Curious and Crafty Readers

Many pairs of eyeballs looked at Crochet Garden before it went to press. All off them missed the fact that the lovely Pasque Flower was on the cover (the yellow flower, second from right), and on the copyright page (purple and yellow) but not in the book!

It’s embarrassing, but what can we do?

We can give you the pattern free!

Pasque flowers look delicate with their pretty petals and oversized centers, but they are hardy enough to grow in mountainous places.

Skill Level: Easy

Materials and Tools

• 2 or 3 colors of yarn of similar weight: yellow for center (A), one or two shades of purple or yellow (B and C); eyelash yarn is a good alternative for the flower center
• Hook: Appropriate size hook to achieve a firm gauge with selected yarn
• Tapestry needle

For this flower we used
Cascade 220 Wool (100% Peruvian Highland wool; 3.5oz/100g = 220yd/200m): (A) color Yellow #2439, (B) and (C) color violet #8888—medium weight yarn; <4>

Gauge Circle for Cascade 220 (see page 11 of Crochet Garden) = 1 1/8″/2.9cm worked on 4.00mm (size G-6 U.S.) hook

Finished Measurements using Cascade 220: 4 7/8″/12cm

Special Abbreviations

• Htr (half treble crochet): Yo 2 times, insert hook in stitch and draw up a loop (4 loops on hook), yo and draw through 2 loops (3 loops on hook), yo and draw through 3 loops (1 loop left on hook).
• Long Picot: Ch 3, hdc in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in remaining ch.

Instructions

Flower Center:
With A, ch 4, join with sl st in first ch to form a ring.

• Rnd 1: Ch 1, 6 sc in ring, join with sl st to first sc of rnd.
• Rnd 2: Working in FL only , (sl st in next st, Long Picot) 6 times.
• Rnd 3: Working in BL of rnd 1 only, *sl st in next st, Long Picot, sl st in same st of rnd 1; (Long Picot, sl st in next st of rnd 1) twice; rep from * twice. Sl st in base of st at beg of rnd. Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Alternative Flower Center:
With eyelash yarn, ch 4 and join with sl st in first ch to form a ring. Ch 1 and fill the ring with sc OR ch 2 and fill the ring with hdc, whichever works best with your flower. Join to beg of rnd with sl st. Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Flower:
With B, ch 4, join with sl st in first ch to form a ring.

• Rnd 1: Ch 5 (counts as 1 dc and ch-2 sp), working in ring (dc, ch 2) 5 times, join with sl st to 3rd ch of ch-5 at beg of rnd.
• Rnd 2: *Sl st in next ch-2 sp, ch 3, (3 dc, ch 3, sl st) in same ch-2 sp; rep from * 5 times—6 petals.
• Rnd 3: Sl st in each st of ch-3 at beg of rnd 2; *ch 3, dc in first dc, (2 htr) in next dc, dc in next dc, ch 3, sl st in top st of ch-3 of row below, ch 1, sl st in top st of the ch-3 at beg of the next petal; rep from * 5 times. Fasten off and weave in ends before continuing to rnd 4.
• Rnd 4: Join with B or C as desired. Hold yarn at WS of flower (underneath it), insert hook in first ch at the base of any petal, yo and pull a loop through to the RS of work (first sl st complete). *Sl st in each of the rem 5 ch up the side of the petal (1 ch will have a st in it already, so do your best). Across the top of the petal, (sc, hdc) in first st, (dc, htr) in 2nd st, ch 2, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, (htr, dc) in next st, (hdc, sc) in next st, sl st in each of the 6 ch down the side of the petal (1 ch will already have a st in it), sl st in ch-2 sp of rnd 1, sl st around the next dc of rnd 1, sl st in first ch at base of the next petal; rep from * 4 times. Rep from * once more, except end with the sl st around the next dc of rnd 1. Fasten off and needle-join to first sl st of rnd.

Finishing:

Weave in ends (except end for sewing) and block the flower gently. Sew flower center to the middle of the flower on the RS.

You’re spoiled for choice by the Topsy Turvy #2 flower on pages 95-96 of Crochet Bouquet. You can crochet it small, medium, or large; with or without picots; one way up or the other way up—all in two short pages of instructions.

The shading in Chinese embroidery was part of the inspiration for this design, which is why I crocheted the samples in the book in light, medium, and dark values of the same color. It will look good in other combinations, too, like this yellow-orange-red combination.

I crocheted these samples with Dale of Norway “Falk” washable wool. The Topsy flower has picots and the Turvy flower doesn’t.

