Crochet Scale Pouch Pattern

I recently made another big order from The Ring Lord, and decided to splurge on some scales planning to use them in crochet. Haven't done that yet. These are small aluminum tags from The Ring Lord. They come about 500 to a bag which is enough to make 2 of these little pouches which would be excellent for a small amount of dice or as a little bag to tie to a belt to hold money at a Ren Faire. Look under Blanks and Tags.

You will need:

• Size 10 crochet cotton
• Size 5 crochet hook 
• Scissors
• Tapestry needle to weave in ends
• 1 package of small aluminum tags from The Ring Lord- I used Frost

Start by stringing 225 tags on the thread. These are crocheted in as you go. If you don't want to count 225 tags, count 25, measure that, and string on a bit over 9 times that number in length. Because of the large hole in these tags (large by the standards of a beader who's done a lot of dental floss bead threading on crochet cottons) you can actually just put the tapestry needle on the thread and string them directly on. Unwind a bit of thread and push them down the crochet thread and rewind it on the ball.

Stitches-

dc= double crochet

sc=single crochet

tagged sc= single crochet with a tag

ch= chain 

sl st= slip stitch

st or sts= stitch or stitches

repeat ** around = Repeat what is between the asterisks until you get to the starting stitch of the round.

tagged sc= insert hook in stitch, yarn over, pull loop through stitch, leaving two loops on the hook. Slide tag up the thread to the stitch, yarn over, pull thread through both loops. 

Quick note on starting rounds- I don't like using chains to start single crochet rounds. They aren't the same size as a single crochet, and I prefer the look of a tight ch, then single crochet in that stitch. Generally it's not a big deal if you do it the way you are used to doing it for my patterns, but in this case, it's essential to do that way because the tags are set up to alternate columns which means some rounds start with a tagged single crochet. For starting dc rounds, I generally do 1 tight single crochet and 2 normal single crochets. If you prefer starting DC rounds differently, do them the way you prefer.

Base of pouch:

Round 1: Ch 4, 9 dc in starting ch, sl st to 4th ch to join. (10 dc)

Round 2: Ch 3(counts as first dc), dc in same stitch, 2 dc in each st around, sl st to 3rd ch to join. (20 dc)

Round 3: Ch 3(counts as first dc), 2 dc in next st, *1 dc in next st, 2 dc in next st* , repeat ** around, sl st in 3rd ch to join. (30 dc)

Round 4: Ch 3(counts as first dc), dc in next stitch, 2 dc in next stitch, *dc in next st, dc in next st, 2 dc in next st*, repeat ** around, sl st to 3rd ch to join. (40 stitches)

Round 5: Ch 3(counts as first dc), dc in next st, dc in next st, 2 dc in next st, *dc in next st, dc in next st, dc in next st, 2 dc in next st*, repeat ** around, sl st to 3rd ch to join (50 dc)

Scale part of the pouch:

The scales are offest by one column, and have one plain row between them. This diagram shows the placement as an example.

Round 6: Ch 1 (does not count as first st), sc in same stitch, sc in each stitch around, sl st to first st to join.

Round 7: Ch 1 (does not count as first st), sc in same stitch, tagged sc in next stitch, *sc in next st, tagged sc in next st*, repeat ** around, sl st to first stitch to join

Round 8: Repeat round 6.

Round 9: Ch 1 (does not count as first st), tagged sc in same stitch, sc in next stitch, *tagged sc in next st, sc in next st*, repeat ** around, sl st to first stitch to join. 

Repeat Rounds 6-9  3 times 

Round 17- repeat round 6

Round 18- repeat round 7

Round 19- repeat round 6

Scales done!

Top of pouch:

Round 20: ch 3, dc in each stitch around, sl st to 3rd ch to join. 

Rounds 21-24: repeat round 20

Round 25: ch 3, dc in next st, ch 3, skip 3 sts, *dc in next st, dc in next st, ch 3*, repeat ** around, sl st to 3rd ch to join.

Round 26: ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st to join.

Make 2 cords and weave them through row 25. You can either chain cords, use ribbons or make monk's cord. My example uses monk's cord. 

The technique is easy, and if you want a bigger pouch, just plan accordingly. So if you went with a base that was 80 stitches around, you would need 40 tags per scale row, and you'd want more rows of them probably. 

Oh, this has nothing to do with the crochet project, but The Ring Lord also has rings of course and kits! One of the things I ordered was the juggling ball kit for my son and he made this lovely set of juggling balls for Michael for Father's Day! The instructions are well written, and the project itself is no-sew. 

