Motif of the Month July 2016: Lilypad Motif Crochet Tutorial

Hey everyone, it's Deja from crochetandwraptor.com. Today is the newest motif of the month, it's July 2016 and this is the lily pad motif. So this is made with crocodile stitch. These little petals are all crocodile stitch, so you'll learn how to make those. Very simple, very quick. This is 8 rounds, but it works up like a 4 round project because a lot of these rounds are just getting ready to make these crocodile stitches. So don't be turned off by seeing so many rounds in the pattern. It's very easy, very quick. I call this the Lily Pad just because when I was making it, I made it first in this pink. Two-tone pink and I was thinking of making like a rose but as I made it and realized how three-dimensional it was I said this looks like a lily pad. So I changed the colors for the video so you could see that and made kind of like this cute three-dimensional lily pad circle. So it's a full circle so you can use it just like any other circle motif. You could make a whole blanket out of it if you wanted to whatever you like. I also talk about how you can flatten these out if you If you want them flat. But it would be even cute if you did a bunch of different circles in different colors. So you could do, you know, pinks and blues and whatever and make each of these rounds different colors. That'd be really pretty too. Also, I want to show you the difference in yarn. These are both worsted weight. And this is actually a J hook. And this is actually an I hook. But you'll notice that this one is way larger. So whenever you see worsted yarn, I don't usually put gauge on the motif. So I just put the finish size because they're kind of Um, they're not important for the gauge, it's just scrap yarn and having fun so I don't put gauge to stress people out but if this was something that needed to be fitted, you would want to check your gauge because Big hook and this yarn should make a bigger motif than this, but because this yarn is a little bit thinner, even though it's a worsted weight, it's much softer, more drapey yarn, the results are smaller than this red heart, thicker, sturdier yarn, which is also important to note when you're making something like a blanket. Do you want something very drapey and soft, or do you want something more sturdy that That will hold up. to multiple washings so this should hold up pretty well but the red heart kind of is known for holding up really well when making blankets and washing but it's not as soft so it's kind of a trade-off gotta think about that but that's enough on that go grab the pattern get your hook so i'm using worsted weight and a 5.5 millimeter us eye hook and we'll get started start off with a slip So, just twist down, make a loop, reach through that loop, and grab your working yarn attached to your ball, and pull that, and then just pull on your tail that's not attached to tighten it down, flip that on your hook, and tighten it down. So we're going to create an open center for our lily pad, so we're going to chain four, and then we're going to join it with a slip stitch. So we always yarn over from back to front. Turn your hook down to get through your last chain easily, and pull through, and then push to your shaft. To push, yarn over back to front, turn down, pull, push. So we get four of those, then we're going to join with a slip stitch in our first chain. You can just go anywhere in that first chain. We're going to be completely covered by the end of round one, and then we pull through for our slip stitch. So the hole's not super easy to see, we just have to pull it apart so we can work into it for our first round, and once you start making some stitches in there, you will be able to see the hole much easier. So for round one, the first thing we're going to do is chain three, and that's going to count as a double crochet. So we're going to go one, again, yarn over, back to front, turn down, pull. Then we're going to do a double crochet inside that ring. So we yarn over for our double crochet, your chains apart from your beginning round so you can see that center hole, and place your hook right through that center hole, working around the entire chain, slides and fills up, then we kind of lay over our yarn. This is a yarn over, but it's more like a layover. You're not actually wrapping it around anywhere, it's just laying over the top, you turn your Turn your hook to catch it and pull it through. Then we're going to work off two loops at a time. So we yarn over again, always in the same direction, pull through, push, yarn over, pull through, and push. So that's going to be our little spokes of our flower in between each of these little petals. But in between each one, we're going to chain two. So we yarn over, pull through, and push, and then do another two double crochets. So you'll see our hole open up much more from that double crochet, so it's a lot easier to see. I'm going to do another chain two, another two double crochets. We're creating six of these spokes, so six of these two double crochets. By the end of the round, we'll have six of these and six chain two. We end with a chain two so that we are even all the way around. I'll just keep going. I always keep my loops the same size as my shaft, And that keeps... Your stitch is a little bit more consistent, unless you're really good at eyeballing it. It works for you, but if you're having trouble keeping your stitches consistent, notice that I always push it to my shaft after every single step I do, and they are the same size, these loops are the same size as my shaft, so I keep just enough tension on my working yarn to keep them the same size, and then I always push to my shaft. This is why I like this hook because it kind of stops me. I always push kind of right to where it hits and then I know I'm ready for my next yarn over. So you can see I'm kind of overlapping that beginning chain 3, but this stuff is all around the chain. So you can just pull these and space these out as you like. But I still need my two chains, and then we can join the round. So I'm going to join at the top of my chain three. So here's the first chain, second chain, and then third chain. So I'm going to go into that chain, yarn over, pull through, and pull through the loop on my hook. Now we have one more round with this color. We're going to slip stitch for the very first