Spring Blooms in Crochet

Living in Alaska, we get an average of only 5 1/2 hours of daylight during the winters, with winter solstice, which is on the third week of December, as its peak. After the winter solstice, we slowly gain about 6 minutes of daylight each day. In fact, right now we are at 10 1/2 hours of daylight. But wait until the summer and we enjoy close to 19 1/2 hours of glorious daylight!

So, during the mornings, I eagerly open the curtains and wait for the sunlight to hit our sun-deprived plants by the bay windows. The natural light just makes me happy! We are still at 5°F to 10°F during the day but spring is definitely here.

So, today I am talking crochet... just taking a break from my spring shawl project. Of course, with a spring theme, I went with some spring blooms that are actually useful for a lot of embellishment purposes. Bags, hats, shawls, afghans and a lot more can be spruced up easily with these.

As I try to share with you these step by step photos, my hope is that you will find them easy to understand as I attempt to improve my pattern writing skills. This pattern assumes that the user already knows the following basic crochet stitches:

            -   ch (chain)
            -   sl st (slip stitch)
            -   sc (single crochet)
            -   dc (double crochet)
            -   tr (triple crochet or treble stitch)

For beginners, there is a very good article with detailed instructions about the basic crochet stitches written by Amy Solovay. It is called Basic Stitches in Crochet and you can find it here.

Materials used:

USH8 crochet hook
Any medium weight yarn (4), scraps are perfect! Combine colors as desired.
Knitting needle, to secure the ends

To make the center of the flower:

1]   ch 4, join in the first ch with a sl st to form a ring.
2]   ch 2 (this will serve as the first dc), dc 9 into the ring, join with a sl st with the first ch 2 to close the round.

First row of petals:

3]   Attach the second color yarn through any dc by securing it with a ch st.
4]   To start with the first layer of petals, repeat this block of stitches 5 times. This block will create a full petal as shown on the photo.

            -    sc 1, dc 1, tr 1 in the first dc
            -    tr 1, dc 1, sc 1 in the next dc

 
Foundation chain for next row:

5]   ch 2, insert through the dc where the hook wraps around the middle dc of the next petal.

6]   After wrapping, secure with ch 3, skip the next dc, and wrap the hook in the next dc in the same manner. Do this until you have 5 dc wraps as shown on the photo. This effect also creates a star-like center for the flower.

The treble stitch row:

7]   ch 3, tr 4 in the same ch-3 foundation.
8]   tr 4 in each ch-3 foundation, join with a sl st. The following photos show the front and back respectively of the completed row of tr sts.

Second row of petals:

9]   Skipping the first tr, follow this block of stitches 3 times.

            -   [sc 1, dc 1] in second tr
            -   tr 3 in next tr
            -   [dc 1, sc 1] in next tr

10]   Do #9 again, join with a sl st. Fasten off. Your flower should look like this!

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave your comments. As you can tell, I am not an experienced pattern writer so I will be happy to provide clarifications.

Happy crocheting!


Credits/References:

Basic Crochet Stitches - http://crochet.about.com/od/crochetstitches/tp/basic-stitches.htm