flower power...

Every year, at the beginning of December, my parents would take my sister, brothers and I into town to see the David Jones Christmas windows. For me it always marked the start of the Christmas season....on Saturday evening, we decided to take Rose and Charlotte into the city for their first look at the windows. I'm not sure who was the most excited: the girls or myself! This year the windows are based on well loved Christmas carols acted out by a host of marionettes. Above each scene is Santa, holding the strings "making" the puppets work. My favourite was the Twelve days of Christmas window with the beautiful pear tree, complete with partridge and two very chic looking "French" hens!  Afterwards we stopped for gelato as a special treat to round off the evening. Definitely the start of a family ritual.....

Now that I have moved into a Christmas frame of mind I have started ( amongst all of other on-the-go projects) to think about what I might make for various family and friends.
One of my gift ideas calls for some crocheted flowers so I have started trialling a few different styles. After the response to the 100 flower scarf pattern ( I have seen some of the results here and there- so lovely to see) I thought that I may as well pop up the patterns as I go for anyone who might want to use them.

Here is crochet flower # 1...the basic five petal flower....( I have used an 8 ply wool and 3.50mm or size 9 hook)

#1 Five petal flower

To begin: Chain 5 and join with Sal st to first chain to form ring. ( if you prefer use the base adjustable ring method which results in a perfect centre every time...I use it for everything now...)

Round 1: Ch 2 ( counts as 1 dc) and work 15 dc into the ring, sl st to beginning chain.

Round 2: *Ch 4, skip 2 dc, sl st into next dc: repeat from * 4 more times ending in last stitch in base of beginning chain.

Round 3: in each Ch 4 space work 1dc, 4 tr ,1 db tr, 4 tr, 1 dc: join with a sl st to first dc.

End yarn, leaving a tail for stitching or joining if desired.

(Note: Instructions are British/European so for US/Canadian use sc for my dc and dc for my tr.)

The great thing about this flower is that you can stop after the second round and have a small very basic flower like the blue one on the left...I have used these on hairclips (and I'm sure that there will be few of those in Christmas stockings this year!)

The pink flower on the right is made in a Manos Del Uruguay Handspun Semi Solid kettle dyed yarn, one of my favourites( you should see the colours!) with a slight variation in round 3: into each 4 ch space I have worked 1 dc, 9 tr, 1 dc to give a more rounded petal shape.It had been worked on the same size hook so it is only the wool that makes the difference in size.

Calendar update.....almost there with my special dates pages and my April pages for the other calendar should start arriving at their new homes this week....hope you all like them!

 

Comments

[Alex]

That's fantastic, Marianne!!!
Your photos are fabulous.
I am sure you made many girls very happy with this tutorial.

[Sandrine (alias Didine ♥ )]

It is sooooooooooooooooo great :) Thank you so much :) Tons of smooches from Belgium

[Jo]

We took the girls into the Myer windows in Melbourne on Sunday. The queue went forever and we ditched it and went to see Santa at David Jones instead. We might get back before Christmas and have another go. Maybe at 7.30 in the morning when they start. Who am I kidding? We struggled to get in there by 11.00am.

[gkgirl]

i so wish i could figure out the
mystery of crochet...i tried a couple
of times but just can't seem to
grasp it...i can do the first row
but from then on...i'm lost...

if i can't figure it out before
january, i'm taking a community college
class on it...

and those flowers will be my inspiration.

[gracia]

It's here! It's here!
April has arrived and it is wonderful! From contents to envelope.
The postie slid it under the door today so as not to crease it. It arrived arm in arm with Paula's page for December. Three received, it's looking great.
LOVE. LOVE. LOVE IT.
see you, gracia

[melissa]

oh, how i wish I could crochet. You're very kind to write out those directions, I've always loved that flower scarf of yours. One of these days I WILL try making one!

[Kate]

Love the flowers. Thanks so much for the tutorial.

[Regina]

so pretty! THanks for the instructions!

[Tiel S-K]

Marianne, you should have a look at Prudence Mapstones's work. I think I have a link on my site. Great crochet work.

[counting mermaids]

I saw the DJs windows this week. The santas kind of freaked me out.

[Anastasia]

we're off to David Jones on Sunday - I love their christmas window display.
Thanks for the flower pattern - crochet flowers are adorable, Ive recently made some crochet flower headbands for friends girls since I have no girls of my own heehee

[Ruth]

The crochet flowers are just so cute. I'm trying very hard to resist the temptation...

[Leah Adams]

Your flowers inspired me, and now, three months later, I've finished my first flower. I asked for a book on crochet for Christmas just so I could learn how to make your flowers. As it turns out, the book had some crocheted flowers as well, but yours were nicer. One glitch: the petals of my flower curl up. Any ideas what I've done wrong? Should I add an extra chain stitch in Round 3 in between each ch4 loop?

[preeety]

Thanks for posting it. It`s very nice, and I got it right the first time! Yeay...

[Eve]

Anyone know where online I can find out how to db tr? I love the point the flower has because of the db tr. My small flower, the one with only 2 rows doens't look as good but that may be my tension.

[Eve]

I posted above but it have someone elses info and contact info. Just FYI the comment section seems to have a bug.

[William Xie]

Hi, we happened to find online your website. We are a manufactuer of crocheted flowers in China. Do you agree that it will be much more econimocal to buy from China? If so, we can co-operate.

Looking forward to your ideas. And you are welcome to http://www.toybiz.cn/Flower.htm to have some ideas

[jdfh]

Hello people!F

[courtney]

your flowers are beautiful! thx 4 sharing! :-)

[theverycold]

question question! for round three with all the dc, tr, and db tr - do we need to make the turning chains?

[iHanna]

They are so pretty! thanks for sharing!

[Pam]

Thank you for a great pattern and easy to follow directions. I haven't crocheted much just edgings on my knitting. You helped me kick it up a notch. I added my flower to a baby hat for a shower gift.

[Regina]

They are wonderful, thanks for sharing the pattern! Will grab my needle, some wool and... sigh looking at the flower scarves I saw at FlickR ;-)

[shay]

this is a really cool flower. im making a pouch to put all my hooks in but instead of beads im putting these flowers!
cya

[Lil_Birdie]

Awesome pattern , thanks :)
(used it to make some flowers to decorate a basket , they came out great )