Crochet Coconut & Crochet Strawberry - Crochet Tropical Fruit Series

 Crochet Tropical Fruit

This week I want to introduce you to new theme I have been working on.   The UK had a mini heatwave over the last week or so and this has been the source of my inspiration - Tropical Fruit.   Nothing screams summer quite as much as Tropical Fruit - drinking it or eating it and so in preparation for summer I felt we needed some Crochet Tropical Fruit in our house.

You may remember I made Stella the cuddly Strawberry for Oliver last year and you can find her pattern here.   But I wanted to expand on this a little further.   I didn't have in mind that they should have arms and legs, but rather be as realistic looking as possible, but still really cute and fun to play with, which is why they have faces.

Over the next 5 weeks, I will bring you two of my Tropical Fruit patterns in both written and video tutorial formats.   Each week will be a bigger fruit and a quick smaller one.   The larger fruit shouldn't take more than 2 hours to make, whilst the smaller one is really a quick 30 minute project.   I hope that you enjoy these patterns and they put you in the summer mood if you haven't already been enjoying some summer sunshine.

Crochet Coconut - Claire

So this week I want to introduce to you Claire the Crochet Coconut and Sarah the crochet Strawberry.    Claire is the bigger pattern and is made in 4 parts that are crocheted together.   It was actually an advert with someone drinking from a coconut that had the top chopped off, showing only 3/4 of the coconut.    I really liked this idea and so I wanted to create a coconut who had a removable top and was hollow inside so it could be filled with other fruit and used as a drink container too.   However, I also wanted the top of the coconut too, to allow you to see a complete coconut.  So the top is attached part of the way as a flap to either open or close the coconut.

It turns out the Crochet Coconut is the favourite of the kids and when I had only created my first coconut there were many arguments over which one of them would take the coconut to bed.   Its just as well I make more than one of these toys during the design process as they now both have their own coconut to play with.   They really do seem to enjoy putting things inside it and closing it up.

Claire shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours to make.   She requires less than 100g of each brown & white Simple Aran by Paintbox* so you will have plenty  left to make another coconut or some of the other fruits in the Tropical Fruit Series.

You can find the written below & video tutorial for Claire the crochet Coconut here.

Claire Coconut

 1.  Materials and Resources

Below is a list of everything you will need to make this hat

·        Paintbox Simply Aran – 100g balls in any colours you choose – I used the following colours;

o   Coffee Bean  (210)

o   Paper white (200)

o   Small amount of black for mouth 

·        2 x 10mm safety eyes

·        stuffing

·        4mm hook

·        Tapestry needle

·        Scissors

·        Stitch marker

 

2.   Stitch List

Below is a list of all the stitches (and their abbreviations) featured in this series of patterns.  All terms used are American.

·        Sc – single crochet

·        Ch – chain

·        Sc inc – sc increase

·        Sc dec – sc decrease (invisible kind)

·        m/c – magic circle

·        sl st – slip stitch

 

3.  Notes

Here are a few handy tips to help you with the pattern.

·        Gauge – no specific gauge required but you need to work as tightly as possible to avoid stuffing showing through.

 

4.  Pattern

Coconut Inside – in white

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	6 sc in m/c	6
2	(sc inc) x 6	12
3	(sc, sc inc) x 6	18
4	(2 sc, sc inc) x 6	24
5	(3 sc, sc inc) x 6	30
6	(4 sc, sc inc) x 6	36
7	(5 sc, sc inc) x 6	42
8	(6 sc, sc inc) x 6	48
9-17	Sc around	48
18	(6 sc, sc dec) x 6	42
19	(5 sc, sc dec) x 6	36
20	(4 sc, sc dec) x 6	30
	Turn inside out
21	In b/l sc around	30
22	(4 sc, sc inc) x 6	36
23	(5 sc, sc inc) x 6	42
24	(6 sc, sc inc) x 6	48
	Sl st and cast off

 

