Frankie's Knitted Stuff
The roses that feature in this blanket are seriously textured, with two layers of petals. They are set in an openwork frame and complemented by simple starburst squares. A deep, striped border finishes the blanket.
Facts and Figures
The finished blanket has 64 squares and measures about 110 cm2 (43"); each block is 10 cm2 (4"). It was crocheted in double knitting weight yarn with a 4 mm hook. I used Sirdar Country Style DK (155 m / 50g), 400g of the background colour (beige), 150g each of the two petal colours (red and pink) and the colours for the openwork sections (brown and gold) and 100g each for the leaves, rose centres and starbursts (green and yellow). Brown (Chocolate) 0530 Gold (Butterscotch) 0611 Pink (Rosehip) 0527 Yellow (Maple) 0612 Red (Garnet) 0418 Green (Meadow) 0614 Beige (Macaroon) 0398
This pattern uses British crochet terms: tr = US dc, htr = Us hdc, dc = US sc.
The Rose Squares
Flower Centre
Using yellow, work 4ch and join with a ss to make a ring. Round 1: 3ch, 11 tr into ring, join with ss to top of 3ch (12 sts). Round 2: 4ch, (miss 1 st, dc, 3ch) five times, join to first of 4ch and fasten off (6 loops).
Inner Petals
Working in front of the yellow loops, join the pink yarn to one of the missed stitches from the last round. Round 3: 3ch, (miss 1 st, dc, 2ch) five times, ss to first of 3ch. Round 4: \*(htr, 3tr, htr) in loop, ss in dc, repeat from \* five more times and fasten off.
Outer Petals
Working behind the inner petals, join the red yarn to any yellow dc from Round 2. Round 5: \*(2htr, 3tr, 2htr) in yellow loop, ss in dc, repeat from \* five more times and fasten off.
Leaves
Join the green yarn to any ss between the outer petals. The leaf edging will be worked round the posts of the middle three stitches of the outer petals, one at a time. Work these post stitches tightly or the green will show through to the front of the petals. Round 6: \*2ch, (brdc, 1ch) twice, brdc, 2ch, ss between petals, repeat from \* five more times and fasten off.
That's the rose finished. It could be used as it is to decorate a bag or perhaps as a brooch but these roses are going to be turned into squares ...
Backing the Rose
Join the beige yarn to any yellow post on the back of the rose. When working, keep the rose facing you so that the right side remains the same. Round 7: 3ch, (dc round next post, 2ch) five times, ss to first of 3ch. Round 8: ss in loop, 3ch, (htr in same loop, 1ch) twice, (htr, 1ch) three times in the next and remaining loops, ss to second of 3ch (18 sts and 18 spaces). Round 9: ss in space, 1ch, dc in same space, 2dc in next and remaining spaces, ss to 1ch (36 sts). Round 10: 2ch, htr in next st, \*dc, dec, dc, 2htr, (tr, 1ch, tr) in corner, 2htr, repeat from \* twice more, dc, dec, dc, 2htr, (tr, 1ch, tr) in corner, ss to 2ch and fasten off.
It doesn't look much for four rounds of crochet does it?
The Frame
Join the brown yarn to any corner space. Round 11: 2ch, dc in same space, \*9dc along the side, (dc, 1ch, dc) in corner, repeat from \* twice more, 9dc along last side, ss to first of 2ch and fasten off. Join the gold yarn to any corner space. Round 12: 3ch, htr in same space, \*2ch, htr in first of 9dc, (2ch, miss 1 st, htr) four times, 2ch (htr, 1ch, htr) in corner, repeat from \* twice more, 2ch, htr in first of 9dc, (2ch, miss 1 st, htr) four times, 2ch, ss to second of 3ch and fasten off. Join the brown yarn to any corner space. Round 13: 1ch, (dc, 1ch, 2dc) in same space, \*2dc in 6 spaces along the side, (2dc, 1ch, 2dc) in corner, repeat from \* twice more, 2dc in 6 spaces along last side, ss to 1ch and fasten off.
The Border
Join the beige yarn to any corner space. In this round the stitches are worked between the posts of pairs of stitches from the last round; they will meet the gold stitches from Round 12. Round 14: 2ch, (htr, 2ch, 2htr) in same space, \*2htr between each pair of stitches along the side, (2htr, 2ch, 2htr) in corner, repeat from \* twice more, 2htr between pairs of stitches along last side, ss to 2ch and fasten off.
The blanket has 64 squares all together, half of them Rose squares. I varied the colours for half of these, reversing the colours of the petals and the colours used for the frame. I made 16 squares in each of these two colourways.
