Knit a kaleidoscope of butterflies in beautiful colors with this butterfly coaster knitting pattern. Absorbent mercerized cotton yarn has a beautiful sheen and comes in so many colors. Knit the butterfly wings in garter stitch intarsia, then add simple embroidery for the body and antennae.
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The Yarn
Cotton yarn is best for coasters because of its absorbancy. Tahki Cotton Classic (100% cotton, 1.75 oz [50 g], 108 yd [100 m]) is a beautiful mercerized cotton that comes in delicious colors. It’s hard to choose, but since we are talking about butterflies, you can use as many colors as you like!
It only takes about 20 yards [18 m] of the main color, 15 yards [14 m] of the contrasting colors, and a few yards of the body color for each coaster. I used #3716 Spring Green for the background, and #3803 Sky Blue and #3814 Light Teal for the butterfly wings. The body and antennae are embroidered with #3002 Black. Or just small amounts of yarn left over from other projects. It’s a great stashbuster.
The Pattern
This tech-edited Butterfly Coaster pattern is appropriate for intermediate knitters. It uses the intarsia technique in garter stitch, and there are links to video tutorials for the techniques you’ll need for the project.
Intarsia is a knitting technique that uses separate blocks of color, rather than stranded yarns. You’ll need to wind off several small balls of yarn for the separate color sections. I like to use yarn “butterflies” for intarsia work. Read How to Wind A Yarn Butterfly for more information.
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