Let’s celebrate these last weeks of summer in the Northern Hemisphere by crocheting a Curly Ray Sunflower (pages 54-55 of Crochet Garden). And if you’re anticipating the end of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, this flower will brighten your day!
I’m giving away the three Curly Ray Sunflowers shown on this page. Simply leave a comment on this blog post OR on my Crochet Garden page on Facebook by September 1, 2012 to be entered into the drawing. I’ll draw three names, and send one flower to each person whose name was drawn. Good luck!
The petals of Curly Ray Sunflower are attached to each other as you crochet them. Lori, a Crochet Garden reader, asked for help with the joining instructions. I promised to post step-by-step photos that show how to join Curly Ray’s petals successfully. Here they are:
Photo 1: the first petal of Round 5 is finished. The pink arrow points to the back loop of the final dc of the row, where you will be joining the next petal. The yellow arrow points to the 5th sc of the petal, which you’ll need to find after completing all the petals.
Move on to the next petal with ch 8. In the 2nd ch from hook, (3 sc). In the next ch-stitch, you will make 3 stitches, which will be inside the bold parentheses here: (sc,
fold the ch and the yarn to the front of your work, so your hook is behind them.
Insert your hook into the back loop of the final dc of the previous petal, shown by pink arrow in Photo 1. You have to kind of reach backwards to do this. Now you have two loops on the hook.
Photo 2: Insert hook into the ch and draw up a loop—that will be the loop the yellow arrow points to.
Now you have 3 loops on the hook. The pink arrow points to the original loop on your hook. The blue arrow is the back loop of the final dc of the previous petal.
Yarn over and draw through all 3 loops to complete an sc.
Finally, hdc into the same ch-st.)
Photo 3: Now you have 3 sts in the 3rd ch. Take a moment to sort everything out—find the chain and notice that you have 5 ch sts remaining.
Photo 4: Finish the petal as instructed in the directions. You will be using the htr or half-treble crochet. Find the htr’s history and how-to on page 12 of Crochet Garden.
Crochet 9 more petals around the flower, just as you did the previous petal, joining as you go.
Photo 5: Petal 12 is the same as petal 11 (not petal 17 as printed in the instructions), only you stop after completing the last tr. Cut the yarn and pull the loop until the cut end comes out of the top of the stitch. Thread the yarn into a tapestry needle.
Photo 6: Needle-join by stitching around the very first sl st of the round. In Photo 6, you can see how the thread comes from the top of the tr and goes around the base of the first petal. Thread the needle back down into the top of the tr to complete a needle-join.
Photo 7: Now thread the needle up the back of Petal 12, until you come to the final dc of that petal. The blue arrow shows how the needle is coming out of the back loop of the final dc of petal 12.
Photo 8: Find the 5th sc of petal 1 (go back to Photo 1—it’s the stitch the yellow arrow points to). Stitch into the back of this sc, then stitch into Petal 12 again to join the first petal to the last petal.
