Poinsettias: A Crochet Tutorial

Finally, there is enough sun out that I was able to re-create and photograph the step by step process of making a crochet poinsettia.  I've put together this little tutorial for you - I hope you enjoy it!

Last year, I looked all over blogland and pinterest in hopes of finding a crochet poinsettia tutorial.  But, although I did find some pretty ones, I just couldn't find the one that I pictured in my head.  I did find ONE pattern that looked something like what I was envisioning but the pattern required me to make MANY many parts and then hook them all together (like over 15 parts ugh).  I wanted something simpler and with fewer parts.  The pattern I came up with has three parts.  The red part is the poinsettia bloom.  The green part is the poinsettia greenery and the white part is the poinsettia middle.  I borrowed the pattern for the middle from another blog.  The red and the green part I created myself.

The parts can be made in any order.  For this tutorial, I'm starting with the red part (the flower).  You are welcome to experiment with colors of course.  I have seen poinsettias in a variety of colors.  They bloom in all shades of red, pink and white!

Begin EITHER with a magic adjustable ring OR chain 3 (or 4) and join w/ a slip stitch.

Round 1: Into your ring ch1. Make *2sc then ch2. Repeat from * five more times.  After the last ch2, join with a slip stitch to close the round.  If you have used a magic ring, pull the tail to close.

The photo above shows the magic ring start for round 1.  The bumps are the ch2 spaces.

In the next round we will make 6 flower petals.

Round 2: into the first ch2 space, *work the following stitches (sc, dc, tr, picot3, tr, dc, sc)**.  One petal made. Work the instruction from * to ** into every ch2 space.  (6 petals total for the round).  Join round with slip stitch.  Finish off.

Here is how the flower looks with one complete petal.

Here is how the flower looks with all the petals completed.

Voila!  The red flower part of your poinsettia is done - lickety split.  How fast and easy was that?

Next.  Let's make the green leafy part of the flower.

Get out your green yarn.

To begin the leaf part either make a magic ring or ch 3 (or 4) and join with a slip stitch.

Round 1: ch1, make 6sc into the ring.  If you used the magic ring, pull the tail to close.  

Round 2: ch1, make 2sc into each stitch from round 1 (12 stitches) and join with slip stitch.

Round 3:  *ch3, sk 1, sc into next stitch. Repeat from * to end of round and slip stitch to join.  You now have 6 chain3 spaces.  These spaces are where we will form the leaf petals.

Peform all of the following stitches into the first ch3 space (sc, hdc, dc, 2tr, picot3, 2tr, dc, hdc, sc).  I find that I need to "scooch" the stitches over to the right after making the second tr.  This helps to make room for the rest of the stitches on the ch3 loop.  Also, unlike the picot3 on the red part, I like to make the picot3 on the leaf part by making 3 chains and then slip stitching into the first chain made.

Work these stitches into every chain3 space in the round (sc, hdc, dc, 2tr, picot3, 2tr, dc, hdc, sc).

Slip stitch to join the round and finish off.  Poinsetta leaf part done!

Ta dah!  Leaf part with 6 leaf petals.

Upon assembly, the red flower petals will sit atop the green leaf petals like this:

To create the white ball for the middle of the flower, I used the little crochet ball pattern from Lucy at Attic24.  Lucy used the balls to decorate/trim her super fun lamp.  I thought the balls would be the perfect middles for my poinsettia.

Go HERE TO SEE THE CROCHET BALL PATTERN.

Here is a photo of the little balls from Lucy's blog:



When you visit her blog post, look for this photo of the little balls.  You will find her written pattern explanation of how to make them right below the photo.  While you're over at Attic24, look around a bit.  Lucy has many, many lovely patterns and beautiful photos and stories about crochet.

To attach the parts of the crochet flower together, I first wove in the end where I finished off the yarn.  I used the tail from where I started the yarn and pulled it thru from one flower part to the other thus hooking them all together.