Coconut Outside – in Brown

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	6 sc in m/c	6
2	(sc inc) x 6	12
3	(sc, sc inc) x 6	18
4	(2 sc, sc inc) x 6	24
5	(3 sc, sc inc) x 6	30
6	(4 sc, sc inc) x 6	36
7	(5 sc, sc inc) x 6	42
8	(6 sc, sc inc) x 6	48
9	(7 sc, sc inc) x 6	54
10	(8 sc, sc inc) x 6	60
11-18	Sc around	60
	Add eyes between rows 16 & 17 6 stitches apart
19	(8 sc, sc dec) x 6	54
20	(7 sc, sc dec) x 6, turn work	48
21	Insert inside of coconut inside the outside of coconut and sc the white and brown together using brown Stuff the bottom and sides lightly when you are ¾ way round sc both pieces together	48

 

Coconut Top – make 2, 1 in Brown & 1 in white

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	6 sc in m/c	6
2	(sc inc) x 6	12
3	(sc, sc inc) x 6	18
4	(2 sc, sc inc) x 6	24
5	(3 sc, sc inc) x 6	30
6	(4 sc, sc inc) x 6	36
7	(5 sc, sc inc) x 6	42
8	(6 sc, sc inc) x 6	48
9	Now place the two pieces wrong sides together and sc them together in brown	48
10	With brown side facing up, place top over coconut and sl st top to main coconut directly opposite the eyes for about 20 stitches	20

 ·        Sew a mouth centrally under the eyes in black.

Crochet Strawberry - Sarah

Alongside Claire is the smaller Tropical Fruit pattern released this week, Sarah the crochet Strawberry and she shouldn't take you more than about 30 mins to an hour to complete.  You can make Sarah in scrap aran yarn in red, green and yellow if you have them lying around.

Sarah is made in one continuous piece with the leaves and spots added on at the end.    She also uses minimal stuffing and 10mm safety eyes if you have them, or you can sew them on like I did if you don't.   Sarah the Crochet Strawberry also perfectly fits inside of Claire the Coconut if you wanted a coconut & strawberry drink.

You can find the written below & video tutorial for Sarah the crochet Strawberry.

Sarah Strawberry

 1.  Materials and Resources

Below is a list of everything you will need to make this hat

·        Paintbox Simply Aran – 100g balls in any colours you choose – I used the following colours;

o   Rose Red (213)

o   Grass Green (229)

o   Small amount of yellow for spots

o   Small amount of black for mouth 

·        2 x 10mm safety eyes

·        stuffing

·        4mm hook

·        Tapestry needle

·        Scissors

·        Stitch marker

 

2.   Stitch List

Below is a list of all the stitches (and their abbreviations) featured in this series of patterns.  All terms used are American.

·        Sc – single crochet

·        Ch – chain

·        Sc inc – sc increase

·        Sc dec – sc decrease (invisible kind)

·        m/c – magic circle

·        sl st – slip stitch

3.  Notes

Here are a few handy tips to help you with the pattern.

·        Gauge – no specific gauge required but you need to work as tightly as possible to avoid stuffing showing through.

 

4.  Pattern

Strawberry – in red

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	6 sc in m/c	6
2	(sc inc) x 6	12
3-4	Sc around	12
5	(sc, sc inc) x 6	18
6	Sc around	18
7	(3 sc, sc inc) x 6	24
8-10	Sc around	24
11	(2 sc, sc dec) x 6	18
	Add eyes between rows 9 & 10, 5 stitches apart
12	(sc, sc dec) x 6	12
	Stuff
13	(sc dec) x 6	6
	Switch to Green
14-15	Sc around	6
	Cast off and sew shut

 Strawberry Leaves – in green

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	Sl st to any stitch at the base of the green ( round 14) & [(ch 5, sk 2 ch, sl st into next ch, sc in last 2 ch and then sl st into starting stitch from round 14.) [Sl st into the next stitch and rep ( to ).]   Repeat [ to ] 5 more times.	6 leaves
	Cast off and sew in ends

 

·        Sew a mouth centrally under the eyes in black.

·        Sew spots in yellow around strawberry

 

I hope that you have enjoyed the first part of my Crochet Tropical Fruit Series with Claire the Crochet Coconut & Sarah the Crochet Strawberry.   Have fun making them and please feel free to share your makes on my Social Media channels.   Join me next week for the next Tropical Fruit pair - Lawrence Lemon & Lee Lime.

See you next week,

Vicky x

 

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