Curious and Crafty Readers

Please visit Crochet Insider to find instructions for a bright doily made with flowers from Crochet Bouquet!

I tried several ways to put the flowers together, as you can see from the test pieces here.

I settled on the doughnut-shaped mat.

Why a doughnut shape? Because the many different types and textures of yarn make the surface of the mat uneven. The hole in the middle is so you can nestle in your vase or bowl, with no worries about it being wobbly!

Our part of Texas is dairy country and we frequently laugh (in a resigned sort of way) about the “dairy air.” Now that the weather is heating up for summer, we have lots of flies.

When I am sleeping and a fly lands on my nose, or when the cats’ food is covered with the nasty little beasts, my mind turns to the lovely sundew. It is a carnivorous plant that lives in moister climes. I dream of a small field of sundews, plump with flies, while we enjoy a fly-free existence.

Our June crochet-along is the flower, Circles Within Circles (pages 22-23 of Crochet Bouquet). Why? Because it reminds me of a sundew. And my fervent hope is that hundreds of crocheters, crocheting sundew-like flowers from my book, will create a vortex of sundew energy that will keep the flies away from us this summer. Hey—it’s worth a try!

To make the perfect Circles Within Circles, finish with a needle-join, described on page 14 of Crochet Bouquet. It’s a great technique for any occasion where you have to join a round of crochet.

Susan, a reader from North Texas, asked for help interpreting the Gazania instructions on pages 54-56 of Crochet Bouquet. I’m glad she did, because now I have an excuse to show you a piece that inspired elements of the Gazania and other flowers in the book.

First, Susan’s question:

I am trying to follow your Gazania pattern and am utterly frustrated by Rnd 3. You say to work around posts…

The best I can guess is that one should start with the yarn on top of the work, not behind as usual. (It would be useful to have specific direction on how to join for this situation.) In the first case, apparently one should work the first sc (around the post) toward the center of the flower, followed by the next post-surrounding sc going toward the petal.

Susan worked the problem out correctly on her own, in the italicized sentence above. The only tip I would add is to fold the piece so that double-crochet post you are to crochet around will be at the top. Crochet around it as if it were part of the row which continues up the side of the petal.

To begin Round 3 of the Gazania, start with a slip knot around your hook. Insert the hook around the dc (or under it if you have folded the piece), draw up a loop, then yarn over and draw the yarn through both loops on hook, as if you were making a regular sc.

She writes further:

Then you have to move the yarn away and force it in back of the work to proceed around the petal. Going between petals it seems necessary to take the yarn with you on top of the work and then back to the edge for the next petal.

I wouldn’t say that you have to “force” the yarn to the back of the work to proceed around the petal. The thread always comes out of the last stitch you crocheted. Keep going and hook the thread from wherever it is.

The pattern tells you to finish with a needle join (explained in the front of the book). The needle join finishes the row so that you can’t tell where the first stitch and last stitch are. It’s worth the trouble.

Now to the inspiration! This vintage crochet hot pad begins with a filet crochet base. The squiggles are double crochet stitches that stand up, perpendicular to the file foundation. The standing double crochets are worked around the stems of the stitches below, and around the chain stitches that complete the filet squares. You could call this “surface crochet.”

Here’s the back or bottom of the piece. You can see the threads at the base of each dc, going around the uprights and cross pieces of the filet crochet foundation.

I looked at this little piece from time to time while I was developing patterns for Crochet Bouquet, wondering how I could apply the technique to a crocheted flower.

The Gazania is one of the results of studying the old piece of crochet. Round 3 is crocheted on the surface toward the middle of the flower, and then it changes to a regular round, worked into the tops of the stitches of Round 2 as you go around the petals.

Here’s the back of the Gazania, and you can see the threads at the base of each sc that was worked onto the surface of the flower. One of the sc-covered dc’s has a white ring around it, so you can see it better. See how it has the same look as the stitch-covered filet foundation on the hot pad?

There are twelve such covered stitches in the Gazania: you crochet outward on six of them, and back toward the center on the other six.

In less than a month, the Estes Park Wool Market will be in full swing with two days of workshops and two days of shopping. It’s a beautiful venue, with the Rocky Mountains in the distance. The weather is perfect for wearing sweaters.

During the market, I will be signing copies of Crochet Bouquet in Suzanne Correira’s Fire Ant Ranch booth. Look for the flower ponchos, as in the photo above.

I’ll be teaching workshops there, too. There’s still time to sign up for classes! If you mail your registration form before Friday, May 22, you will avoid the late fee. So send in your registrations today! Here is the brochure and registration form.

May I recommend my workshop? It is called “Style and Shape Knitting with Pleats and Darts.” We’ll make at least three different kinds of pleats, including these pleats which look great on sleeves. You can use them to enhance other parts of your garments, too. We’ll talk about this and brainstorm together to come up with great ideas for how to use pleats.

We’ll also discuss how to incorporate knitted pleats into garments, as design details or as major garment shaping. We’ll discuss how to deal with the extra weight. We’ll practice ways to figure out the number of sts you need for a pleated item.