You will end up with three yarn tails on the underside of the flower when all three parts are connected.  I gave them a little tie with a knot to hold them together.  Depending on what you plan to do with the poinsettia motif, you may want to weave in all the ends but I left them dangling for now as I may use some of the poinsettias to attach to other projects and if so, I may use the tails to stitch or weave them.

I plan to use one or maybe two of my poinsettias as gifts and will make them into brooches.  I already have birthday gift plans for the brooch (tho. I should have already completed and mailed the gift before today)! Better late than never I suppose.

The poinsettias can be made in any size.  The sample in the tutorial was made with three colors of Dishie Yarn from Knit Picks.  The dishie yarn is a light worsted, 100% cotton yarn.

Here is the finished sample poinsettia.

I made a bigger poinsettia with this acrylic yarn.  It's a thicker worsted weight.  I will probably want to steam the acrylic version into a bit flatter of a motif.

For this poinsettia, I played around with the idea of making a FIVE petal leaf part instead of the SIX petal leaf part.  I prefer the one with SIX leaf petals.

For the third poinsettia, I went a bit smaller.

I used this carpet warp cotton.  You can read all about my carpet warp yarn on this post.

So what do you think - is it time yet for poinsettias where you live?

I am feeling a bit of a holiday tug with my crochet.  I still have lots of autumn and Thanksgiving ideas I'd like to create, but I feel like the holidays are already looming.  Though it's been cold here, I've managed to do without the heat as of yet.  I've been piling on extra layers in the house and drinking warm beverages to compensate.  We just had the chimney cleaned out, so we are ready for the fireplace!

Hope you enjoyed my poinsettia tutorial.  Let me know if you make any of your own.

I may put a pdf download of this pattern on Ravelry - but that will have to wait for another day... too much work (real work) to do today!!!

Enjoy - Sher

Stained Glass Coasters - a tutorial

I have been busy.  I haven't been busy with crochet.  So I really NEEDED to get busy with some crochet.  And I did.  In fact, I wrote a little tutorial to share with you.  AND... here it is.

So the other day, I was scrounging around in our "art room," (a room in the house that has evolved from being a kid's art room  and then changed to a music and recording studio for my teenagers and then changed to a bit of a storage area) and I came across this:

I'm not sure where it came from.  I don't plan to make friendship bracelets with it right now so I wondered if I could use it to do something CROCHET...

It's kind of like embroidery floss but thicker and less "splitty."  It comes with TWO EACH of every color you see pictured.  

I thought it might be cotton but it's not - as you can see it's wool and viscose.  Each tiny skein is just 3.28 yards.  That's not much.  The photo on the top left - the green squiggle there - well that's an entire skein!

so... I figured I'd have to get kind of creative with anything crochet.  I sat down and created a little tiny star/flower motif... I joined them together and created a stained glass coaster.

The first one I created looked like this:

I wanted a border around it so I made that addition.
And I wanted to re-create it and photograph the steps for a tutorial and now I have.

I sat here today and worked it all out for you.

And now I will present the step-by-step photo tutorial for the stained glass coaster. (Amer. crochet terms)

Make a magic (adjustable) ring.

chain 1, 8 sc in ring

Pull ring to tighten and join with a slip stitch.  Round 1 complete.

ch2, then sc in same stitch as join (ex 1)

*Skip the next stitch (see ex 2).  Then (sc, ch2, sc) in next stitch.  Repeat from * 3 more times, then sl st to join the round.

You now have a bit of a square (sorry for the blurry photos - I was outside with an camera phone).  Round 2 is now complete.

Perform the following stitches in the first ch2 space from the previous round: sc, dc, tr, dc, sc.  That completes your first corner petal.

Now, you are going to "dip down" to the skipped stitch from the second round and slip stitch in there.
That kind of defines a stronger petal shape.

*Into the next ch2 space (sc, dc, tr, dc, sc), then sl st into the skipped st from round 2, repeat from * 2 more times.  Finish off.

