Tree Swallow Coaster

And now, for the final coaster in my set: the Tree Swallow! A summer favourite for most of North America. These cute little guys are pretty easily identified in flight thanks to their unique shape and dive bombs.

I went with a dark green for this pattern because that's how I remembered tree swallows being coloured off the top of my head, but a dark blue would be very nice too. It's hard to get a yarn that has that iridescent sheen that swallows (and magpies) have, so just make do with whatever yarn colour you like best!

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
    • Hunter Green
    • Soft White
• Yarn Needle

Abbreviations

• ch – chain
• sc – single 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 black.

Rnd 1: in magic circle, sc, cc to green, sc 2, cc to white, sc 3. On last sc, cc to black. (6 sc)
Rnd 2: inc, cc to green, inc twice, cc to white, inc three times. On last sc, cc to black. (12 sc)
Rnd 3: sc, inc, cc to green, (sc, inc) twice, cc to white, (sc, inc) three times. On last sc, cc to black. (18 sc)
Rnd 4: sc 2, inc, cc to green, (sc 2, inc) twice, cc to white, (sc 2, inc) three times. On last sc, cc to black. (24 sc)
Rnd 5: sc 3, inc, cc to green, (sc 3, inc) twice, cc to white, (sc 3, inc) three times. On last sc, cc to black. (30 sc)
Rnd 6: sc 4, inc, cc to green, (sc 4, inc) twice, cc to white, (sc 4, inc) three times. On last sc, cc to black. (36 sc)
Rnd 7: sc 5, inc, cc to green, (sc 5, inc) twice, cc to white, (sc 5, inc) three times. ss to first. (42 sc)

Fasten off and hide the tails.

Tail

Mark the 2^nd stitch into the white and the 5^th stitch into the black. Watch out for the ss, because it looks quite a bit like a stitch and it hides the first black stitch a little.

Start by attaching white yarn into the marked white stitch.

Row 1: sc 2, cc to black, sc 5. (7 sc)
Row 2: ch 1, turn. sc2tog, sc 3, cc to white, sc 2. (6 sc)
Row 3: ch 1, turn. sc 2, cc to black, sc 2, sc2tog. (5 sc)
Row 4: ch 1, turn. sc2tog, sc, cc to white, sc2tog. (3 sc)
Row 5: ch 1, turn. sc, cc to black, sc2tog. (2 sc)
Row 6: ch 1, turn. sc in black stitch. Ignore the white stitch. (1 sc)
Row 7: ch 1, turn. sc. (1 sc)

Fasten off and hide the tails.

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Head

Mark the 3^rd stitch into the white and the 5^th stitch into the green. That will create a span of 8 stitches that we will be working over.

Attach green yarn into the green marked stitch so that we’ll be working in the same direction as the last round.

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

Fasten off and hide the tails.

Beak

Attach black yarn into the black stitch of the head. sc in this stitch. Fasten off, hiding the tail along the top of the beak, like so:

And you're done!

I hope you enjoyed making your swallow coaster! If you'd like to make the other coasters in the set, take a look at more bird-themed coasters here!