Crochet Vintage Flowered Cloche Pattern

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I am proud (and relieved) to finally present to you: the vintage flowered cloche! This hat has been in the making for years.  Literally, years.  For those of you in the crochet ‘know’, you …

Free Pattern: Knit Slouch Flowered Hat

Hi all! I apologize for being remiss in my blogging – I’ve had this pattern ready to go for weeks, but then suddenly allergies and hives attacked my body and I’ve been doped up on antihistamines and that’s just not …

Crochet Daisy Tutorial

Good morning yarning friends!  Today I’m going to walk you through a super easy crochet daisy tutorial.  I came up with this flower several years ago in my first few months of rediscovering crochet, and I thought it was time to revive it.  It’s a pretty cute flower – the only gripe I have is sewing it on, since the petals are a bit floppy and since I’m anal retentive I tack each. one. on.  But the end results are well worth it!

(Personally I think the hat itself is kind of ridiculous, since it’s really not a hat but a doily, but if you want a pattern, I can probably figure it out again.)

Okay, to start: you’ll need daisy colored yarn (I used white and yellow) and your crochet hook of choice.  This flower is easily adaptable to different weights.

Start with yellow yarn.  If your dc are 3 ch high, ch4.  If they are 2 ch high, ch3.  12 dc into the first ch.  You could also use magic ring, but I never really figured it out and crocheting into the first ch always worked just fine for me.  Sl st to first st.

Switch to white yarn.  Sl st and ch8. (9, if your dc are 3 ch high).  Starting on 3 ch from hook (or 4, if you have 9 ch), you’ll crochet into the remaining six ch: 3 dc, 2 hdc, 1 sc.  Make sense?  You’ll have three stitches of dc, two stitches of hdc, one stitch of sc, six stitches total.

When you reach the end of the petal, sl st into the very next st of yellow (see arrow above).  Ch 8 (or 9) and repeat petal.

Again, you’ll be sl st into the very next st when you are finished.  You’ll end up with 12 petals of six st (3 dc, 2 hdc, 1 sc).
Completed daisy.  Sl st the white yarn to the first petal, fasten off yarn, leaving a looooong white tail to sew onto desired project.

Hope this tutorial makes sense, and if not, you know where to find me!  🙂  Good luck and happy daisy-ing!

Crochet Chunky Flowered Cloche Pattern

I made up this pattern a few winters ago after a failed attempt to replicate a crocheted beanie/toque I’d found at Nordstrom Rack, made by some fancy jeans company – Seven for all mankind or lucky or something else I’ve never purchased.  I spent weeks creating the pattern, and when I finally perfected it, I proudly put it up for distribution, only to have the mass majority of people comment that they “didn’t know how to wear slouchy hats”.  Noses were turned up, hats sat forlornly on shelves.

So, a few months after said failed sales attempt, I took apart one of the hats and recreated a ‘regular, smash down on my head’ hat that I could wear out and about.  Ironically, for all the hats I had made, none really fit me or looked good on me, and my head was getting cold!  It was charcoal gray, very neutral, but I liked how the chunky yarn made my really huge head look not-so-huge.  Seems rather counterintuitive but there you go.  I distinctly remember waiting at Good Stuff Eatery in Washington, D.C. after work for a friend’s birthday gathering, and out of excessive boredom, I whipped out a ginormous mustard flower. It was a hugely bold move for me (large statement pieces + large heads = extreme fashion failure)… I even left all the strings on the flower dangling and shoved them inside the hat for weeks, ready to rip it out at any moment.

The summary of said experience since, however, is as follows: of all the hats I’ve ever carefully crafted, designed, tested, modeled, sold, displayed, etc., this hat, by FAR, has received the most compliments, “where did you get that”s, and “Can I please buy one” than any other I’ve ever made.  I suppose I should pay closer attention to supply and demand and provide on a more timely manner.

However, timely or not timely, here’s the pattern, available for your own fine creation, and modified to also include children and baby sizes.  Hooray children and baby sizes!  (Make a matching set for mommy and daughter – I’ve witnessed the cooings firsthand!)

Buy your pattern from Etsy, Ravelry, or Craftsy.  Email me at classycrochet@gmail.com with any questions.  Enjoy!