Starburst Squares
There are 32 of these, eight each in four colourways: brown centre, pink star brown centre, green star gold centre, yellow star gold centre, red star Using the centre colour, work 4ch and join with a ss to make a ring.
Round 1: 3ch, 11tr into ring, ss to 3ch and fasten off (12 sts). Join the star colour to any stitch. Round 2: 3ch, tr into same st, 2tr in next and remaining sts, ss to 3ch and fasten off (24 sts). That's the starbursts done, although they look more like circles at the moment. The rest of the square is worked with beige yarn. Join the yarn between the posts of any pairs of stitches from the last round. Round 3: 3ch, 2tr in same space, \*3tr after next pair of stitches, repeat from \* to end, ss to 3ch (36 sts). Round 4: 3ch, 7tr, 2tr in next st, (8tr, 2tr in next st) three times, ss to 3ch (40 sts). Now it's a starburst.
Finally, turn that circle into a square ... Round 5: 2ch, 2htr in same st, \*1ch, 3htr in next st, 2htr, 4dc, 2htr, 3htr in next st, repeat from \* twice more, 1ch, 3tr in next st, 2htr, 4dc, 2htr, ss to 3ch. Round 6: 2ch, 2htr, \*(2htr, 2ch, 2htr) in corner, 14 htr along the side, repeat from \* twice more, (2htr, 2ch, 2htr) in corner, 11htr along last side, ss to 2ch and fasten off.
Joining the Squares
Arrange the squares in eight rows of eight, alternating Rose and Starburst squares. The squares are crocheted together, first the horizontal joins and then the vertical. Join the beige yarn to the corner spaces of the pair of squares at the start of the row and work double crochet in each pair of stitches across the square. There should be 20 stitches for each square, 18 along the side and two for the corners. After joining the corners at the end of the square, work 1ch before beginning to join the next pair of squares. When you have worked all the horizontal joins, turn the blanket and repeat the process for the vertical joins.
The Border
This takes a while but it's worth it. The first nine rounds are simple stripes, I used a 3.5 mm hook. The colour changes for every round. Round 1: Beige Work 17dc across square sides (miss or dec 1 st), htr in square corners, 3dc in blanket corners. Round 2: Green Work trebles all round. Corners - (tr, 1ch, tr) in last of 3 corner stitches. Round 3: Beige Work double crochet all round. Corners - 3dc in corner spaces. Round 4: Red Work trebles all round. Corners - (tr, 1ch, tr) in last of 3 corner stitches. Round 5: Beige Work double crochet all round. Corners - 3dc in corner spaces. Round 6: Yellow Work trebles all round. Corners - (tr, 1ch, tr) in last of 3 corner stitches. Round 7: Beige Work double crochet all round. Corners - 3dc in corner spaces. Round 8: Pink Work trebles all round. Corners - (tr, 1ch, tr) in last of 3 corner stitches. There's a slight change on the corners for the last round ... Round 9: Beige Work double crochet all round. Corners - (dc, 1ch, dc) in corner spaces.
The last three rounds of the border are a bit more interesting. I worked these with a 4 mm hook again. First, two rounds to echo the frame on the Rose squares. These two rounds are worked into alternate stitches on Round 9. Join the brown yarn into the last stitch before the two corner stitches.
Round 10:
2ch, (dc, 1ch, dc) into corner space, 1ch, miss 2 sts (corner stitch and the next), dc, \*miss 1 st, dc, repeat from \* along the side. Work all the sides in the same way; that extra stitch missed after the corners makes the pattern fit. Join the gold yarn to any stitch from Round 9 not used in the last round.
Round 11:
2ch, dc in next free stitch from Round 9, \*1ch, dc in next free st, repeat from \* along the side. The corners (2ch, dc, 2ch) are worked into the same Round 9 space as the corners on the last round.
The last round of the border is worked with beige yarn in a crimped pattern, a bit like ric rac. Join the yarn to any dc from the last round. \*3ch, ss into next dc, repeat from \* all round the blanket, including the corners.
The blanket will benefit from blocking to even out all those joins. The country colours I used for my blanket were chosen to match a quilt made completely with rose patterned fabrics ... which inspired the roses on the blanket - a perfect circle.
Abbreviations
st / sts stitch / stitches ch chain SS slip stitch dc double crochet (US single crochet) htr half treble (US half double crochet) tr treble (US double crochet) brdc back raised double crochet: work a dc in the normal way but insert the hook from the back to the front and then to the back again, round the stem of the next stitch dec decrease : \*insert hook in stitch, yarn round hook, pull the yarn through, repeat from \* in the next stitch then put the yarn round the hook and pull through all three stitches. Frankie Brown, 2013. My patterns are for personal use only and should not be used to knit items for sale. Please do not use them for teaching purposes without my permission.9o
