Twenty to Crochet: Crocheted Flowers to Wear

By Anna Nikipirowicz

This lovely book provides 20 contemporary, stylish designs for crocheted corsages – large, eye-catching floral designs that can be worn in different ways: as a brooch, buttonhole, on your wrist, shoes, bag or belt, for example. The flowers are made in a variety of sizes and styles, with different types of flower, all worked in various colours, yarns and crochet stitches. Some feature added embellishments such as buttons and beads.  Some of the flowers are based on real ones, such as the pansy, lily and hydrangea, while others, such as spectrum, roux and rainbow are fantasy flowers designed by Anna. There is more variety in that some of the flowers are quite flat, while others are distinctly 3-D, giving them added appeal. The patterns are easy to follow and there is a beautiful photograph of each one, suggesting ways of wearing them.   All of the materials used are widely available both here and in the US. Examples of the author's work can be found on her website, www.moochka.co.uk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781781264577

Book preview

Introduction

I was delighted to be asked by the lovely people at Search Press to design another crochet book for the 20 To Make series; my first was on purses, but this time it was to be about flowers.

Flowers are wonderful projects to crochet as they are quick, decorative and make great use of all the oddments of yarn we collect. They are a wonderful way to brighten an outfit, to wear in your hair or to pin to your favourite scarf, shawl, belt or bag.

In this book you will find twenty different flowers to crochet. Some of them are based on real flowers, such as the Hydrangea, Snowdrop, Pansy and Lily projects; the rest are fantasy flowers, ones that were great fun for me to imagine and bring to life. I also wanted to make the flowers stand out and add a bit of depth to them, which is why some are 3D, such as the Hydrangea, Snowdrop, Lily and Spectrum. I have tried to create designs that will appeal to both beginners and more advanced crocheters.

All the flowers vary in size; however, by using thinner or thicker yarn and the appropriate size of crochet hook you can adjust the sizes of the flowers quite easily. In this book you will find four large flowers: Azela, Moude, Rouge and Spectrum; ten medium flowers: Aqua, Blue, Fleur, Hydrangea, Lily, Rainbow, Rosie, Roux, Snowdrop and Sorrel; and six small flowers: Pansy, Flora, Leila, Lilac, Orla and Petal.

I hope you enjoy making them!

Crochet know-how

UK and US crochet terminology

The names for basic crochet stitches differ in the UK and the US. In all patterns, UK terms only are given. See opposite for a list of UK–US stitch conversion terms.

Yarn

With such amazing variety of yarns on the market we are truly spoiled for choice. However, for this book I concentrated more on colours and the effect of different yarns rather than the fibre content. I have used five basic yarns to create the flowers: pure wool double knitting or DK (8-ply/light worsted), cotton matt DK (8-ply/light worsted), mercerised cotton DK (8-ply/light worsted), matt cotton 5-ply (sport weight) and mohair 2-ply (lace weight) yarn. Yarn is such an amazing medium to work with that I urge you to experiment with different fibres to see what effects you can achieve. The yarn weights I have mentioned above are described below:

DK yarn (8-ply/light worsted) is a medium weight yarn, and is the most commonly used type. It can be used for most types of crocheting, from plain, lace and textured, producing medium weight garments.

5-ply (sport weight) yarn is slightly lighter than DK yarn and can be used for most types of crochet.

1–3-ply (lace weight) is a very fine yarn, used mostly for delicate openwork.

Crochet hooks

For most of the flowers I used a 3mm (UK 11, US C/D) crochet hook. I also used a 3.5mm (UK 9, US E/4) hook for one project (Blue, page 12) and a 4mm (UK 8, US G/6) for Rouge (page 38), as I didn’t want it to be as dense as the others. Try different hook sizes to achieve the size of finished flower that you want.

It is essential to work with a hook that is easy on your hands. Crochet hooks are made from aluminium, steel, plastic, bamboo and wood. I have always found wooden hooks wonderful to work with; however, it is best to experiment with different types to find one that suits you and offers comfort and control.

Tension (gauge)

I have not given a specific tension (gauge) for any of the projects, but the approximate completed size instead. It is not essential to achieve any particular tension on any of the items as they are accessories, so if they turn out a bit bigger or smaller it will not make much difference. However, the finished guide should provide a basic idea of what size the completed flower should be if you use yarn of a similar weight.

Other materials

Brooch backs

Each flower has a sew-on brooch back attached to the reverse. Some of the