Crochet charts - a helpful bonus included with some of my patterns

Hello, last week I was hard at work on a new design for Crate Crochet in Australia. I was beginning to get very frustrated with my stitch counts and the exact positioning of some of my stitches when I decided to step away from the yarn and turn to pencil and paper to try and draw my idea in chart form. This was a real eureka moment for me because I was finally able to see the exact placement of the stitches and every single stitch was accounted for.

I need to keep this particular project under wraps for now but it did lead me to have a think about adding charts as a helpful bonus in some of my patterns. Looking through my published patterns I chose 2 that could quickly and easily be turned into chart form and set to work!

The first is this Simple Flower pattern that I had already produced a photo tutorial for. The addition of the chart will make it really easy for other people to understand how the pattern works. This pattern is available as a free pdf download on Ravelry, you will find it here.

Secondly, I looked to one of my very first designs, my Zig Zag Scarf. It turned out that this pattern neeeded more than just a chart, it needed a lot of TLC! I can't believe how much my pattern writing and layout style have changed in 3 and a half years! So, I drew out the chart and then fixed the formatting and layout - it really did look so clunky and alien to me! Another thing I managed to do with this pattern is translate it into US terms - it's always useful to cover both if I can. I then used the scanner at my local library to scan my drawn charts into the computer and from there added them to the documents.

The Zig Zag Scarf pattern is available for £3.60 to download from Ravelry here. Please do let me know if you follow either of these patterns, I love to see how different people interpret my designs!

My Lark's Knot Scarf pattern is almost ready for publishing and it will have a chart too. Thanks also for your patience waiting for my Lavender Cardigan design - it is still stuck at the photo editing stage - nearly there, I want it to be perfect! Not long now ...

Marta xx

How to Crochet a Simple Flower

Hello! I've a simple crochet flower pattern to share with you, right here in this blog post! The pattern is also available as a free download on Ravelry. The pattern is suitable for a confident beginner.

This all came about because last night I was playing about with some cotton yarn, trying to make a very small flower and getting frustrated because the centre was so big and taking up a lot of wasted space! I was using the magic loop method, ch 1, 12dc (UK terms) into the loop and then on to round 2 for the petals, when I suddenly thought "can I skip round 1?" ... And yes, I can, so you can too!

finished flowers

I'm going to give you a complete step-by-step photo tutorial for the flower below, but firstly I'll give all the instructions in the written format for both UK and US terms. 

NB. You will need to know how to make a magic loop! If this is new to you, my YouTube tutorial below will guide you through the process.

Materials

Small amount of yarn

Appropriate size of crochet hook (I used Erika Knight vintage wool and a 5mm crochet hook for the step by step tutorial)

Needle for sewing in ends

finished flowers turned into a simple greetings card

UK instructions

ch - chain

dtr - double treble

ss - slip stitch

Begin with a magic loop, [ch3, 2dtr into loop, ch3, ss into loop] 5 times. Pull starting tail to tighten magic loop. Finish off.

US instructions

ch - chain

trc - triple crochet

ss - slip stitch

Begin with a magic loop, [ch3, 2trc into loop, ch3, ss into loop] 5 times. Pull starting tail to tighten magic loop. Finish off.

That's it, a very small flower which can be used for all sorts of decorative purposes! Top tip - if you leave your tails nice and long these can be used to secure your finished flower to your project.

Step-by-step photo tutorial

begin by wrapping the yarn around

your fingers to make a magic loop

insert yarn from front to back, pull 

a loop through

extra photo to show the start of the magic loop

chain 3 (to begin petal)

first dtr (UK) / trc (US) into the loop

second dtr (UK) / trc (US) into the loop

chain 3 (to finish petal)

slip stitch into loop

Continue around the loop, working the above pattern 5 times in total

Here's the start of petal no. 2 

2 completed petals

5 completed petals

pull the starting tail 

to tighten the loop

you can leave the centre open or

pull it completely closed.

Weave in your ends and you are finished!

a pile of finished flowers in various 

different yarn weights and textures

Conclusion

I would love for you to get in touch and show me your flowers or let me know how you have found this pattern! You could comment below or tag me on Instagram with the tag #martamitchelldesigns. This pattern is now available as a free pdf download from Ravelry.com!

Happy hooking!

Marta xx