Black-Capped Chickadee Coaster

I am absolutely in love with birds. In fact, my username and the name of this blog is a reference to magpies, my favourite bird: pica is the genus of magpies! When I started making crochet patterns, I knew that I wanted to make birds somewhere down the line. And I thought a set of bird-themed coasters would be a cute idea!

And thanks to the book Birds of Alberta by Chris Fisher and John Acorn (a book I pretty much lived by when I was younger) I've got a whole bunch of ideas for different birds to turn into coaster form.

So the first in the Bird of Alberta Coasters line: the Black-Capped Chickadee! A staple of Albertan (and much of North America) life, these cute little buggers are a common sight even in cities. I think my favourite time to spot them is in the winter, when they turn into little fluffy puffballs.

You can buy a PDF copy of this pattern in a little ebook here on Ravelry! The book contains eight patterns: four coasters (including this one) and four amigurumi keychains. It's the exact same pattern as you'll see here, but I bundled them up for $5 CAD to provide an easier-to-print PDF or for if you wanted to show me some support.

Here's some quick guff on the ways you can use my pattern:

• do not redistribute the pattern - just link to this page
• your results are free for personal use - but I ask that you don't sell your finished product. just hand them out as gifts, ok? your friends will love you for it

With that out of the way, on to the pattern!

Materials

• Size H (5 mm) Crochet Hook
• Worsted Weight Yarn
  • I used Red Heart Super Saver in:
    • Black
    • Soft White
    • Gray Heather
• Yarn Needle

Abbreviations

• ch – chain
• sc – single crochet
• dc – double crochet
• inc – two single crochet in same stitch
• sc2tog – single crochet two together
• ss – slip stitch
• cc – colour change

Techniques

I have a useful guide on all the different techniques I use when I make amigurumi. Obviously, you should stick with whatever techniques you are comfortable with when making amigurumi, but I still recommend checking it out if you wanna get a result as close to mine as possible!

This pattern is worked in a spiral. Therefore, there are no joins at the end of rounds, except for at the very end.

Body/Coaster

Starting in grey (Red Heart Super Saver Gray Heather).

Rnd 1: in magic circle, sc 3, cc to white (Red Heart Super Saver Soft White), sc 3. cc to grey on last sc. (6 sc)
Rnd 2: inc in each of next 3 sts, cc to white, inc in each of next 3 sts. cc to grey on last sc. (12 sc)
Rnd 3: (sc, inc) 3 times. cc to white. (sc, inc) 3 times. cc to grey on last sc. (18 sc)
Rnd 4: (sc 2, inc) 3 times. cc to white. (sc 2, inc) 3 times. cc to grey on last sc. (24 sc)
Rnd 5: (sc 3, inc) 3 times. cc to white. (sc 3, inc) 3 times. cc to grey on last sc. (30 sc)
Rnd 6: (sc 4, inc) 3 times. cc to white. (sc 4, inc) 3 times. cc to grey on last sc. (36 sc)
Rnd 7: (sc 5, inc) 3 times. cc to white, dropping the grey. (sc 5, inc) 3 times. ss to first. (42 sc)

Fasten off and hide the tail.

Head

Mark 3 sts into the white and 5 stitches into the grey. I put the head on the left side, but either way works. If you make more than one, maybe switch it up!

We’ll start working in the opposite direction of the body’s stitches. Attach black yarn into the 3^rd stitch of the white area. Because there will be two black portions with white in between, I'd recommend using one end of your yarn skein for one patch, and the other end for the other patch. This'll save you having to carry the black yarn over the white patch.

Row 1: sc 3, cc to white, sc 5. cc to black on the last sc. (8 sc)
Row 2: ch 1, turn. sc2tog. cc to white. sc 3. cc to black. sc, sc2tog. (6 sc)
Row 3: ch 1, turn. sc 2. cc to white. sc 2. cc to black. sc 2. (6 sc)
Row 4: ch 1, turn. sc2tog, cc to white. sc2tog. cc to black. sc2tog. (3 sc)

Fasten off, leaving a long-ish tail. I use this tail to embroider the eyes, in line with the space between row 2 and 3. The eye is two stitches wide. I went over it three times to make sure it stuck out.

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Tail

Mark 2 stitches in the white area and 2 stitches in the grey area across from the head. Be sure to watch out for the ss, as it can look quite a bit like a stitch. This is where you’ll crochet the tail.

Row 1: attach grey yarn to the 2nd stitch in white. sc 4. (4 sc)
Row 2-3 (x2): ch 1, turn. sc to end. (4 sc)
Row 4: ch 1, turn. sc2tog twice. (2 sc)
Row 5-6 (x2): ch 1, turn. sc to end. (2 sc)
Row 7: ch 1, turn. sc2tog. (1 sc)

Fasten off and hide the tail.

Beak

Attach black yarn to the white stitch on the face. dc in this stitch. Fasten off.

Use the black patches to hide the tails. You’ll probably need to go through the beak to reach the patch for one of the tails, like so:

And you're done!

I hope you enjoyed making your little chickadee coaster! If you'd like to keep crocheting, you can check out some more of my free patterns here. I'm hoping to get more bird-themed patterns made soon, so check here for more!

If you'd like to make the rest of the coasters in the set, see the other patterns here!