Crochet Coasters: 10 Free Patterns That Actually Keep the Ring Off Your Table

Coasters were the first thing I ever commissioned for this site, and they are still the thing I get asked about most.

Part of that is the maths. A coaster is one small circle of yarn, it costs almost nothing to make, and you can finish one in the time it takes a pot of coffee to go cold.

The other part is that most of us have a drawer full of coasters that do not work. Cork ones curl. Ceramic ones sweat. The free crochet ones you find online are often written for whatever yarn the designer had in the basket, which is how you end up with a pretty little mat that shrugs a water ring straight onto the table.

So this is the list I actually use. One of them is mine. The other nine are free patterns from other designers that I checked myself before putting them here, and I have said what each one is good for rather than pretending they are all interchangeable.

First, the yarn, because it decides everything

If you read nothing else here, read this part. It is the difference between a coaster and a decoration.

Use cotton. Cotton absorbs. When a cold glass sweats, a cotton coaster pulls that water into the fibre and holds it there until it dries out. That is the entire job.

Acrylic does not absorb. It is a plastic fibre, and water beads on it and runs off the edge onto your table. A hot mug will not literally melt acrylic at drinking temperature, but over months of hot mugs the fibres flatten and go slightly shiny, and the coaster stops looking handmade and starts looking tired.

Wool is a third case. It absorbs beautifully and it handles heat, but it felts when you wash it, and a coaster is a thing that gets washed.

So: worsted or DK weight cotton, and a hook a size smaller than the ball band suggests. The tighter fabric is what stops a mug base sinking through the stitches.

That one substitution fixes most of the free patterns on the internet, including a few in this list that were written for something else.

1. Sunflower Coaster

This is the one I commissioned, and it is the most-made pattern on the site.

The construction is the reason. You crochet a solid brown disc in three rounds, which is the easiest shape in crochet, then switch to yellow and the petals happen almost by accident out of chain spaces. There is no sewing and no assembly. The flower shape comes out of the stitch pattern itself.

It finishes at about 12 to 14 cm across, which is a real mug-sized coaster rather than the doll-sized ones a lot of flower patterns produce.

Beginner. 12 to 14 cm. Medium-weight cotton, 3 mm hook. Magic ring, dc, ch, sl st.

Read the full free Sunflower Coaster pattern, with step photos for every round.

2. Flat Circle Coaster, by Crochetpedia

Start here if you have never made a coaster before, and honestly start here even if you have.

Kate’s pattern is a plain circle, but it teaches the one thing that ruins beginner circles: increase stacking. If you put every increase directly above the last one, your circle quietly turns into a hexagon, then an octagon, and you spend an hour wondering what you did wrong. This pattern staggers them so the edge stays round.

It also finishes with a contrast edging in a finer cotton, which is a nice trick. The fine yarn makes a crisp rim without adding bulk under the mug.

Beginner. About 10 cm. DK cotton blend, 3.5 mm hook, plus fingering cotton and a 2.5 mm hook for the edging. Around 8 g per coaster.

Get the free Flat Circle Coaster pattern.

3. Granny Square Coaster, by Handy Little Me

The granny square is the most recognisable shape in crochet and it makes a very good coaster, because the dense clusters give you a firm, flat surface with no gaps for a mug foot to catch in.

Louise’s version is four small three-colour squares joined with a flat slip stitch seam, which is worth learning on its own. A flat slip stitch join sits level instead of forming the little ridge you get from whip stitching, and on something a glass sits on, a ridge is a wobble.

It is written for fingering weight cotton, so it is a scraps and mini-skeins project rather than a full-ball one.

Beginner. About 10 cm square. Fingering cotton, 3.5 mm hook. Roughly an hour, 40 minutes of it active.

Get the free Granny Square Coaster pattern.

4. Vinyl Record Coasters, by Baroque Purls

This is the one I send people who want to make something for a man and are tired of being told to make a beer cosy.

Amy works the whole thing in half double crochet, and the ridge that hdc naturally forms on the back of the fabric reads as record grooves. It is a genuinely clever use of a stitch that most patterns treat as filler. A small contrast circle in the middle is the label, and because the texture is on both faces the coaster is reversible.

Black yarn, one contrast, done. It has been on Amy’s blog since 2014 and it has not dated at all.

Beginner. About 11 cm. DK or worsted (8 ply), 4 mm hook. Around 15 m of black per coaster.

Get the free On the Record coaster pattern.

5. Checkered Coasters, by Stuck on You Crochet

Checkerboard has been the dominant crochet aesthetic for about three years now and it works better at coaster scale than at blanket scale, where it takes forever.

This one uses tapestry crochet, meaning you carry the unused colour inside the stitches instead of cutting and rejoining. It is the technique that unlocks colourwork generally, and a coaster is the cheapest possible place to learn it. If you make a mess of your tension on the first one, you have wasted twenty minutes and ten metres of yarn.

The free pattern is a direct PDF download with no email wall, which I appreciated.

Beginner to intermediate. About 11 cm square. Worsted cotton in two colours, 4 mm hook.

Get the free Checkered Coasters pattern.

6. Seeing Stars Coasters, by EyeLoveKnots

Ten minutes each. That is the entire pitch and it is a good one.

Alexandra’s star is worked flat in one round of increasingly tall stitches, from half double up to double treble, which is what pushes the points out. There is no shaping to count and nothing to sew.

Because it is that fast, it is the pattern to reach for when you need six coasters by tomorrow evening. Change the colours and the same star reads as patriotic, or festive, or nautical, without changing a stitch.