In Photo A, you see the beginnings of both flowers—the first row or two of the flower, the stems which are slightly different, and the crocheted round that I used for embellishment. If you sew the flower to the stem at this point, it makes a cute bud.

To make the embellishment, make a loop with yarn, 5 or 6 sc into the yarn ring. Tighten ring to form a circle, cut yarn and needle-join the last st to the first. Weave in ends or use them to sew the embellishment to the flower.

If you like the flower without picots, you simply leave out certain rows, as indicated in the instructions. Photo B shows the picot flower with Row 4 finished, and the plain flower with Row 3 finished (Rows 2 and 4 are skipped). I couldn’t wait to sew the embellishment on the plain flower. You can stop here, if you want a smaller flower.

The calyx (the green spikes that are leftover from the bud of a flower) and the stem are made in one piece. To attach to the Topsy flower, thread the stem through the original chain loop, from front to back. Fold the calyx over, and sew it to the stem, which is coming out of the back of the flower. See Photo C.

Crocheters! Let’s borrow a trick that knitters have been using for years. When column after column of printed instructions overwhelm them (lace patterns are often the worst) knitters copy the pattern onto index cards: one row to one index card.

They punch the corner of each card, and hold them all together with a binding ring or a loop of yarn.

You can do this with crochet instructions, too. As you copy the pattern, break the row up into manageable chunks. For instance, write any instructions in parentheses on a line by themselves.

You’ll be amazed at how much better you understand a pattern after you write it out.

As you crochet, look only at the one card that has instructions for the row or round you are working on. As soon as you’re done with that row, go to the next card.

In the photo, I’m in the middle of crocheting the Pomegranate pattern from Crochet Garden. It is not difficult to crochet, but its instructions are long. With a single row written on each index card, I can focus on that one little bit of the pattern.

The paperclip is to keep my place in the pattern, since I couldn’t finish the motif all in one sitting.

For Valentine’s Day, Lark Crafts is offering a free crocheted Van Wyk Rose pattern from Crochet Garden. They’re hoping this pattern will make you fall in love with the book and buy it when it is released in May 2012. I think the book is pretty adorable, but I’m its mother, so of course I would think that.

The rose is the namesake of artist Helen Van Wyk. She made gorgeous flower paintings and taught her technique to others through books and workshops. She encouraged artists first to sketch the basic shapes in a flower, then add the petals and other details over this foundation.

Van Wyk’s sketch of the basic rose shape looked like a set of bowls nestled together. “That reminds me of a rose, even without the petals!” I said to myself, and set out to make a similar design in crochet.

I hope you enjoy this easy-to-make design.

“There are so many wonderful flowers in nature, why would you want to design fantasy flowers?” asked a Crochet Bouquet Along member on Ravelry.

It’s true. Natural flowers are many and varied. I mean, look at this Antelope Horns milkweed that grew in our yard. What a strange and wonderful plant! Someday it’s going to be the inspiration for some interesting and pretty crochet.

I love natural flowers, but I also love decorative flowers and fantasy flowers. Even as a kid, I was fascinated by artists’ interpretations of flowers in paintings, on greeting cards, on chinaware and tinware. A few brush strokes or a few simple shapes are all it takes to depict a natural flower.

Completely made-up flower designs give me a happy flower feeling, just like a natural flower would. Designing a fantasy flower is not a case of trying to improve on nature. Instead, it’s using nature as a jumping-off point for a flight of imagination.

Crochet Bouquet has a mix of natural-looking flowers and fantasy flowers; same with Crochet Garden. In fact, on the cover of Crochet Garden, the “O” of “Crochet” is my fantasy Samarkand Sunflower. A woven design on plate 31 of Treasury of Historic Folk Ornament (by Helmuth Theodor Bossert, Dover Publications, 1996) inspired it. It’s a woven interpretation of a flower, reinterpreted in crochet.

Having said that, I’ll bet that if you look far enough, you’ll find a natural flower that looks a lot like the Samarkand Sunflower.

Since I’m never going to stick exclusively to natural flower designs, here’s my suggestion for you:

• If you want lots of natural flower crochet designs, you need to design them.
• After you’ve made a few samples, prepare a book proposal and start sending it to publishers, pitching it as a book of natural flower designs.

I think there’s still room for crochet flower books on the market, but not for long, so you’ll have to get going on this soon.

After record-breaking heat and draught this summer, our part of Texas welcomed about 5 inches of rain last month. The flowers wasted no time putting on an autumn show of color: yellow cow-pen daisies, magenta four-o’clocks, red and blue sage, and multicolor lantana.