Darts make sweaters fit better, and lucky us! We can knit darts right into our sweaters. I’ll show you how to measure and calculate darts, and how to knit them using short rows.

Every now and then you don’t know you need a dart until you’ve already finished the sweater. Never fear! You can cut a dart into your sweater. To see a cut-out dart in progress, have a look at this post.

There is homework, so be sure and read the brochure closely. Hope to see you there!

“Primrose Layers” (pp. 90-91 of Crochet Bouquet) is our May 2009 Crochet Along flower. It’s a lovely Mother’s Day flower, too, if you are crocheting for your mother who lives in the USA.

In England, Mothering Sunday is in March. When we lived in England, my little family celebrated in March with the rest of the country. Then my husband and I hoped we would remember to phone our own mothers in the US in May.

When do other countries celebrate their mothers?

In Crochet Bouquet, ‘Primrose Layers’ is shown with all three layers sewn together. You can also use the layers separately.

Here are step-by-step photos showing how to crochet the Primrose petals.

Once you have made the central ring of the flower, chain the number of stitches indicated in the pattern for the size of primrose you want. Crochet back along the chain, toward the center ring.

Turn and work almost to the end of the row you just finished. You’ll be crocheting away from the center on this row. The turning chain is longer than usual.

Crochet into the chain itself as instructed in the pattern, and then you’ll be back to crocheting on top of the sts of the previous row.

Attach the petal to the center ring, and you’re ready to chain for the next petal.

The beautiful 100% wool, hand-painted yarn in the yellow-orange and red sample is from Fiber Fanatic in Denton, Texas (e-mail: fiberfanatic@hotmail.com). The yellow cotton is Cascade Yarns’s Pima Tencel, which is lovely to work with. The single Primrose Layers in pink and ecru are made from Merino Tape by Colinette.

Lynn, a Crochet Bouquet reader from Hawaii, asked for help with the Fern pattern (pages 110-111).

I am really enjoying your Crochet Bouquet book!

But I need your assistance for the fern pattern. I cannot understand the instructions/how are the clusters created? Do I work both sides of the chain?

Then I get lost when it says chain 5 and repeat the whole thing again/

Thank you and Aloha,
Lynn

I wrote back, telling her how the fern is constructed. Then I made a suggestion that will help any time you are confused by the jumble of symbols and abbreviations in a crochet or knitting pattern:

I know there are lots of words in the instructions. Maybe it would help if you copied out the instructions into lines where you could see everything better, and leave out some of the informational words. This is what I mean:

Lower Leaflets:

* Ch 3
sl st-picot
(ch 2, sl st-picot) 2 times
sl st-picot 2 times
(sl st in next 2 ch, sl st-picot) 2 times
sl st in next 3 ch
ch 5
Repeat from * 2 more times.

You can write out the “Next to Top Leaflet” and the “Top” and so on, in the same way.

So why are crochet (and knitting) instructions printed all crowded and condensed in books and magazines? Because readers, authors, editors, and publishers like to have as many designs in a book as possible.

Look at it this way: copying out instructions from time to time is a small price to pay for more patterns. Lace knitters have been doing this for years, even going so far as to write out each row on an index card. When all the cards for one pattern are written, they punch a hole in one corner of each card, bind with a ring, and Voila! A flip chart for the pattern!

Lynn’s story ended happily. She made a perfect Fern Leaf and sent me this photo. Beautiful!

Here in north-central Texas, our daffodils bloomed in late February. They were beautiful while they lasted–a bright splash of yellow in the brown winter landscape.

Even though our daffodils bloom early, they are always associated with Easter in my mind. Maybe it’s because of my German heritage. In my mother’s Frankenwaeldlerisch dialect, daffodils are called Osterglocken = Easter bells. In the pretty Easter books and cards from my German grandmother, the Easter eggs always had daffodils around them.

Let’s crochet daffodils and narcissi in April. They’re on pages 51-52 of Crochet Bouquet. Check the corrections page (see sidebar). The frill around the top of the daffodil’s trumpet should be crocheted into the BACK loops only (rnd 5).

The photo shows the Daffodils and Narcissi from Crochet Bouquet, against a background of long, thin leaves. They’re very easy to figure out on your own, but in case you would rather have a pattern, here you go:

Long, Solid Crocheted Leaf

Crochet a chain the desired length of the leaf plus 2 ch. Working in the back bump of the chain, sl st in third ch from hook. For best-looking results, work into the back bump of the chain for any of the following leaves.

Narrow Leaf: sc 1 in each remaining ch st. End off.

Medium Leaf: sc 2, then hdc 1 in each remaining ch st. End off.

Wide Leaf: sc 2, hdc 2, then dc 1 in each remaining ch st. End off.

Long, Open Leaf

Open meshes make this leaf more delicate than its close relative, the Long, Solid Leaf. Use both styles in a grouping to give it depth. Twist the leaves or fold down the tips of the leaves to make them look natural.

Chain an odd number of sts to the desired length of the leaf, plus 2 ch. Working in the back bump of the chain, sl st in third ch from hook. For best-looking results, work into the back bump of the chain for any of the following leaves.

Narrow Leaf: * ch 1, sk 1 st, sc in next st * Rep bet *s to end of chain. End off.