How to: Quick Rosette Flower

Here’a super simple pattern for a rosette crochet flower.  They’re cute and really fast to make, and add a classic or whimsical touch to your finished projects.  You can use any weight yarn and any size hook.  For this tutorial I’m using regular worsted weight yarn and a size I (5.5mm) hook.

This pattern is SUPER adaptable.  Chain any length you want for a bigger flower, go up a hook size, etc.  The sky’s the limit!

ch25

The basic premise is, you’ll be crocheting two stitches into each chain. I like to start off smaller, so 2 hdc into the next three ch, then I switch up to 2 dc into each of the next 8 or so ch. If you want to go wild, you can increase even more to 2 tdc into the next 5 ch, then back down to 2 dc for the next 8 ch, then back down to 2 hdc for the last two chs. Your project will curl around like so. Fasten off, leaving long tail to stitch the flower together and attach to projects.

Arrange your curl around so it looks like a nice rosette.

Using long tail, stitch the rosette into place. I like to make sure my stitches go through the foundation ch on each layer (white arrows) so the petals are secure. Fasten off with a long chain to sew onto project.

If you use 100% wool to make the rosette, they felt up beautifully. You can attach a 1″ pin or 1″ French clip on the back to fasten to projects.

And that’s it!  Awesome flower, done in no time, very versatile… what more could you ask for?

How to: Basic Crochet Flower

I’ve been making this flower forEVER and have done a zillion variations on it – hook size, number of stitches per petal, number of petals per flower, etc.  It’s extremely versatile and is fantastic for a last minute embellishment on any of your awesome yarn accessories.  You can sew it directly onto your project, or I have also lined the back with a felt circle and French clip for a removable accessory.  The possibilities are endless!

For this tutorial I’m using just a basic worsted weight yarn and a size I hook.

Row 1: ch4, sl st to form a loop. *ch3, sl st into loop* repeat 5 times for a total of six ch3 loops. This forms the basis for your first row of petals.

Row 2: Sl st, ch1 into first ch3 loop. In each loop: hdc, dc, hdc, ch1, sl st. Sl st, ch1 into next loop and repeat.

Finished first round of petals.

Row 3: ch1, turn flower over. *Insert hook, sl st into middle of the back of the petal. Ch4.* Repeat * five times – 6 ch4 loops.

Finished row 3. The ch4 loops provide the base of the next row of petals.

Row 4: Sl st, ch1 into first ch4 loop. In each loop: hdc, 3 dc, hdc, ch1, sl st. Sl st, ch1 into next loop and repeat. If you want to be done at this point, fasten off and leave a long tail to sew onto your finished project. OR…

If you want to go big and keep going, repeat rows 3-4, increasing the ch loop to 5 and dc in each petal to 5. Usually at this point it’s big enough but you can always add another row for extreme flower awesomeness.

Some tips I’ve picked up over the years:

• When I sew the flower on, I fasten around the loops of the edges of the petals of each row, but in the last row (with the largest petals) I also sew a tiny stitch into the middle of each petal.  This keeps the flower from curling up, and then it looks a lot smaller.
• I prefer to leave the long tail for fastening at the beginning (before you ch4 into a loop) and work my way out when I fasten, but that’s a matter of preference.
• If you do choose to attach the flower to a clip, depending on how big the flower to clip ratio is, I tend to attach the clip towards the ‘top’ of the flower in the back.  This way the flower doesn’t flop over and look very sad.
• If you want to make it bigger, you can just increase the hook size.  I’ve gone all the way up to a K hook on the last row of petals and added a few extra dcs in each petal.

The quick and dirty typed out pattern:

Row 1: ch4, sl st to form a loop. *ch3, sl st into loop* repeat 5 times for a total of six ch3 loops. This forms the basis for your first row of petals.

Row 2: Sl st, ch1 into first ch3 loop. In each loop: hdc, dc, hdc, ch1, sl st. Sl st, ch1 into next loop and repeat.

Row 3: ch1, turn flower over. *Insert hook, sl st into middle of the back of the petal. Ch4.* Repeat * five times – 6 ch4 loops.

Row 4: Sl st, ch1 into first ch4 loop. In each loop: hdc, 3 dc, hdc, ch1, sl st. Sl st, ch1 into next loop and repeat. If you want to be done at this point, fasten off and leave a long tail to sew onto your finished project. OR…

Row 5: repeat rows 3-4, increasing the ch loop to 5 and dc in each petal to 5.