Then, two nights ago, we came perilously close to freezing temperatures. Bloom while you can, dear flowers!

We crocheters should flower, too, whether in the last few moments before the winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, or because it’s spring in the Southern Hemisphere. So for our last-minute October CAL, let’s make the Sunflower from pages 71-72 of Crochet Bouquet. Its center is Loopy, on pages 57-58.

This flower looks lush and complicated, but it isn’t! Well, it is lush, but it is not complicated. You make it in two easy pieces and sew them together.

The yellow flower begins with a double-crochet circle. Around the outside you crochet one simple petal over and over. It takes a while to crochet, but the crochet is easy.

When you’re done, the petals will probably curl. We don’t want that.

To uncurl them, hold each petal at its base, then pull the point out. Don’t be shy! They won’t break. Then grasp each petal on both sides at its widest point. Pull again.

My Sunflower is crocheted with Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 cotton thread. Here it is, above, with some of the petals pulled out by hand. Still, it needed more. I made it wet, squeezed it out, uncurled and pulled out all the petals by hand, and laid it out to dry (right).

You may want to steam block your sunflower, depending on the yarn you’re using. If the petals are curling stubbornly, pin them out, like Judith did here.

Center Loopy on top of the Sunflower and sew them together.

I’m looking forward to teaching the “Full of Bullion (Stitch, That Is)” class at the Knit & Crochet Show in Greensboro, North Carolina next week!

We’re going to cover the traditional bullion stitch, which is especially beloved among free-form crocheters. Then we will learn the fabulous double bullion stitch. We’ll use both bullion stitches in edging and motif patterns that I designed especially for this class. Here are a couple of them.

For information on the Knit & Crochet Show, visit http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com.

Here’s a pretty way to organize your pierced-earrings! Embellish a sheet of plastic canvas with crochet trim and crocheted flowers. Sew on a crocheted cord for hanging. Reinforce the top edge of the plastic canvas, so it won’t buckle when you hang it up. Finally, add earrings.

You’ll need:

1. A sheet of plastic canvas, available in the needlework section of craft stores
2. No. 10 crochet cotton in matching and contrasting colors (I used Aunt Lydia’s Classic No. 10 Crochet Cotton in lavender, violet, and shaded yellows for the trim, wasabi for the leaf, lavender, violet, yellow, shaded violets for the pansies)
3. Crochet hook, 2.00mm (size 4 steel U.S.) or size needed to achieve a firm gauge
4. Sewing thread and sewing needle
5. Tapestry needle
6. A crocheted flower or flowers and leaves from Crochet Bouquet, using No. 10 crochet cotton (I made two Plain Pansies and one Spiky Leaf, pages 63-64, 121-122)

Crochet around the edge of the plastic canvas:

Rnd 1: Begin anywhere along the edge of the plastic canvas. Place 1 sc in each mesh square along the sides. In each corner square, (1 sc, 3 ch, 1 sc). Needle join last sc to first sc (find step-by-step photos of needle joining here in photos E, F, and G.)

Rnd 2: Begin a new color in the ch-3 sp at any corner of rnd 1 with ** (sc, ch 3, sc), * sk 1 sc, ch 2, sc in next st; rep from * to within one st of next corner, sk 1 st, rep from ** around, ch 1, needle join to first sc of rnd.

Rnd 3: Begin a new color in the ch-3 sp at any corner of rnd 2 with * (2 hdc, ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch from hook) twice; working along the side, (2 hdc, ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch from hook) in each ch sp to next corner; rep from * around, needle join to first hdc of rnd.

Flowers and Leaves
Crochet desired flowers and leaves for embellishment.

Hanging Cord
Leaving a long tail for sewing, ch 2, sc in 2nd ch from hook, * insert hook into side of sc you just completed, draw up a lp, yo and draw through both lps on hook; rep from * until cord is about 1” (2.5cm) longer than the top edge of the plastic canvas. Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Finishing
Weave in ends. Arrange flowers and leaves on plastic canvas. Sew in place with sewing thread, making stitches around the inner rounds of the flower, leaving the outer edges of the flowers free for a more natural look. Make sure you catch the meshes of the plastic canvas as you sew. This sounds silly, but I found this part to be challenging!

Use No. 10 cotton to sew the dowel rod to the top back of the plastic canvas. This keeps it from bowing out when you hang it up.

Sew the Hanging Cord to the top corners of the plastic canvas.

Hang fish-hook style earring from the meshes in the canvas. You can also store stud earrings on the plastic canvas, as long as the earrings don’t fall through the mesh.

