FREE PATTERN: Granny 5 Petal Flower Square

Did you participate in Granny Square Day 2022 this week? It's not something I usually do, but on Sunday evening I had some time to myself (!!) while everyone was asleep (!!!) and there wasn't anything else urgent that needed doing (!!!!) so I decided to do a little doodling with my hook and see if I could come up with something a bit different for my contribution. 

Squaring a pentagon can be a bit tricky, but I think I figured it out! The trick was to make 5 pointed flower into a circle first, and then square the circle ;) 

Queue or favourite it on Ravelry here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/granny-5-petal-flower-square

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FREE PATTERN: GRANNY 5 PETAL FLOWER SQUARE
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Finished size: 6" / 15cm 

Materials

Small amounts of Stylecraft Organic Cotton in Buttermilk, Blush, Papaya and Gypsum
4mm/G hook
Scissors
Yarn needle

This pattern uses all US terminology

MC - magic circle

st - stitch 
slst - slip stitch

ch - chain

sc - single crochet

hdc - half double crochet

dc - double crochet

tr - treble crochet

blo - back loop only

flo - front loop only

Directions:

Round 1 (Buttermilk) - make MC, 15dc in MC. finish off. 

Round 2 (Papaya) - join to any stitch with sc. sc in each stitch around, slst to join to first sc. ch1. 

Round 3 (Papaya) - in FLO, [sc, (hdc, dc, hdc) in next st, sc] around. slst to join to first sc. finish off.

Round 4 (Coral) - in BLO of same stitch of Round 2 as you worked the (hdc, dc, hdc) in Round 3, join with sc. [ch4, skip 2 st, sc in next stitch] around, joining with slst to the first sc worked in this round. ch1. 

Round 5 (Coral) - ch1. in next chain space, [sc, hdc, 3dc in next st, hdc, sc, ch1]. repeat [] around, joining to first sc with slst. ch1. 

Round 6 (Coral) - sc in each stitch around, including the ch1 space. finish off.

Round 7 (Papaya) - join with sc in blo of the stitch after the sc in a ch1 space. [hdc, dc, (dc, ch2, dc), hdc, dc, sc, spike dc into top of dc of Round 3 below, sc]. Repeat [] around, skipping final sc on final repeat. slst to first sc to join, ch1. 

Round 8 (Papaya) - sc in each stitch, with 3sc in ch2sp at the point of each petal. join to first sc with slst and finish off.

Round 9 (Gypsum) - join with sc in centre sc of 3sc worked into a ch2sp of Round 7. [sc, hdc in next 2st, dc in next 2st, tr, dc in next 2st, hdc in next 2st, sc in next 2st] repeat [] around, omitting final sc on final repeat and join with slst to first sc. ch1. 

Round 10 (Gypsum) - [dc in next 3st, 2dc in next st] around, but do 3dc in the final stitch not 2. Join with slst to first dc. ch1. 

Round 11 (Gypsum) -  [sc in next 3st, hdc in next 3 st, dc in next 3st, (2tr, ch2, 2tr) in next st, dc in next 3st, hdc in next 3st, sc in next 3 st] repeat [ ] around and join to first sc with slst. ch1.

Round 12 (Gypsum) - sc in each stitch around, working 3sc in the corner ch2 space. finish off and stitch in ends! 

Ta-Dah! The Lily Pond!

Hello everyone!

Last week just got completely away from me - between Kiah's birthday, multiple movie outings, the fatigue (justifiably) getting cranky with all the fun things I was doing, going to the lake for the weekend AND still arguing with PayPal and Ravelry about our new patterns... I didn't blog!

But I did get my Lily Pond Afghan all finished, washed, and blocked, so I do have something to share with you today :D 

The Lily Pond, designed by Jane Crowfoot, was a Crochet-A-Long held in conjunction with Stylecraft Yarns. The event doesn't officially finish until next week, but I have been helping Stylecraft with a few secret projects, and had access to the final few patterns through that. 

Jane Crowfoot is a super famous crochet designer, and I love Stylecraft Special DK, so what could possibly go wrong!? It turns out, quite a lot - the Facebook group/s had a rocky start, the patterns were sometimes very hard to decipher, information was missing, and the translation between UK and US terms didn't go very well. I did not get the same great joy of working through this CAL as I did with Sophie's Universe, but that is a very very high bar! 

I didn't choose to go with the recommended yarn colours - it was a bit dark and dreary for me, especially the blues and greens. For a full list of the yarns I used, see my Ravelry Project page :) 

After all the dramas, I do actually love the outcome! The blocking was lots of fun - we ended up using about 300 pins to get all the flower petals to sit nicely!! I am so lucky to have a husband who supports my crazy crafty endeavours, although I think he was starting to doubt this after his third trip down to the junk shop to buy more pins... 

