Everything about this pattern, before you pay for it
Most pattern listings tell you after. Here is the whole spec.
| What it is | A written crochet pattern, delivered as a PDF. The file itself is titled The Pumpkin Who Grins Under Your Mug. |
| What you make | A granny-square coaster with a pumpkin on its face: an orange circle of double crochet turned square in white, two orange side pieces for the pumpkin’s round cheeks, a yellow outline with two stitched yellow segment lines, a green stem on top and a black stitched smile. |
| Finished size | About 12 cm (4¾ in) square. |
| Hook | 3.0 mm — the only hook in the pattern. |
| Yarn | 5-ply combed cotton, about a DK weight, in five colours: orange for the circle and the side pieces, white for the square, yellow for the outline and the lines, and short lengths of green for the stem and black for the face. |
| Yarn needed | About 6 g (15 yd) of orange, 11 g (25 yd) of white and 2 g (5 yd) of yellow, plus a short length of green for the stem and about a metre of black for the face. |
| Time to make | About 1¼ hours. |
| Skill level | Confident beginner, which is what the pattern itself says: joined rounds, a granny square, working into free loops, and a little embroidery. |
| Techniques used | Magic ring · joined rounds, closing each one where it began · chain, slip stitch, single crochet, half double crochet and double crochet · the double crochet increase · several stitches into one stitch or one space · skipping stitches to open the spaces of a granny square · closing a round with a sewn join · crocheting into loops an earlier round left free · a single crochet worked through two layers at once · working into the back bump of a chain · changing colour for each new part · stitching lines and a face with a yarn needle · weaving in ends |
| Worked in | Joined rounds. Rounds 1 to 3 start with a stacked first stitch — ch 1, sc, ch 1 — which counts as a double crochet and leaves a far less visible seam than a chain. Rounds 4 to 6 start with ch 2, which does not count. Rounds 3 and 6 close with a sewn join instead of a slip stitch. |
| Number of pieces | One. |
| Numbered rounds | 6 — three for the circle, three for the square. The side pieces, the outline, the stem, the lines and the face are written out step by step instead. |
| Count checkpoints | Four: 36 stitches at the end of round 3; at the end of round 4, all 36 used with nine along each side; 3 groups a side at the end of round 5; 4 groups a side at the end of round 6. |
| The round that turns it square | Round 4 goes into the front loop of each round 3 stitch together with the strand just behind it, which leaves a loop of every round 3 stitch free round the edge of the circle — the side pieces and the outline go into those. Every side is written out: [dc, hdc], 2 hdc, 3 sc, 2 hdc, [hdc, dc]. |
| The side pieces | Two, one on each side of the circle, each 14 stitches worked across 9 of the free loops, rising from a single crochet to double crochets and back down. |
| The outline | One round of yellow single crochet all the way round the pumpkin. Eight of its stitches — three on each side piece, one at the top and one at the bottom — go through the white square behind as well, so the pumpkin’s edge cannot curl up. |
| The stem and the face | A short green stem crocheted into the top of the outline and anchored through the square. Two eyes and a dashed smile stitched in black; the pattern gives the stitches, and where they sit follows the photo. |
| The last round | A classic granny round: 4 groups of 3 double crochet along each side, and 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc at each corner. |
| Sewing | No pieces are sewn together. The two segment lines and the face are stitched with a yarn needle. |
| Also needed | One stitch marker, a blunt yarn needle and scissors. |
| Pages | 21 |
| Terminology | US crochet terms |
| Language | English |
| Left-handed | Written for you too. Work it exactly as written and your coaster comes out a mirror image of the photos. Two places read differently, and the pattern names both: in round 4 you count to the left rather than the right, and the side pieces start at the bottom left of the circle. |
| Delivery | Download link on the confirmation page and in your email, straight away. |
Counted twice
My grandmother taught me on her porch, and she said the same thing every time I tangled the yarn: slow down, count twice, rip it out if it’s wrong — there’s no shame in starting over.
So every pattern in this shop gets counted twice. Once when it’s written. Then again, before it goes on sale: every round is re-added, stitch by stitch, and checked against the round before it.
That’s the whole thing. It’s not clever. It is just the step almost nobody takes, because until a pattern is written down properly you can’t take it — and because nobody was ever asked to show their working.
I’m asking to show mine.
The worst thing a pattern does is not be difficult. It is to be wrong early, so that you find out several rounds later and spend the next twenty minutes wondering whether it was you. It usually wasn’t you. But you can’t tell, and that not-being-able-to-tell is the part that makes people put the hook down.
On this pumpkin, the likeliest place for that is round 5. Each side starts by skipping two stitches, and once the next group of three is in, those two are hidden — it is hard to tell afterwards whether you skipped them. So round 5 ends on a checkpoint: three groups of three double crochet between every pair of corners, and round 4 is still there underneath with its nine stitches a side to count back to.
Counted twice means you can tell. No more counting the same round for the third time, writing it out on paper to make it add up, and still not knowing whether it’s you or the pattern. The count in the pattern is right. If yours doesn’t match it, the slip is in the round you just made — undo that one round and carry on.
You probably have one project in a bag somewhere, stopped at a round you can still name. Often it stopped on a count that wouldn’t come out. Every count in this one comes out, which leaves you the part you came for: finishing it, and handing it to someone without an apology.
Here is a real page of it
A pattern that was never crocheted can show you a photograph. It cannot show you a page. 
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