(This was originally published at Suzann’s Textilefusion, back when Curious and Crafty Readers was having technical difficulties. It really belongs here, so here it is!)

My cousin Phyllis was paging through Crochet Bouquet, when she saw the Oval Center Rose on pages 28-29. “Is this photographed at an angle, or does it really look like that?” she asked.

Yes, it does! It is photographed straight-on, and it really is oval, like so many of the stylized roses I see on china, tin boxes, and other decorative objects.

The Oval Center Rose is our crochet along project for May. It starts with a round of single crochet (Photo 1). The lovely pink yarn is Universal Yarns Cotton Supreme.

The Rose starts going oval in Round 2 (Photo2), with graduated stitch heights. To give the flower a lighter appearance, this round has ch-spaces between the stitches.

Photo 3 shows the last round of the oval center. The graduated stitch heights make the oval even longer.

Round 4 (Photo 4) sets up the petals of Round 5. The sc-sts between the ch-loops serve as anchor sts for Round 6.

In Photo 5, you see Round 5 finished, except for the final joining ch-st. It is worked around the first sc of Rnd 4 (an anchor st). To do this, take the hook behind your work, insert it under the petal you just finished. Now take the hook in front of the anchor sc, and back to the back under the next petal. Yarn over and draw the loop around the stitch and through the original loop on your hook.

Round 6 is where you add the final ruffly finish, worked in the back loops only. That’s what creates the subtle outline around the stitches of Rnd 5. The first petal is different than the others, so check the instructions.

To keep the petals from melding together on this last round, you ch 2, sl st around the anchor stitch, ch 2, between the petals. Sometimes it’s easier to fold the flower at the anchor stitch, and sl st around it from the back, as in Photo 6. The plum circle surrounds the 2nd petal, and the hook is under the anchor stitch, to which the yellow arrow points.

At the end of Rnd 6, turn the flower to the back. Find the very first anchor stitch with the sl st around it. Insert your hook under the loops of this sl st, yoh, and complete another sl st. In Photo 7, you’re looking at the back of the rose, and the hook is under the loops of the sl st around the first anchor st. All that’s left to do is finish the final sl st, end off, and weave in the ends.

Thank you very much to all you lovely people who have bought Crochet Bouquet! This free pattern is especially for you.

Fancy Pansy
Copyright 2011 by Suzann Thompson

You can use any yarn to make the Fancy Pansy. It is shown here in three colors, but it looks good with just two colors, where you use a dark color A, and a lighter color for B and C.

For the step-by-step sample shown here, I used Dale of Norway Baby Ull (A) color navy #5755; (B) color yellow #2106; (C) color blue #5726.
Using a 3.50mm (size E-4 U.S.) hook, my finished measurement for the Fancy Pansy was about 3 1/2″ (8.7 cm)

Worked in medium weight yarn (4), such as Cascade 220, with a firm gauge, a Fancy Pansy measures about: 5 1/4″ (13.4 cm) from top to bottom.

Picot = ch 3, sc in 3rd ch fr hook.

Htr = half treble crochet = yo twice, insert hook into st, yo and pull up a loop (4 loops on hook). Yo and pull through 2 loops (3 loops on hook). Yo and pull through remaing loops.

This pattern is worked sometimes in Rows and sometimes in Rounds.

With A, ch 5, sl st into first st to form a ring.

Row 1: working into ring, sc, ch 3, sc, ch 2, place marker in ring, hdc, place marker in ring, ch 2, sc, ch 3, sc, ch 1, turn.

The markers are to show you where to place two sts in Rnd 4. They are a nuisance, so if you can remember that the marked spots are on each side of the hdc in Row 1, you can dispense with the markers.

Rnd 2, first petal: In the ch3-loop (sc, hdc, 3 dc, hdc, sc), sc into original ring (this forms an anchor-st for Rnd 3; place marker if desired).

Rnd 2, middle petal: in ch2-loop (sc, hdc, dc, htr, dc), hdc into next st. In next ch2-loop, (dc, htr, dc, hdc, sc). Sc into original ring (this forms an anchor-st for Rnd 3, place marker if desired).

Rnd 2, third petal: in the ch3-loop (sc, hdc, 3 dc, hdc, sc), ch 1, sl st into sc from row below. 3 sc into ring. Do not turn.

Photos 1 and 2 show the Fancy Pansy after Rnd 2, with and without the markers. The rest of the photos show the flower without the markers, because they are distracting.

Rnd 3, first petal: Working in front loop only, 2 sc, picot, sk 1, sc, (picot, sc in next st) twice, ch 1, sc around stem of anchor-st from Rnd 2.