Made With Love Tags

The image above can be used in your office software and is 2.625 inches wide by 1 inch tall . Click on the image for the full sized version. For a full sheet to be printed on plain paper and glued to packages or on card stock and used with a hole punch and tied on items, click the image below. I'll be make a few more over the next few days. Do you think I should make a pillow box to match? How about black and white labels that can be colored by hand?

Snowflake tags and boxes

I did these in 300 ppi and pdf format, so they will take a couple minutes to download, but I hope you think it's worth it. I think these would look lovely accented with a little glitter.

You can download the pdf with the 2 inch tags, 12 on one page HERE

The box pdf has both colors on it, it's 2 pages, but you can print just one by selecting which page in your printer dialogue. You can download that HERE

The picture isn't really that good to see the detail of the tags. This is an example of one of them. Click on the image to see it in better detail. On your monitor it will show bigger than 2 inches, but it is a 2 inch tag in the pdf.

 

There are 2 each of 3 different snowflakes in 2 colorways for a total of 12 tags. 

I used a 2 inch circle punch to cut them out.

For lots of free Christmas printables, check out my Christmas printables page which has ornament boxes and gift boxes.

Elegant Bat Design Labels and Tags

These are in PDF format at 300 dpi so they print out very nicely. I used a 2 inch circle punch to punch out the circle tags, and then a 1/8 inch hole punch to punch holes to slide a lollipop stick through. But you don't have to use them for lollipops. The lollipops are YummyEarth Organic Vitamin C pops which both my teens love.

My prints are done on TerraCycle's coffee paper which has a nice stained look to it naturally.

You can download the rectangle labels here and the circle tags here.

PDFs in Open Office and Snowflake Tags

Most of my printables are at 100 dpi, which makes them nice and web friendly, but when I want to do something with more detail and still have it be web friendly, I create pdf files. It does make bigger files though since the images are so much more detailed so I don't do it often.
You can use all sorts of options to create pdfs for free or low cost. You can use Primo PDF which works a lot like a printer. You install it, then when you have your document or image all set up the way you want, you "print" it and choose Primo PDF as your printer. It's a fast easy option, but it does have some limitations.
I like Open Office, it's completely free and very easy to use. It's what my husband has been using for all his word processing for years.

To create something like my circle tags, first I draw the tags and save them in .bmp format so they will look exactly how I want them to. My circle tags are meant to be cut out with a 2 inch circle punch, so I create my graphics at 300 dpi in 2.10 inch circles so there is a little room for not centering it perfectly.
Time for a little math. The default width for an open office document is about 7 inches. My tags are 2.1 inches. 7/2.1= 3.33(and some change, close enough) which means I have room for 3 columns of tags. If you were making 1x1 inch squares to use for Scrabble pendants and other things you can use inchies for, you'd want at least .25 inch border on all sides, so 7/1.5= 4.66 so 4 columns.
Open OpenOffice Writer which is the word processing program, and go to format/columns

Select 3 columns, and just let it go with the equal widths.

Go to Insert/Picture/From File and insert your image. Click under the image and insert the next one. Continue doing that until that column is full and in the case of my tags,I had just enough room at the bottom to put some text in.
Hit the return key once or twice to get to the top of next column, and fill that one in too.

That's the bottom of my document. The gray lines will NOT be in the finished pdf. They are just guidelines so you can see where the columns are. You can save your template, but it's so quick to set up columns I don't.
When your happy with your layout,save your file so you can adjust it later if you want then go to File/Export as PDF.

Choose lossless compression to keep your graphics very clear.

Pick the name and where you want to save you pdf, and you're done. Do your test print off the pdf, and you can upload or email or sell the pdf as you please.
Open Office is free for any application. If you want to use it for business you don't have to buy a license, and it's ad-free.
You can download the snowflake tags I used as an example HERE and matching printable paper HERE
I hope you find this tutorial helpful.

Flower Circle Tags

Right click and choose save target as the PDF file HERE, which has 4 of each design, the wild roses, forget-me-nots and daisies. They are 300 dpi and print out beautifully.
I used a 2 inch circle punch to cut them out. First I cut the 3 strips of tags so the edges were close enough to fit in my punch, then turned my punch over to get the design centered, there is some bleed so you've got a bit of leeway.
You can either use double sided tape to stick them to things, or you can use a regular sized hole punch to punch a hole in them tie them to things.
I've already got some ideas for Halloween tags, but that's still a bit off!

The earrings in the picture- I posted a similar pattern to the alien pair with a tutorial on beading in brick stitch here. You can buy the cherry pie and chocolate covered strawberry patterns in my Etsy shop here for 5.00 USD, and the pattern set includes the 2 pairs shown, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream cones, and lollipops.