprinkles
Using different oddments of yarn in your choice of colours, sew random sprinkles over the coloured part of the donut.
Depending on your preference you can embroider the sprinkles either before you sew and stuff or after. I find embroidering after is much easier and I have a picture tutorial on my blog to help, just click here to view!
Use the pictures as a guide and go nuts!

Face (optional)
Using the pictures as a guide, sew eyes, mouth and little rosy cheeks!

© All images belong to Kelly of lovedotty unless otherwise stated. Please link to pictures, content or DIY's if used on your own website. Crochet patterns are written by Kelly of lovedotty unless otherwise stated, please link to original post if used on your own website. Feel free to sell the finished product that has been created from the pattern, if sold via a website, please link to lovedotty blogspot. However please do not publish patterns in full or as your own, unless agreed by Kelly of lovedotty

Tutorial - Embroidering Pre-Stuffed Crochet

So for this tutorial we will be looking at embroidering onto crochet items post stuffing and sewing up. It is a much easier way of doing it and much better to sew onto the finished piece where you can see the size and positioning, than onto an item 'pre-stuffing' where you are not quite sure if it will end up exactly where you want! Because I am pretty useless at sewing (despite my desperation to be a sewing queen!) I have always struggled with this bit, so when I discovered this way of doing it was a relief!

For this tutorial I will be showing how I embroidered the sprinkles onto my mini donuts, however the principle is the same whatever you are embroidering and this will give the basic idea.

So here we go...

Cut a piece of yarn long enough to do all the embroidery required. So for my piece I am going to embroider blue sprinkles onto my pink mini donut..

Thread the yarn onto a wool needle. Decide where on the piece you will be beginning your embroidering and insert the needle into the bottom of the piece near to where you are beginning..

Pull the needle all the way through to the top of piece, coming out of the area where you will be beginning your embroidery..

Pull the yarn through until you leave a little tail on the bottom half, enough to be able to tie into a knot later. You will need to either secure this or hold it so it doesn't pull through when you begin your embroidery..

Begin working your embroidery as required. For my sprinkles, I made lots of random lines across the top of the donut..

When you have finished embroidering, on your last stitch, you need to insert the needle all the way through the piece and out of the same hole on the bottom you worked the first stitch into, where the tail should still be..

Pull the yarn through and your should be left with two ends of yarn poking out of the same hole..

Cut the yarn and then tie both pieces together into a knot and pull firmly to secure, keep an eye that you don't pull too tight in case it pulls at the embroidery you have just completed..