Irish Crochet Rose - 5

I was going to name the post "Why 6?" but decided there was too much for one post. So, "Why 6?" will have to wait until next week.

Here are the last 2 rnds for the Irish Crochet Rose (from the American Thread Company booklet):

"5th Row. * Ch 7, sc in back of work between next 2 petals, repeat from * all around.
"6th Row. In each loop work 1 sc, 1 sdc, 7 dc, 1 sdc, 1 sc. Sl st in 1st sc of row and fasten thread."

So, the 5th round is basically a repeat of the 3rd round, and the 6th round is basically a repeat of the 4th round. Again sdc or short double crochet is the same as hdc or half double crochet. Sl st is slip stitch and is done the same way as in the link for the baby blanket edging. The picture shows the slip stitch being made. Note that the hook is placed through the back loop only.

This flower in worsted weight yarn is about 4 1/2" across. The one pictured in the first section for the rose and done in size 10 crochet thread is about 1 3/4" across.

As I was thinking about writing this post, I realized that I hadn't said anything about how to attach the rose. Here are some ideas:

To attach it to a sweater or handbag or scarf: I would use floss like one uses for cross stitch. It comes in many colors. It's thicker than regular thread but not as thick as yarn. I would thread a blunt needle with the floss and tack the flower to the object between the outside petals -- where you would place the sc's if you were to do a round 7.

To make a shawl of flowers: I would lay the flowers out how I wanted them to be in the final product. Where the petals touched, I would sc through the tops (either both top loops, the back loops, or the front loops) of touching dc sts, then chain to the next touching petals. If a chain crossed another chain, I would slip stitch them together where they crossed.

To make the flower the center of a square or circle or whatever: I would divide each petal into thirds mentally. For this flower, which has 11 sts per petal, I would sc in the 4th st of the petal, make enough ch sts to start achieving the shape I wanted, sc in the 8th st of the petal, and then ch again, making the next sc in the 4th st of the next petal, etc.

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By the way, one isn't limited to just sc, hdc, and dc when making petals. In fact, the booklet has another flower design immediately after this one. (I don't like it as well -- mostly because the petals turn out more square than rounded.) In round 1, one makes only 5 instead of 6 ch loops. It has for our equivalent of Row/Round 2:
"Ch 1, * 1 dc, 7 dc, 1 dc in ch 3, 1 sc in dc, repeat from * all around."
In other words, instead of skipping over the dc's from the previous round and working only in the ch loops, ch 1 -- which counts as a sc in the first dc. Then work 1 dc, 7 tr (triple crochet), 1 dc in the next loop. Finally, work a sc in the dc on the other side of the ch loop.

Irish Crochet Rose - 4

Here's a pic of the underbelly/WS of the rose through the end of Round 3. The chain loops are lying on top of the petals.

In the first round, each of 6 chain loops had 3 ch's. In the third, each of 6 chain loops had 5 ch's. In the second round, each of 6 petals had 3 dc's. You can probably guess how many dc's for the fourth round. From the American Thread Company booklet:

"4th Row. In each loop work 1 sc, 1 sdc, 5 dc, 1 sdc, 1 sc." (sdc -- or short double crochet -- is the same as hdc)

Here is a picture from the RS of the rose with 3 petals made plus part of a fourth. You can see how the base of the petals in this round is hidden beneath petals from the 2nd round. Also, notice that, to make it easier to crochet, I've bent a petal forward. Finally, as with the 2nd round of petals, I need to scoot the sts over to make room for more in the chain loop.

Next week will be the last 2 rnds of the rose -- under the title "Why 6?".

Irish Crochet Rose - 3

So far, we've completed the first round of petals. Next comes a set-up round for the second round of petals. The next line of instructions from the American Thread Company booklet is:

"3rd Row. * Ch 5, sc in back of work between the single crochets of next 2 petals, repeat from * all around."

The picture shows the back of the rose. I chained 5. (The chain sts are hidden by a petal in the picture. They really shouldn't be.) Then I placed the hook through the back of the stitch between petals -- the back of a dc from round 1 -- as the first step in making a sc.

The last stitch from the previous round is just to the left of the petal just to the left of the crochet hook (from our perspective) . (It's at about the 11 o'clock position.) When the round is complete, none of the sts from this round will be easily visible from the right side of the rose.

Irish Crochet Rose - 1

In honor of St. Patrick's Day and also in honor of the soon-to-be arrival of spring, our next project is an Irish crochet rose. The picture at the right is of this type of rose done as a border for a doily. The pattern is from an old issue of Workbasket Magazine. (My grandmother had a subscription to Workbasket and let me borrow various issues.) It's made with size 10 crochet thread. The roses were made separately. The inner halves of the roses were attached in the second-to-last round of the doily, the outer halves in the last round.

The pattern we will be working with comes from the American Thread Company Booklet but appears to be the same pattern as the Workbasket one. To be different and to see how the rose looks in a different size, I'm going to use worsted weight yarn (in particular Wool-Ease) and a size F (or 5) hook.

First a word about Irish crochet. ....

Last week, we talked about filet crochet. It is, at its most basic, a grid of dc and ch sts. It's lovely in its own right. Irish crochet is, at its most basic, a lot of ch sts to produce not a rectangular grid but triangles and diamonds. Some of these diamond shapes are visible in the upper left hand corner of the first picture. It's also lovely and possibly more of what one thinks of when thinking of crocheted doilies. However, Irish crochet is not limited to circular doilies. It can also be worked back and forth.

Here's the first part of the pattern (from the American Thread Company booklet):

"Ch 7, join to form a ring, ch 6, dc into ring, * ch 3, dc into ring, repeat from * 3 times, ch 3 and join in 3rd st of ch 6 at beginning of row." -- for a total of 6 loops. I'm not sure whether or not it's a typo. But, the part between the asterisks should be worked 4 times.

To begin, chain 7 and join to form a ring. The second picture shows the project at the point of joining to form a ring -- ie, making a slip st in the first st. So, after chaining 7, put the hook through the first ch st, yo, and draw the yarn through both loops.

Note: This is the usual way to start a circular project. The ch 7 produces a nicely defined circle. One could start out with as few as 3 ch sts for a smaller loop. More than 7 ch sts would probably produce too large of a loop. (More on this is at the end of the post.)

Then ch 6, dc into ring, * ch 3, dc into ring *. The third picture shows the second dc into the ring. The first 3 sts of the ch 6 are a substitute for a dc.

If you're going to use the tail later for attaching the rose to a garment or a purse, then let the tail dangle. If not, hide the tail as you dc into the ring. The picture has the tail next to the ch ring and partially hidden under the dc's.

And here is the completed first round. There are 6 chain loops, not counting the center one. The last st is a slip stitch.

A final word: To have no loop at the center (which is another usual way to start a circular project), do not make a loop to start out. Instead of making dc or sc (or whatever) sts into a loop, make them into the 1st st. The first round of the pattern would then be written:

Ch 7, dc into 1st st, * ch 3, dc into 1st st * 4 times, ch 3 and join to 4th st of ch 7 at beginning of rnd.