Rnd 3, middle petal: Working in front loop only, ch 1, sk 1, (sc in next st, picot) 3 times, sl st in each of next 3 sts, (picot, sc in next st) 3 times. Sc around post of anchor-st from Rnd 2. (Photo 3 shows the flower worked to this point.)

Rnd 3, third petal: Working in front loop only, ch 1, sk 1 st, (sc in next st, picot) 3 times, sk 1, 2 sc, sl st. End off A. (Photo 4 shows the Fancy Pansy with Rnd 3 finished.)

In Rnd 3, you worked in the front loops only of Rnd 2. In this round, work in the back loops of Rnd 2. If it helps, bend the picots and sts of Rnd 3 forward, so you can see the back loops of Rnd 2 better.

Rnd 4, first petal: Join petal color B with a sc in the back loop of the first sc of Rnd 2. Continuing to work in the back loops of the sts of Rnd 2, 2 sc, (sc, hdc, dc) all in next st, (2 htr, dc) in next st, hdc, sc, insert hook into the anchor-st two rounds below and sc in this st.

Rnd 4, middle petal: Continuing to work in the back loops of the sts of Rnd 2, 2 sc, (sc, hdc, dc) all in next st, (3 htr) in next st, dc, hdc, dc, (3 htr) into next st, (dc, hdc, sc) in next st, 2 sc. Insert hook into the anchor-st two rounds below and make one sc in this st.

Rnd 4, third petal: Continuing to work in the back loops of the sts of Rnd 2, sc, hdc, (dc, 2 htr) in next st, (dc, hdc, sc) in next st, 3 sc. Fold petals forward, so you can see the back of the piece. Find the markers placed in Row 1. ( If you have not placed markers, look for the sts of the original ring, on each side of the hdc of Rnd 1.) Trc into original ring at the nearest marker (or nearest space next to hdc of Rnd 1), trc into original ring at the next marker (or space on the other side of hdc).

Photo 5 shows Rnd 4, complete, from the right side. Photo 6 shows Rnd 4, complete, from the back. The long sts are the trc sts which were worked into the original chain-ring.

Rnd 5, first petal: Beginning in the first st of Rnd 4, sl st 3, sc, picot, sk 1, sc, picot, (hdc, picot) twice, 2 sc, sl st, sk the long sc between petals.

Rnd 5, middle petal: sk the first st of this petal, sl st in next st, 2 sc, picot, sc, (picot, hdc) twice, picot, sk 1, sc, sk 1, sc, picot, sk 1, (hdc, picot) twice, sc, picot, 2 sc, sl st, sk the last st of this petal, sk the long sc between petals.

Rnd 5, third petal: sl st in next st, 2 sc, (picot, hdc) twice, picot, sc, picot, sk 1, sc, sl st 3. End off B. (Photo 7 shows Rnd 5, completed.)

Row 6: Join top-petal color C with sc in first trc-st from Rnd 4, (ch 2, sc) into same st, (sc, ch 2, sc) in next trc-st from Rnd 4. Ch 3, turn. (Photo 7 shows Row 6 just before the turning chain.)

Row 7: In ch2-loop, (hdc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, hdc, ch 3, sl st). Ch 2, which will separate the two top petals.

In next ch2-loop, (sl st, ch 3, hdc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, hdc, ch 1, hdc). Ch 2, turn. (See Photo 9.)

Row 8: Dc in 1st ch-space, (3 dc) in each of next three ch-spaces, (2 dc, ch 2, sl st) all in ch3-loop. Ch 3, skip ch2-loop between the petals.

For second petal, (sl st, ch 2, 2 dc) all in next ch3-loop, (3 dc) in each of next three ch-spaces, (dc, hdc) in last ch-space. Ch 3, turn.

Row 9: (picot, dc in next st) 3 times, (picot, trc in next st) 5 times, (picot, dc in next st) 4 times, ch 2, sl st in ch2-loop, ch 4.

Row 9, second petal: sl st in ch2-loop, ch 2, (dc in next st, picot) 4 times, (trc in next st, picot) five times, (dc in next st, picot) 4 times, ch 3, sl st in ch-loop. End off.

Use the yarn ends of C to tack the top petals in place on the back of the flower. Line up the outermost picot of each top petal with the lowest picot on the side petals, as in Photo 10.

In the photo below, the Fancy Pansy at the left is made from leftover yarns in my collection. They were all different brands, but very similar in weight. The right-hand Fancy Pansy was made from Cascade 220, then felted in the washing machine.