The cup only actually sits on the middle 5.5 cm or so, so pair it with a mug rather than a wide tumbler.

Beginner. 10 cm point to point. Worsted cotton, 5 mm hook. About 11 m and 10 minutes each.

Get the free Seeing Stars Coasters pattern.

7. Mushroom Coaster, by PigeonPatternCrochet

Every coaster list needs one that is unapologetically cute, and the mushroom is the current champion of that category.

Abigail builds it in three parts. The cap is worked in rounds from a magic ring, the stem is worked flat in rows, and the white spots are made separately and sewn on as appliqué. That last step is what makes it forgiving. If a spot lands badly you unpick one seam rather than the whole cap.

It is the only pattern here that is a shape rather than a circle, so it does a different job on a table. It reads as decor first and coaster second.

Intermediate beginner. About 13 cm wide. Worsted cotton in red, white and tan, 4 mm hook. Around 45 minutes.

Get the free Mushroom Coaster pattern.

8. Textured Square Coaster, by Annie Design Crochet

Carmen’s coaster alternates single and double crochet across each row, which gives you a subtle woven texture from two stitches you already know.

What makes it useful is that it is written to be resized. The stitch repeat is simple enough that you can add rows and chains to turn the same pattern into a mug rug, a placemat, or a trivet, which is not true of most of the shaped patterns here.

There are optional corner tassels for a boho finish. I would leave them off for anything that goes under a hot drink and keep them for the decorative ones.

Worth noting that Carmen explicitly says acrylic is not recommended for this, which matches everything above.

Beginner. 12.5 cm square. DK cotton, 4 mm hook. Scraps only.

Get the free Square Coaster pattern.

9. Christmas Tree Coasters, by Crochet 365 Knit Too

I am putting a seasonal one in because September is exactly when you should start if you want a set finished by December.

Cheryl’s tree is not crocheted as a tree. You make a plain shape and then embroider the branches on in zigzags, which is why it looks hand-sketched rather than pixelated. Crocheted motifs are always a bit blocky at this scale, and the embroidery sidesteps that entirely.

The small gold star is deliberately set to overhang the top edge rather than sit inside it, which keeps the flat surface area free for an actual glass. That is a thoughtful detail and most novelty coasters get it wrong.

Allow more time than the crochet suggests. The embroidery is the slow part.

Beginner to intermediate. About 11.5 cm across. Worsted cotton in white, gold and green, 4 mm hook. Around 42 g of white for a set of four.

Get the free Christmas Tree Coasters pattern.

10. Coasters and Basket Set, by Crochet ‘n’ Create

The thing nobody tells you about making coasters is that after your third pattern you have fourteen of them and no idea where to keep them.

This set solves that. You get a 12.5 cm coaster and a matching 18 cm lidded basket to stack them in, worked in the same DK cotton so it reads as a deliberate set rather than a pile.

The basket is built the way most crochet baskets are, with a flat base and walls raised by working into back loops, so the sides stand up on their own without stiffening. The lid is separate.

This is the one to make if you are giving coasters as a gift. A stack of four in a basket is a present. Four loose coasters in tissue paper is a craft fair leftover.

Confident beginner. 12.5 cm coaster, 18 cm basket. DK cotton, 4.5 mm hook. Around 50 g per colour.

Get the free Coasters and Basket pattern.

How to pick one

If you have never made a coaster, make the flat circle first and learn where increases go.

If you want the fastest possible result, make the stars.

If you want something that will actually get used every day rather than admired and put away, make the granny square or the textured square. The flat, dense ones are the ones that survive.

If you are making a gift, make any of them and then make the basket.

And if you want the one that people ask about, it is the sunflower. I have watched that pattern out-perform everything else I publish for months, and I still think it is because a flower is the one shape that makes a functional object look like it was chosen rather than needed.

Frequently asked questions

What yarn is best for crochet coasters?

Worsted or DK weight cotton. It absorbs condensation, it handles the heat of a mug without flattening, and it survives being machine washed. Avoid acrylic, which repels water instead of absorbing it, and avoid wool, which felts in the wash.

How do I crochet a coaster for the first time?

Start with a flat circle worked from a magic ring in double crochet, increasing evenly each round and staggering where those increases fall. Four or five rounds gets you to mug size. Every pattern on this list is a variation on that one skill.

Why does my crochet coaster curl at the edges?

Almost always too few increases, which pulls the outer edge tighter than the middle and cups the whole thing. Add one more increase round, or go up a hook size. If it still curls, a quick steam block will flatten it permanently.

How big should a crochet coaster be?

Between 10 and 13 cm across. A standard mug base is about 7 cm, so 10 cm is the practical minimum and anything past 13 cm starts behaving like a mug rug or a small trivet.

Do crochet coasters need to be blocked?

Not strictly, but it helps. A light steam block flattens the stitches, evens out the edge and makes the coaster sit flush on the table. Ten seconds of hovering steam over a towel is enough for cotton.

Can I sell crochet coasters made from free patterns?

It depends on the designer, and you have to check each one. Several of the designers here explicitly allow selling finished items with credit and a link back to the pattern. Selling the pattern itself is never allowed.

Make one and show me

Coasters are the rare project where you can start after dinner and have a finished thing before bed, which makes them the best possible cure for a crochet slump.

If you make any of these, I would love to see it. Tag me, or save the pattern to Pinterest so you can find it again when you finally get round to it.

And if you only have time for one, start with the sunflower. It is the pattern this whole site was built on.