Kroshknot - when crochet & knitting come together

Crocheted square with a vintage-inspired flower motif

Here is the finished vintage-inspired flower crocheted square. In this blog post, I will share with you step-by-step process of creating one. If you attempt making one yourself, please share with me whether the instructions worked and whether they were easy to follow.

Materials used:

1.)    Alafosslopi - LOPI Wool  (3 shades: arctic exposure, golden heather
        & acorn heather)
2.)    a crochet hook (5,25 mm)
3.)    a blocking board for crochet squares

Abbreviations:

yrh - yarn round hook
tr - treble crochet
ch - chain stitches
ss - slip stitch
dc - double crochet
htr - half treble crochet
hdc - half double crochet
pop- popcorn
puff - puff stitch

STEP 1, 2 & 3 - Create a foundation chain
Start with a slip knot on your hook and then create 3 chains by working a (yrh) wrapping the yarn around the hook and drawing a loop through the loop on the hook for each new stitch.

STEP 4 & 5 - Use a slip stitch to form a foundation ring
Once you have your three chains, then insert the hook through the first chain made, wrap the yarn around the hook, and draw a loop through the chain and the loop on the hook to close the ring.

STEP 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 - Create 10 (tr) treble crochet stitches into the foundation ring. 
              

STEP 11, 12 & 13    Join round with a (ss) slip stitch.

Switch to a different colour ( or for flower here - Alafosslopi arctic exposure shade)

STEP 14 to 25 - Create 10 puffs with 1 ch of separation between each

Create 2 ch and then work ***1 puff into the space between treble stitches (on how to create a puff stitch CLICK HERE), then make 1 ch, repeat from *** til you have 10 puffs, join round with (ss) slip stitch.

Switch to a different colour ( or for flower here - Alafosslopi acorn heather shade )

STEP 26 to 37 - Create 10 petals by working a popcorn stitch with 3 chains in between each

Create 3 ch, work popcorn in the space between the puffs, ***3 ch, work popcorn, repeat from *** until you have 10 popcorn, join round with (ss) slip stitch.

The flower itself is now finished. In the next step, we want to create a background square for this flower so that it can be easily made into a scarf, a blanket or a shawl or something else you fancy.

CROCHET THE SQUARE BACKGROUND

Switch to a different colour ( or for flower here - Alafosslopi arctic exposure shade)

STEP 1 - Fill in the gaps in between the flower petals

Make 4 (tr) treble crochet stitches in the three chain space between the petals.

STEP 2 - Shaping the background to a square.

We start off by making the corner:

Make 2 ch / hdc** in the next dc / dc / dc + tr / tr, ch2, tr / tr, dc / dc

** hdc - The half double crochet falls in between a single crochet and a double crochet in height, but instead of working off two loops at a time, you draw the yarn through three loops on the hook.

Stitches between the corners:
hdc x 5 times

We connect it now to the Corner #2:
and then reverse the process, dc / dc, tr / tr, ch2, tr / tr + dc / dc

5 hdc between / Corner # 3 / 5 hdc between / Corner #4 / 5 hdc between / ss

How to block your crochet square?

You may find that after you have finished crocheting your square that the corners of your crochet are curled up as you have been handling it for a good half an hour to 40 minutes, so to make sure that your work is straight and even looking, it is best to put your crocheted square through the blocking process.

I invested in a proper blocking board which makes it easy to do, but if you don't have one, there are other ways in which you can do this.

Here is my method:

1.)  with a spray bottle, you thoroughly damp the square all around,
      especially the corners

2.)  depending on the size of your square, you adjust the board pins
      in such a way that the square is not too stretched out

3.) leave it to dry (I usually put three at the same time and leave it
     over night)

Happy crocheting!

A Mocha Cozy

This is a mix and match; I knitted a cozy for when having a Mocha out and about and then I had a left over crocheted rose that matched the earthy tones... why not??? 

A Smocking Stitch Cup Cozy

Inspired by 'fancy.com' This is Smocking Stitch cup cozy with an I - cord. ... Love this design!

A Seed Ridge Scarf

Here comes a scarf inspired by Norah Gaughan's patterns!

The Norah Gaughan 'not so simple' edge pattern

A great many thanks to Donna Yacino from Berroco for sharing with me this edge pattern that was used in all swatches of cable knits in Norah Gaughan's latest book, "Knitted Cable Sourcebook". Funnily enough, the pattern of this edge was not shared in the book, I guess because they didn't think that was the focus. However, typical me always get caught up in the little details, ... so spent a considerable amount of time figuring out this supposedly simple edge pattern unsuccessfully. 

Bravely enough, I went to the website and decided to e-mail the Pattern Support team, hoping they would be willing to share it with me. And they did! I found an e-mail in my inbox the first thing in the morning. It was Donna Yacino that wrote back to me, from the Pattern Team; Ms Yacino who created many of the knitting swatches in the book. I felt so grateful and most lucky to be the recipient of this 'not so simple' edge pattern.

The Norah Gaughan 'not so simple' Edge Pattern:

RS rows :         K3, slip 2 YB ......... slip 2 YB, K3

WS rows:         slip 2 YF, K1, P1, K1 ....... K1, P1, K1, slip 2 YF

I have just finished a couple of rows and this is what it looks like:

Size 9mm needles

A new lounge throw with a mix & match pattern

Here comes my new snuggle up throw! In this throw I mixed a variety of patterns: the left side border uses 'moss stitch' which beautifully frames a '9-stitch plait' that runs down the left hand side of the throw; the rest of the throw repeats the multiple rows of  the 'stocking stitch ridge' and the plain 'stocking stitch' interrupted with the 'giant bobbles.

SunchiBee ♥