Howdy everyone!
Today I am talkin’ donuts…not the sticky, calorie laden kind you eat, with or without guilt, but the plushy, comfy kind you can sit on.
The Giant Donut Floor Pouf was designed and written by Twinkie Chan and is part of a collection in the book Twinkie Chan’s Crocheted Abode a La Mode. Lion Brand yarn published the donut pattern free of charge on their website along with links to the Lion Brand Hometown USA and Vanna’s Choice yarns that were used in the pattern’s sample photo. One of the Lion Brand colours was discontinued so the pattern was removed from Lion Brand’s main pattern site. However, the original Lion Brand version of the pattern can be accessed here at the time of writing this post. If the link ever disappears, please contact me via one of my social media channels.
It is worth noting that this project does require a bit of an investment so expect to spend at least £45 on the materials per donut – excluding sprinkles. I used scrap yarn from my stash for the sprinkles so this saved me a little money.
The materials I used per pouf:
- 4 x 250gm bags of Trimits Supersoft Toy & Cushion Filling – the pattern calls for 900 gms. It was relatively firm but as you can see in the image below, over time, the filling has compacted and the donut flattened. If I were to do it over, I’d use more filling than the pattern calls for.
- King Cole Big Value Super Chunky Yarns – the base in Sand (5.5 skeins) and Champagne (.5 skein). I used 4 skeins for the frosting. Tip: If you use a different brand entirely, remember to compare the skein yards/meters/ounces/grams of the brand you want to use against the Lion Brand Hometown USA brand to ensure you’re purchasing the correct amounts. Amounts per skein can vary between brands.
- Sprinkles: Stylecraft Special Aran scraps in 7 different colours – for this I followed rainbow colours.
With projects like this, tension is super important – stitches have to be tight. Why? Loose stitches have quite a bit of give in them compared to tighter stitches. As the donut is stuffed, gaps between stitches widen allowing the filling to be visible. Over time and use, the yarn will to continue to stretch and the appearance of the filling could become more pronounced. Tip: Yarn under instead of yarn over helps makes a tighter stitch. I use a strip of medical tape over the place on my finger the yarn travels to stop friction irritation that can be caused by the increased tension.
Durability – our poufs have been in constant use since I made them in April 2017. They have become rather pancake like but the yarn has held up very well. The one element I was a little concerned about standing the test of time were the sprinkles. They’ve done brilliantly.
How the pouf looks today, 16 months after it was originally made.
Like it’s maker, the pouf has shrunk and spread out. The kids still love and use the donuts, stacking them to get the height they want for comfortable seating at the coffee table. My husband also uses them – as a footrest or laptop stand.
Not afraid to go off piste, the next set of donuts I made were no exception. As a ‘thank you for having us in your home for a month’ gift, I made three poufs for our hosts. To help the poufs last a while in a home that also had dogs as well as kiddos, I sewed crocheted star shaped sprinkles because they were flat and less likely to get caught on anything (e.g. doggy teeth or nails) and pulled. The star shape is based on the Teeny Tiny Stars pattern by Lucy of Attic24.
I forgot to take pictures of the finished projects…so all I’ve got are pictures of them as wips. These needed to be packed in carry on luggage for their trip from the UK to the USA. I stuffed them once we arrived.
The ‘frosting’ represents the favourite colour of the recipients – their dad gave me the colours so these donuts are are a little unusual.
Goosberry might be a good flavour for this frosting…
Cherry…
This red was a tricky one for me to link a flavour to. I suppose we can call it Tomato – a pizza donut without the cheese. 🙂
The pattern was easy to follow though if you’ve never crocheted in the round before, it would be a good idea to practice this pattern on a smaller scale using scrap yarns. The pattern is in USA terms. The stitches are SC (single crochet/double for UK), BLO (back loop only), FLO (front loop only) and whipstitch. Stitch markers are helpful in keeping track of the end of rounds should you need to frog. The pattern includes a few images to guide the crocheter.
This fantastic diagram was published on the blog Crochet 365 and Knit Too. I refer to regularly. It clearly shows the Front Loop for FLO and Back Loop for BLO stitches that are used when joining the frosting to the base of the donut.
Would love to see your donuts so do share them with me via one of my social media channels – they are listed towards the bottom of the Privacy page. In the meantime, hope y’all have a lovely, colourful, yarny day!
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