Curious and Crafty Readers

Please join us in making a Fern leaf for February’s Crochet-Along!

Readers have adopted the Fern leaf (on pages 110-111) as one of their favorite patterns in Crochet Bouquet. (The other favorite is the Plain Pansy.)

The Fern is one of my favorites, too. Once you figure out how it works, the Fern is fairly easy to make. You can add leaflets or picots to alter its size and shape, as I did for this Christmas Tree Mat.

The Fern is a bunch of crocheted bumps or picots, separated by chain stitches or slip stitches. You begin at the base of the leaf, then

Following the pattern, work a series of chains and picots. When you have three picots right next to each other, you’ll know you are at the tip of the first leaflet (see inside the black box in Photo 1).

Work back along the chain you just made, slip stitching in each chain st, and making a picot across from each previous picot. Don’t sl st all the way to the end, because that’s part of the main stem. (Photo 2)

Continue making leaflets in this way. The fourth leaflet is one picot pair shorter than the first three. Now you have essentially worked “up” one side of the fern, as in Photo 3..

The top of the fern is three very short leaflets all clustered together as you see inside the pink box in Photo 4.

For the second half of the fern, you crochet the leaflets as you did before, but instead of chaining between the leaflets, you slip stitch down the center stem. (Photo 5)

When you’re done, you will have worked down the other side, and ended back at the base of the leaf.

There are many ways to make a picot (proinounce it PEEKoh). For our Fern, make a picot like this: ch 3, sl st into the third chain from the hook. When the pattern says “ch 3, sl st picot” that means you “chain 3, chain 3, slip stitch into third chain from hook.”

The pattern has lots of information to help you figure out where you are on the leaf. However, if you find this information distracting, copy out the instructions on a piece of paper, leaving out the extra words. See this post for a more details on copying out patterns.

For Rounds 4 and 5 of the Poppy in Crochet Bouquet (pp. 65-66), switch to your petal color yarn. I’m using Opus 1 (with aloe and jojoba) by Zitron, and distributed in the US by Skacel.

In Round 4, your challenge is to correctly identify the second sl st of each petal. I orient myself with the long sc (from Rnd 3) between the petals. Once I find that, I know the next st is the first sl st of the petal, and voila! I insert the hook into the next st (the second sl st) for each petal of Round 4.

The photo shows Round 4 completed, and the blue arrow shows where to insert the hook for the first st of Rnd 5 (it is the second sl st of Rnd 4).

Before you begin Round 5, you need padding/gathering cords. The pattern says to cut six 6-inch lengths of yarn, but don’t do that!

Instead, cut six 12-inch (30cm) lengths of yarn. Fold each piece of yarn in half.

Follow the instructions until you get to the part that says, “begin working over one 6-inch length of yarn.”

Instead, insert your hook into the next stitch, in preparation for the sc. AND insert your hook into the fold of one 12-inch length of yarn. (Shown in photo.)

Finish the sc, catching the padding yarn in the stitch. (Shown in next photo.)

Continue crocheting as per the instructions, working over this double strand of yarn as you go. Stop crocheting over it after the last sc of the petal. For the next petal, pick up a new folded strand of yarn.

Now why, oh why, do we need this padding yarn? Here is a photo of the first completed petal of Round 5. It’s flat. But poppies aren’t flat. So pull the ends of the padding yarn to gather the petal (the blue arrow in the photo).

And guess what?! The petal isn’t flat anymore! Here you see the first petal from above and from the side.

I recommend that you finish crocheting all the petals first. Then tighten the padding threads. Once you are satisfied with the shape of the poppy, tie together the two ends of each padding thread in a square knot. In the photo, the light blue circle surrounds athe knot of padding cord ends.

Arrange the petals as described in the instructions: three petals to the front and three to the back. Use the ends to tack the petals in place. Probably you will feel you are having to overlap them quite a bit to get the desired effect. Finally, weave in the cut ends.

Watch for the next post, where we’ll finish the poppy center.

The Corrugated Leaf in Crochet Bouquet is a variation on a leaf that was used in Irish Crochet lace. It’s a little tricky at first, so here are some diagrams to help you figure it out. Once you understand how it works, you’ll be able to crank out these leaves without a second thought.

Stitch numbers and details are on pages 109-110 of Crochet Bouquet.

Start with a chain, which I’m going to call the ‘foundation chain.’

For the first row, begin by working across the foundation chain as you normally would. At the end of the foundation chain, chain 2, but DO NOT TURN.

Instead, rotate your work, so that your next stitches will be worked into the remaining loops of the foundation chain. You’ll stop short of the end, which creates the tip of the leaf. The diagram above shows all these words in a picture. The dot is the beginning of the foundation chain.

For the second row, chain 2, and this time turn your work so that you will be working back across the stitches you just finished. This part of the row is shown on top, Steps 1 and 2 of the diagram below.

Once you’re back at the base of the leaf, chain 2 and rotate (Step 3 of diagram). Work the rest of the row on the other side of the leaf (Step 4 of diagram). The instructions have you stopping before you reach the end of the row, and this forms the points on each side of the leaf.

Repeat the second row until the leaf is just the size you want it. Each row goes on both sides of the leaf.

Leaves come in many colors, so don’t limit yourself to green. I love this red and green leaf, which didn’t make it into the book. It is made with Judi & Co.’s Hand-Dyed Moonlight (100% Rayon, 100yd/91m per spool).