Blooming dogwood is beautiful sign of spring!
I really wanted to include a dogwood flower in Crochet Garden: Bunches of Flowers, Leaves, and Other Delights. Shaping the petal correctly was a challenge, but adding the dark notch at the petal end stumped me…for a while.
Crochet your own dogwood blossoms with the instructions found on pag=es 40-41 Crochet Garden or in the Dogwood Scarf Pattern from Interweave Crochet. I hope you enjoy making a tree-full! These step-by-step photos should help.
Each petal is made with three rows of crochet. To make the curved end at Row 1, you will “hdc-dc-htr-tog across the 3rd, 4th, and 5th ch from hook.” Let’s break that down:
Yo, draw up a loop in the 3rd ch from hook (3 lps on hook).
Yo, draw up a loop in the next ch, yo, draw through 2 loops (4 lps on hook).
Yo twice, draw up a loop in the next ch, yo, draw through 2 loops (6 lps on hook).
The photo shows how the decrease looks at this point. Now you’re ready to finish off this decrease: yo and pull through all lps on hook.
Finish Row 1, using decreases and different heights of stitches as instructed. This photo shows Row 1 finished, just before turning.
Here’s where we introduce the accent color, which will comprise the dark notch at the end of the petal. For the first petal, leave a reasonable-length yarn end, and begin crocheting over the accent color with the original yarn. As you crochet Row 2, you are looking at the wrong side of the petal.
When the final dc of Row 2 is done, drop the main petal yarn, remove the hook from the loop and enlarge the loop, so it won’t come unraveled as you do the next few steps. Turn back to the right side of the petal. Find the stitch in which you made the dc. Then go to the next st of Row 1, and insert the hook in that stitch, as in the photo.
To make the dark notch in the petal, yo with the accent color and draw through the stitch. With the accent color, make 2 slip sts in the side of the dc of Row 2. It’s right there, where you need it. You’ll easily be able to find 2 loops on the side of this stitch. Drop the accent color.
Insert your hook into the enlarged loop that you dropped earlier. Tighten the loop. You’ll have 2 loops on the hook, as you see in the photo above.
With the main color, chain 1, drawing the loop through both loops on the hook. Then chain as instructed for Row 3.
Remember how you decreased three stitches to make the curve on Row 1 of the petal? To make the mirror-image curve on this side of the petal, you do the opposite: increase by placing 3 stitches into the 3rd chain from the hook.
As you crochet Row 3, watch for the instruction to begin crocheting over the accent color again. That will bring it back down to the center of the flower, where it will be ready for the next petal.
Cut a 1/2″/1.3cm strip of stiff card to make the loopy center of the flower. I cut mine from a cereal box. Wrap the accent yarn carefully around the paper strip. Placing the wraps next to each other will make them all the same size. Insert your threaded tapestry needle under the wraps.
Pull the thread under the wraps, remove the needle, tie the ends of the thread as tightly as you can to hold the wraps. Remove the cardboard and tighten the knot.
Tie the yarn ends again to lock the knot in place. Use the ends to sew this piece onto the flower. For the wrap ends, you can trim them and hide them among the loops, or you can bring them to the wrong side of the flower and weave them in.