Ta dah! You have now completed ONE little star petal motif.  Pull the center string to tighten the middle and weave in the ends (if you are good you will weave in NOW) - often I'm lazy and wait to the end.  But it's easier to go on without little tails hanging about.

Next, grab another color and you will start right in on a second motif.

Complete Rounds 1 and 2 with the second color (pink in the example).  When you get to round 3, complete ONE petal (petal = sc, dc, tr, dc, sc) and one dip down slip stitch.

Then, complete the first half of the next petal (sc, dc, tr).  This is where you will make the join to the first motif.  Joining the green and pink motifs will require a join to the top of TWO petals.  I do the join on the second and third petals.  To make the join, I follow the basic procedure used by Lucy at Attic24 in her "join as you go method."  Basically - my method is the same concept.  Keep in mind that each joining stitch in this coaster pattern uses a slip stitch as the joining stitch.

So as seen in example 1 above, I have made 1.5 petals on the pink motif. In example 2, I put the hook through the two loops at the top of the tr-stitch on the green petal.  Yarn over with the pink and pull it through the green and pink loops.

In example 3 I have completed my first join and I have continued on to finish the rest of the petal by making a (dc, sc) in the same chain2 space.

Now, slip stitch into the skipped stitch from round 2.  Then make another half of a petal (sc, dc, tr), then make the second join with the green motif (see example 4) finish off the third petal by making a (dc, sc) in that same chain2 space.

Slip stitch in the next skipped stitch from round 2, complete one more petal (sc, dc, tr, dc, sc) - no joining needed on this one and  TA DAH!  Example 5 shows two happily joined star petal flowers.

I hope that makes sense.  Please feel free to contact me if you need further explanation.

Let's continue on.

The top left photo (above) shows THREE little motifs joined in a row.    When you get to motif to the second "row" of motifs you will need to join each motif at THREE of its four petals points rather than just at two.

When I join three sides, I like to make 1/2 a petal, join, then complete the petal.  Slip stitch (dip down), complete 1/2 of the next petal, join a second time (this time I join by going BETWEEN the joined space of the two motifs), then complete that petal.  Dip down slip stitch, then make 1/2 a petal.  Join one last time, complete the third petal, slip stitch and make a complete fourth petal all on it's own with no joining.

Remember a full petal is (sc, dc, tr, dc, sc) and a Joined petal is (sc, dc, tr, join, dc, sc).

Again, it's the same concept that Lucy describes in her join as you go method.  My joins are always done with a slip stitch for this project.  She clearly shows how to join on two sides and how to join on three sides.  She joins granny squares but the concept is very much the same.  My motif has only 4 corners, and no sides, so there are fewer places it needs to be joined.

Make and join three more motifs until there are a total of nine!  Voila!  There you have it.  A rainbow of tiny little star petal motifs all joined up together - three rows of three, a very nicely formed little square.

I decided that the motifs reminded me a bit of a stained glass window.  That's when I realized I wanted a border around the outside edge.  I came up with a really simple border - enough to just hold the square together and make it straighten out a bit.

Here's how.

Join a black yarn in any corner.  5sc in that corner.  *ch2.  dc into the same "dip down slip stitch" as in round 3 of the motif.  ch2.  dc over the join between the motifs.  ch 2.  dc, in the dip down slip stitch, ch 2, dc in the join, ch 2, dc in the dip down, ch2, 5sc in next corner.  Repeat from * 2 more times.  Now 3 sides of your square have a border.  On the last side, follow the same pattern, but when you get back around to the first corner join the first sc (of the 5sc) with a sl st to close the round.  Finish off and weave in all ends and clip them.

Easy, right?

And here's how that looks:

I love the way it seems like the flower motifs are floating inside the border, so unobtrusive!

Love it - and look how well it looks underneath of my icy cold water.  By the way - the icy cold water was a MUST HAVE for crocheting outside today cuz it was H-O-T and H-U-M-I-D today in my corner of the world. YUCK.

