Cottino: Party Chains
These Party Chains are an exclusive pattern designed with Cottino yarn, my newest collaboration with Lion Brand. Learn more about it here.
Make it a handmade celebration with these festive crochet party chains! Fun and quick to work up, these will add a hefty dose of whimsy to any event or just as everyday decoration. Each skein of Cottino is enough to make 20 chains, so with five colors you can make 100. Scroll down for the free pattern, purchase a printer-friendly PDF of the Party Chains pattern, or purchase the kit with all the Cottino yarn you’ll need!
I’m super big on using yarn for holiday decor, and I often feel the house is a bit lonely at the end of the season when I take it down. Enter these Party Chains—they are the perfect way to celebrate any event or simply decorate a bedroom or nursery. I picture these in favorite color combos, sports teams colors, rainbow order, you name it! And with the vast array of hues in the new Cottino palette of 24, you’ll be able to find everything you’re looking for.
When I was right in the middle of designing these over the NY Sheep & Wool event weekend back in October, I was hanging out with my friend ChiWei from One Dog Woof and she pulled out her current WIP which by some wild coincidence happened to also be a garland of crochet chains! She had been documenting all of the books she had read that year, using scraps from her stash to crochet each chain in the same colors as the books’ covers. How fun is that!? It gave me the idea to use these chains to commemorate something over the course of a period of time. Maybe crochet chains are the new temperature blanket!?
What I love about this pattern is that it’s completely beginner friendly and it’s so easy to customize. Want your chains to be fatter/wider? Add some rows to them .Want them to be closer together? Use fewer stitches. This is really a base pattern for you to run with and make it your own! Each chain is worked modularly in a join-as-you-go fashion, so there’s no seaming. These were so much fun and meditative to make I actually had to force myself to stop so I could start another project!
This is a beginner level crochet pattern and the techniques involved are single crochet, slip stitch, and working in joined, turned rounds.
MATERIALS
1 skein each Lion Brand Cottino in colors Sailor (614-110AZ), Poppy (614-133BK), Wisteria (614-144T), Turmeric (614-158T), and Powder (614-105BM)
*Each skein of Cottino is enough to make 20 chains, so with five colors you can make 100.
(DK, weight 3; 296yds/270m per 3.5oz/100g skein)
GAUGE
19 sts + 14 rows = 4”/10cm* in half double crochet
*Gauge was achieved by hand soaking and machine drying the swatch on the lowest tumble dry setting. See finishing instructions for more information.
FINISHED DIMENSIONS
Each chain:
Width: 1.5”/4cm
Circumference: 6.5”/16.5cm
ABBREVIATIONS
*All Two of Wands patterns are written in standard US terms.
Ch(s) – chain(s)
Hdc – half double crochet
Rep – repeat
Rnd(s) – round(s)
Sl st – slip stitch
St(s) – stitch(es)
Notes: Each chain is worked seamlessly in turned rounds. After the first chain, subsequent chains will be joined in the round around the previous chain before working the first round in order to connect them. Assign each color a letter A, B, C, D, and E and work the chains in that order.
PATTERN
Chain 1:
Ch 30, then being careful not to twist, sl st to the 1st ch to join in the rnd.
Rnd 1: Ch 1, hdc around, sl st to 1st hdc to join. (30 sts)
Turn here and at the end of each rnd.
Rnds 2-5: Ch 1, and working into the sl st that joined the previous rnd 1st, hdc around, sl st to 1st hdc to join.
Fasten off. Use an invisible join to finish.
Secure and weave in all ends.
Chain 2 and all following chains:
Ch 30, then being careful not to twist, loop the ch around the previous completed chain and sl st to the 1st ch to join in the rnd.
Work as for chain 1 through rnd 5.
Fasten off. Use an invisible join to finish.
Secure and weave in all ends.
Continue for as many chains needed to reach the desired length.
FINISHING
I didn’t find it necessary to block these finished chains as they are to be used as decoration, but should you need to launder them, you should wash the work in the same manner used to block the swatch to ensure the finished dimensions match the gauge. I generally prefer to machine dry superwash merino as the fiber was developed for this type of care and it will stretch immensely and be more cumbersome to lay flat to dry. Machine drying allows the fibers to bounce back and will give the fabric better stitch definition and squish. At the very least, I recommend machine drying for 10 or so minutes on the lowest tumble dry setting before air drying for the remainder of the time if machine drying for the full cycle is intimidating.
Purchase the printable, ad-free pattern here.
Purchase the kit from Lion Brand here.
Don't forget to share your projects made using Two of Wands patterns on Instagram with the hashtag #crewofwands to get featured on my page and be in the running for monthly pattern giveaways!
Join the Crew of Wands Facebook group to connect with other makers of Two of Wands patterns for help with techniques and pattern related questions.
The patterns and photographs of items on this site are the property of Two of Wands and are for personal, non-commercial use only. These patterns files are protected by US copyright, and you may not distribute or sell them electronically or physically. Small batch sales of finished pieces made from these patterns are permitted, but seller must use their own photographs and credit must be given to Two of Wands as the designer.