Medium Leaf: ch 1, sk 1 st, sc in next st. * ch 1, sk 1 st, hdc in next st * Rep bet *s to end of chain. End off.

Wide Leaf: ch 1, sk 1 st, sc in next st, ch 1, sk 1 st, hdc in next st. * ch 1, sk 1 st, dc in next st * Rep bet *s to end of chain. End off.

Tip: when you use fuzzy, loopy, or very bumpy yarns, don’t bother to crochet into the back bump of the chain. Novelty yarn obscures the stitches, so it isn’t worth the extra trouble.

The Roses Poncho is done! I wore it at Stitches West, and many people gave me compliments on it. Thank you!

It is made with Oval Center Roses, Rose Leaves, and Simple Fives, all of which are in Crochet Bouquet. They’re all sewn together into flower fabric.

The idea for flower fabric came from the lovely craft of Irish Crochet lace, which I learned about in the early 1980s. I gathered as many books on the subject as I could find. Almost all of them were reprints of much older books. These were the original inspiration to me for the flowers and leaves of Crochet Bouquet.

One of my favorites was (still is) The Irish Crochet Book No. 2, reprinted by The House of White Birches in 1981. The original title and author were not mentioned in this reprint, but it is probably available for download at www.antiquepatternlibrary.org or as a reprint from Lacis.

One of the projects in the book was a “Collar in Wheels, Roses, and Leaves.” I crocheted it from linen thread, much heavier than the thread used in the book. Instead of using the finished piece as a collar, I sewed around the dropped waist of my wedding dress, as you can see in the photo above.

Most Irish Crochet Lace is made from motifs joined by a crocheted mesh. The collar was unusual, because its motifs were simply sewn together. And that is how the Roses Poncho is made, too.

The bright, happy, flowery cover of Crochet Bouquet was designed by Cindy LaBreacht. People love the strands of flowers at the top and bottom. More than one reader has asked me how to crochet them, including my fellow Texan, Rene. She writes:

Your book’s cover design inspired me to make a really fun spring scarf. I was wondering if you might tell me how to make the leaf chain that’s behind the flowers?

Another reader wanted to make a swag, just like the one on the book cover, to hang above her daughter’s bedroom door.

I took a photo of some of the actual cover flowers (at the top of this post), so you could see how they really are. Cover designer Cindy LaBreacht probably used Photoshop or a similar program, to make all the flower images the same size, which they aren’t in real life. She cut and pasted those little leaves together, and added the resized flowers.

However, you can still make a pretty scarf or swag. To make the flowers all the same size, you’ll have to experiment with different yarn weights. Make the larger flowers in finer yarns, and the smaller flowers in heavier yarns, in order to equalize their size. This might take you a while, but it’s worth it if that’s what you want.

For Rene’s scarf, I suggested making some compound leaves and sewing them together, then sewing the flowers on top of the leaves. Or one could make a very long compound leaf (just keep repeating the instructions for the side leaves), and sew the flowers on top of it. The flowers could be different sizes–in fact, I think that would look more natural.

For a swag, how about buying a swag or garland of greenery from a craft store, and sewing or gluing crocheted flowers on top of that? It would be sturdier than a swag made completely of crochet.

Please join our March Crochet Bouquet Along, when we will be crocheting the Shamrock.(pp. 118-119 of Crochet Bouquet).

Lots of U. S. Americans boast Irish ancestry, but everyone is welcome to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17. The Shamrock is the symbol of the day.

School kids are eager to pinch people who forget to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. If you’re in danger of being pinched, just say that you’re wearing green underwear. An honorable kid will refrain from pinching.

When I was in elementary school, one of my classmates disdainfully commented that the true color of St. Patrick’s Day, the color that people in Ireland wear on March 17, is orange. My family lived in the UK for several years, and I saw no evidence to support this. Orange certainly never replaced green as the St. Patrick’s Day color in my school.

Judith, a Crochet Bouquet Along participant who has made many of the flowers and leaves from Crochet Bouquet, had some difficulty figuring out how to join the pieces of the Shamrock. If she had trouble, others might have trouble, too. So here are some photos which I hope will help.

Start by crocheting the heart-shape leaflets. Weave in the ends before joining.

Chain the stem. Pick up one leaflet and hold it so you’re looking at the wrong side.

* Find the ch-4 at the pointy tip of the leaflet—it is the first ch-4 at the beginning of Round 2 of the Heart-Shape Leaflet. Insert the hook behind the ch and bring it back to the front on the other side of the ch. (The photo at left shows the hook at this point.) Now sl st around the ch-4. This is called slip stitching around the post.

Ch 1 and sl st into the chain that was just before the sl st around the post. Ch 1.

Pick up the next leaflet and join as you did the first, repeating the instructions from the *. The photo at right shows the hook in position to sl st around the second leaflet.

Repeat from the * once more, and then finish the stem as described in the book. Use sewing thread to sew the points of the leaflets together.

The Shamrock is meant to be sewn or glued to something else as embellishment. It won’t support its own weight. For the sample in this post, I used Crystal Palace Yarns’s Cotton Chenille.