Feel free to share photos of your stained glass coaster on my facebook page if you make one!

Ta ta for now - Sher

Flowers & Flutterbys Crochet Wreath

TA-DAH!  It's done.  AND...I love it!!!

Wanna make one?  Well here's how.  By the way, if you missed my preview of this wreath, see that POST HERE.

First, we'll start with the wreath itself.  Since this wreath is one of several in a series that I've designed, I used the same pattern for the wreath.  Click here for the wreath pattern.  For the Flowers & Flutterbys wreath I used 2 colors of yarn (Bamboo Ewe) for the stripes and a brighter green of the same yarn to stitch the two wreath sides together (the inner and outer join).  I used a size F hook to make the wreath dense and firm.

After making two sides of the wreath (identical), I joined the two sides at their inner ring.  I added the motifs to the front wreath side only.  I used the tails from the motifs to stitch them onto the front side.  The beauty of the two wreath sides is being able to just stuff all the ends between, not having to weave them in - thank heavens!

This wreath included 4 daffodils.  I didn't design the daffodil pattern.  I found it HERE.  I did a few things different.  ONE, I didn't use a pipe cleaner OR make a stem.  TWO, I added a separate flower middle.  The pattern for the daffodil middle is (make a magic ring, ch 2, work 8hdc into ring, tighten ring, join to first stich with sl st.  Finish off).

To keep the daffodils in a bit of a cup shape, I sat each one in a small glass dish, spritzed it well with a bottle of Stiffen Quik and put them in the microwave to firm up according to the directions on the bottle.  I did each one twice and they have held their cup-like shape.

There are also 11 Sweet Sevens (I designed a new pattern for the Sweet Seven Flower) you can find the photo tutorial for the sweet sevens HERE and also on my Ravelry site. 

Finally, I've designed a lovely new motif called Flutterby Butterfly!  I searched and searched for a butterfly pattern that looked just the way I envisioned but even with all the creations, none of them were what I was wanting.  So... after a long bit of trial and error, I designed my own.  I'm very happy with it.  I've made oodles of them now and they are quite easy.  I've prepared a step by step photo tutorial for the little sweeties and you can get the Flutterby Butterfly tutorial by clicking HERE.

There are FOUR Flutterbys on the F&F wreath.  All are made with cotlin dk.  Three of the four are made with an E sized hook and one was made with an F sized hook.

Once the motifs are made and stitched together, the outer ring of the wreath sides can be joined.

Usually, I just cut apart an old cereal box to form a cardboard ring and slip it between the two wreath layers but I had already emptied the recycle bin and it had rained and I didn't fancy a soggy brown board living inside the wreath.  So, I hunted around in my sewing room and found this stuff:

It's made to be insulation in window cracks and such.  I had purchased a bag of it at a hardware store going out of business figuring I'd do something crafty with it and now I have.

I also snagged a broken hanger which I re-shaped into somewhat of a circle and taped the insulation ring to the hanger circle. To assure that the inner ring of the wreath also held it's form, I made a smaller foam ring and simply stuck it between the layers after the inner ring sides had been joined.

As I joined the outer rings (I used sc and I go through BOTH loops of each wreath side - 4 loops - on every sc), I realized I could crochet up the hanger hook and cover the wire.  I did finish off and re-join my yarn after covering the hanger hook.

The new solution worked fine, but it was a bit of a hassle to create and I'm not sure I'd do it the exact same way again - however, this time, it is in - and done, and it worked, so alls well there.

If you haven't seen the other wreaths in my series, you can check them out here (and also on ravelry):

Autumn Wreath
Christmas Wreath and also HERE
Double Sided Winter/LOVE Wreath

For now, I am enjoying a pastel Flowers & Flutterbys wreath in time for all the spring colors outdoor to begin popping up and also in time to enjoy for Mother's Day!