A Gripe

I recently borrowed three books from the library that all had the phrase “knit and crochet patterns” in their title. When I got home and opened the books up, I was dismayed to see that what I borrowed were really knitting books with a few token crochet patterns. For example, one of the books I borrowed was Scarf Style by Pam Allen. It has 31 patterns, only 2 of which call for crochet work. That is only 6% of the patterns! One Skein by Leigh Radford didn’t fare much better. Out of 30 patterns, only five involved crochet, a paltry 16% of the patterns. You’d think that a book titled Easy Afghans would have tons of crochet patterns. But you’d be wrong. Only a third of the patterns are for crochet.

What is up with that?

Picot Flower With No Picot…

One of my favorite flower patterns is SkaMama’s Picot Flower. I’ve just whipped these two flowers up using SkaMama’s pattern, only I left out the picot on each petal to make the flowers look more rounded.

April Showers Bring May Flowers…

Please excuse the cheesy title to this post…

My mom asked me to make a few flower pins for her, so I have been searching for and trying out many a flower pattern.

The Picot Flower (left) is one of my favorites. I really like how the back petal color is integrated into the center of the front flower.

Another favorite is the Strip Method Rose. I like the layered, realistic look of the petals.

There is also this really cute pansy pattern, and this Little Flower. You could layer these flowers one on top of another for a quick and easy flower pin or make them as the pattern suggests and create a cute hair barrette.

Moda Dea shows this rose pattern in three different types of yarns for three different looks. Canadian Living has what looks like a cute rose pattern as well. Heck, there is even a rose bath poof.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I made my mom this pin cushion from Crochet to Go Deck by Alicia Bergin. I followed her pattern pretty closely (I hope!) except that I used two strands of yarn for the frosting, one fuzzy red yarn with metallic flecks in it and one basic maroon wool yarn.

Crochet Orchid

Inspired by Atomic Rose’s beautiful hair clip, I crocheted this orchid, basically making up the pattern as I went along. While I was setting up the photo my cat jumped onto my desk and snagged the flower in her mouth and ran off with it, so I made a simple flower for her and she was willing to trade. I just might have the only cat whose favorite toy is a flower…

Here is the pattern (as best as I can remember it)

Green Center:
Round 1–ch 6, sl st into first st to make circle, 7 sc into center, sl st into first sc, ch 1.
Round 2–2 sc in each st, sl st into first sc, ch 1.
Round 3–*sc , chain 3, sl st into same st as sc,* repeat all the way around.

Pink Petals:
Round 1–ch 2, 6 sc into 1st ch, join with sl st.
Round 2 –Working in fro only, (ch 4, sc in 2nd ch from hook, hdc in next ch, sc in next ch, sl st into next unworked front loop) six times, fasten off.

White Petals:
Round 1–ch 9, join 1st ch with sl st to form a ring, ch 1.
Round 2–16 sc into center, join with sl st.
Make petals–*ch 10, sc in second st from hook, hdc in next two stiches, dc in next stich, tc, qc, tc in last stitch on chain, sl st in next sc to anchor* repeat six times, fasten off.

Make Flower:
Position green petals on center of pink petals and whip stich together from back of green to top of pink (so that all stitches are hidden). Position pink petals on center of white petals and whip stitch together around center of white part.