This afternoon, Kiah, Lily and I took a relaxing stroll around Anderson Park (the other side of the bay at Meadowbank from our apartment), taking photos of Lily with the river, the lovely sandstone and quite a lot of enthusiastic clover.

The colours and pattern almost danced in the dappled sunlight - it really does look like a real lily pond! 

Then, just as we were getting in the car to leave, Kiah said "Look! Under that tree with the undergrowth looks almost like a pond! One last photo?" 

One last photo :) 

Ta-dah! Sophie's Universe!

It's been nearly 18 weeks now since I started on the Sophie's Universe CAL, and I cannot believe how much I've learned in that time. Sophie has made me a much better and more confident crocheter - what a girl! 

Before we get to the photos, a HUGE thank you to the incredible Dedri Uys from www.lookatwhatimade.net, the designer of this stunning project. 

Now, isn't she beautiful? 

Ta-dah! Overlay Crochet Mandala No.1!

Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a good week :) 

Anne and I have not had such a good week - we have both been hit really hard by the fatigue monster. Stupid monster. When Anne comes to visit me in December we are going to crochet ourselves a Fatigue Monster so we can stick pins in it and hit it with a hammer!!! 

To cheer ourselves up we are having a little giveaway on Instagram, to celebrate reaching 500 followers! If you are on Instagram and haven't found us yet, we are @crochetbetweenworlds :) Go find us and enter the giveaway!! 

You might remember that last week, on a rainy and cold day here in Sydney, I posted about my crochet wishlist. This week I really needed some bright colour and quick satisfaction, so I decided to have a go at CAROcreated's Crochet Overlay Mandala No.1. Here are lots of photos of it, because I love it so much :D

Even the back is pretty!

Have you made mandalas before? 

What are your favourite mandala patterns? 

Sophie's Universe Update! Plus, a brand new CAL

Hello everyone! 

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments - we love reading and replying, and also reading your blogs to find out what's happening in your worlds :) You can find us on Bloglovin', and also on Facebook and Instagram for updates in between posts. 

Today I delivered my competition entries to the Sydney Royal Easter Show! I'll find out by post whether I've had any success, and I am hoping to go to the exhibition on Tuesday 24 March to see if my work has been exhibited - wish me luck! 

Part 9 of the Sophie's Universe CAL was released this week! Amongst other things, the rows of very cute pink tulips are now on both sides! Also, the "short sides" are now longer than the "long sides"... Thank you to my amazing photographer Kiah who stood in at the last minute to save my shaking hands from blurry photos :) 

Kathryn is also finished with Part 9 now:

Nicole has left the Garden and is now journeying through the Universe!

Since I clearly don't have enough to do, I've also picked up another Crochet-along, from the incredible Julie Yeager! You might remember my Stained Glass Afghan that I started in Vanuatu last year - Julie designed the Stained Glass Afghan Square that I used. 

Fortunately this one is only to make a 12" square over 8 days, with one part every day. As usual I've coopted a wonderful friend to do it with me, so here are Parts 1, 2 and 3 from me and Yvette!

If you love Julie's patterns as much as I do, you'll be thrilled to know that as part of National Crochet Month, she is offering discount codes!! The codes are on her blog, and you should definitely go get them and then drool over her patterns on Ravelry ;) 

Phew! What a week! I hope you all have a lovely relaxing weekend :) 

These boots are made for... snuggling!

Hello everyone! Sorry I'm a bit late this week - I was hoping to blog last night but me and Sophie were NOT getting along, and I wanted to show you all how this week's part of the CAL looks :) 

First up though, I have been having loads of fun recently making Crocodile Stitch Booties! Using this fabulous set of patterns from Bonita Designs, I've made baby ones in Stylecraft Special DK Citron:

Child ones with a Stylecraft Special DK Lavender sole and Moda Vera Fayette Jewel Mix tops:

And adult ones with a Moda Vera Marvel Green sole and Moda Vera Fayette Frenzy tops!

It is a fantastic pattern - very easy to follow and well explained for uneducated people like me who have never done crocodile stitch or rib stitch before - I highly recommend it. And, so cute!

I particularly had fun at Mum's house on Sunday, shopping in her button collection :) Do you think these were good choices?

The baby ones don't have buttons yet. I need to either figure out how to crochet buttons that are the right size and work well, or maybe get some velcro? What do you think?

And here is my Sophie's Universe progress! It took me much longer than it should have to do the last 10 rows, but I kept reading the pattern wrong and miscounting and discovering mistakes in previous rows... Sophie didn't quite go over the balcony, but it was a near thing a few times. I love the colours though!!

Here's hoping I have better luck with next week's part 5 :) 

EDITED TO ADD: Here is my sister's start on the Sophie's Universe CAL - I love how the different colour scheme gives a totally different effect!! She was inspired by the Attic24 Cottage pack in choosing her colours.