Sweet Spring Flowers Crochet Tutorial

We are in the last month of spring here in the southern hemisphere, and before we move into the sultry days of summer I thought I had better make the most of the spring flowers! Thanks to the late regular September showers there has been an abundance of flowers in my area. And who can’t feel sunny and happy looking at flowers?

Some of the flowers are starting to fade into the summer greens (goodbye dear Jasmine!), and for those of you in the northern hemisphere your autumn hues are going to change to the winter starkness. I think we all need some everlasting vibrant flowers to brighten up the place!

So here is the pattern for some simple super sweet everlasting spring flowers. I made flowers first from the delightful tutorial by maedchenmitherz (the pink and purple 6-petal flowers under my double flowers are from her pattern), then decided to adapt the pattern and make my own  smaller ones that followed the more amigurumi format for crocheting in a round.

Techniques

If you are new to crochet and/or amigurumi, this pattern is perfect for you. This pattern is simple, will teach you some of the main stitches used in amigurumi, and is so fast you can make lots of flowers to practice your stitches! Techniques used: magic circle, slip stitch, single crochet (sc), double crochet (dc), and half double crochet (hdc). Note: US crochet stitch terminology is used.

Materials

* Yarn in any colour (you won’t need much – use up any scraps)
* Crochet Hook
* Any other materials to decorate (buttons, pins, hair ties, etc).

Pattern

Instructions

I have written out the basic instructions in the text for those of you who are familiar with the stitches involved. For those of you who are unsure or are still a beginner, the photos and the captions underneath will give you more detailed instructions. If you want a bigger photo, just click on it and it will take you to my flickr page where you can choose larger sizes

 

RND 1. How to make a Magic Circle: 1/ Wrap yarn around fingers to make a double loop, 2/ Insert hook under the double loop, yarn over, and pull back through. This first move does not count as a stitch. Continue by making 5 single crochets by hooking under the loop. 3/ When complete, remove circle from fingers. You can see the 5 stitches around the outside. Pull the yarn tail lighty until you see which loop pulls - pull this loop to make the other loop smaller. Keep doing this to make both loops pull in tight until you get... 4/ Your little circle! Starting from the hook, you should be able to count back the 5 stitches. Next: do a slip stitch to join to the first single crochet.

RND1: Make a 5 single crochet magic circle. Slip stitch into the first single crochet of the circle to join. You should now be able to identify 5 stitches around the circle.

RND2. The 10 single crochets - you can count them, starting from the hook. How to Single Crochet: insert hook through stitch, yarn over, pull through. You will have two loops on the hook. Yarn over again, and pull those loops through. You just made a single crochet!

RND2: Make 2 single crochets into each of the 5 stitches around the circle. Repeat. You should now be able to see 10 stitches around the circle.

RND 3. How to Add Colour: 1/ You will need to add the new yarn in at the very first slip stitch for RND3. 2/ When you insert your hook into the stitch, yarn over with the new colour yarn (instead of your usual yarn), then pull through for your slip stitch. 3/ The yarn over your hook will now be your new colour, which you will use for the rest of the flower. 4/ When you turn over your flower, you can see the two yarn tails close together where you changed. Cut the old yarn and leave a small tail. The two small tails can be knotted together and the spare thread cut. The remaining new yarn (the yellow yarn leading out of the photo) will be used to crochet the rest of the flower.

RND3: Slip stitch into first stitch of the circle [for colour change see photo above]. Chain 2. In the next stitch along, do a double crochet and a half double crochet. This will create one petal (so for each petal you make, you will use two of the stitches in the circle).

RND3. The Petal: 1/ Do a slip stitch then chain 2 (don't do another slip stitch if you just did one for a colour change). 2/ Yarn over, insert hook through next stitch, then yarn over again. 3/ Pull through and you will have three loops on your hook. Yarn over again. Pull through the middle two loops on the hook. 4/ You will now have two loops on your hook. Yarn over, and pull those two loops through so you just have the one loop left. Steps 2-4= one double crochet!

RND3. The Petal: 5/ To make a half double crochet: Follow step 2 (in previous shot) , then do step 3 the same except that instead of pulling through just two loops, you will pull through all three. This will leave just one loop on the hook (so step 4 is unnecessary!). Hooray you have now made one petal!

You will need to repeat the steps for RND3 (i.e. slip stitch, chain 2, double crochet, half double crochet) until you have 5 petals total.

Slip stitch and finish off. Add buttons, beads, ribbon, and other embellishments as you please

You can use these flowers for many things. Add as embellishments to clothing, bags, hair pins, hair bands, journals, and more! String together to make a garland, attach hooks to make earrings, stitch a couple together with potpurri in the middle for your cupboard, or pop on your tree as Christmas decorations. What are some of your ideas?

Now make many, many more flowers in all different colours to make a whole garden!

Note: I developed this pattern myself, but it is so basic it would have been made many times before! I would still love a link and to see your creations in the comments if you found this helpful More information about pattern use here:
http://amysodyssey.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/my-crochet-patterns/

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