stitch. Because I need to get over to this chain 2 space and I don't want to fasten off. So I'm just going to slip stitch. So this is coming, this join is coming off of this double crochet. I'm going to slip stitch this next double crochet. So you can either just go through one loop or both loops, whatever you like. I'm just going to go through this back loop, hide it. And then we're going to start working into these chain two spaces. So I'm going to do three single crochets here. Insert our hook all the way around the chain. I call them like floating because they're not attached to a chain or attached to a stitch, so they can kind of move. So pull through, one more, yarn over, pull through. Then we're going to bridge the gap of the two double crochets. By making a chain two. So this is what we're doing for the whole round. We're doing three single crochets in our chain two space and then we're going to chain two to get over the gap or over the DCs and then more single crochets. So just keep doing that all the way around. Single crochets the round. Pretending like nothing happened here where we joined. We're just gonna skip right over that with our chain two. And then we're going to join the round with that first single crochet that we did at the beginning of the round. So one way that you can find that if you're confused with this slip stitch is know that your slip stitch you're skipping, even though it looks like a stitch. Or you can look at your actual stitches. If you notice from here up, if we kind of close it off, you can see the three stitches that are attached to that chain two space. So we want to go under the loops of that very first chain, kind of skip that. First one that looks like a stitch and go to the next because that was our slip stitch. We're going to fasten off yellow and move on to our white. Me, I was looking for my scissors because they don't seem to grow legs, but I just cut my yarn. And for the next color, join this one in with a standing stitch. One of my favorites because it takes any kind of extra work. It doesn't need chain stitches. Looks just like a regular stitch because it is. First thing you need to do is another slip stitch, or slip knot, sorry, put that on your hook, and then we're going to join our yarn into, don't get confused, don't start working into the chain two that you put the single crochets, because these are really flat, so you kind of got to pull them up to see them. We need to work into that chain two space, so we're going to do that by doing a single crochet in that spot. So all you do to do a standing single crochet is just pretend like your yarn is already attached to your work and just start single crocheting. So insert your hook through that chain two spot, pull up a loop, kind of tighten it down so they come close together because if you're loose they're going to be a little far apart, bring your tail so that they're real close together, yarn over, hold on to your tail so this loop doesn't start flipping on you, and pull through both loops. And now we've got a single crochet, we've joined our new color, and we have no extra chains or slip stitches. Now we're going to create the loop that our petal is going to attach to, or our crocodile stitch. So we're going to chain 6, and we're going to anchor that back down with another single crochet in that same chain 2 spot. Yarn over, pull, and our crocodile stitch will connect to, and our loop for the next round. Now we need to get over to our next chain two space. So what we're going to do first to get past these three single crochets is chain three. So one, change the gap, go and single crochet in your next chain two spot. Do another six chains, single crochet in there again to lock it down, and chain three. Pretty simple. What we're doing all the way around. Okay, I made all my loops. Now I just need to make my last chain three. I'm going to join with a slip stitch in that very first stitch. Now we are ready to finally make some crocodile stitches. So first thing we're going to do is start working into this loop that's right here. So we are going to do five double crochets, a picot, and then five double crochets. So pico is a very simple stitch I will show you after we get through these double crochets. So just yarn over, insert all the way around so that we can make these kind of boobies. And now we're ready for our pico. So our pico kind of gives a point to our petal. So I'm going to give you two options. So I'm going to show you the pico. So for a pico, you're going to chain three. So one, two. Then we're going to slip stitch in that first chain. And then we get this kind of boost. Just kind of a little point. To the top of our petal, so you'll see how that looks once it's all worked in. If you don't want pointy petals, what you're going to do instead of the picot, is you're going to just chain two times, and then you're going to do your next double crochet. So we're going to do five double crochets down here, and it's going to kind of just really make a point. It's going to be just kind of rounded with a tiny little point. But I want these to kind of be really pointy, and there's only one chain there, so there's one, two, three. Because the lily pad petals, you know, usually they're very pointy looking, so I wanted more of a point to it. I'm going to yarn over and I'm going to do five more double crochets. So you can experiment with both and see which one you like better, or if you want to make more of a flower looking, then... You know, whatever it may be. You choose. You want the pointy, go with the picot. You want more rounded, then just do a chain two. So this is my pointy picot petal here. Just a little bit more point. To kind of anchor our petal, what we're going to do is we're working with the three Single crochets of round two. We are ignoring this chain three and we're going to slip stitch in the middle. So the second single crochet or the middle single crochet of round two, I'm going to slip stitch in. So I'm going to go keep this behind, reach through, yarn over, pull through, and pull through the loop. And now, that's all we're doing. So we're gonna do another five double crochets in this next loop. Get us over there. Pedals together in the center with that single, I'm sorry, with that slip stitch. Pico, then another five. Notice I always turn my hook down when I'm going through my stitches. It helps so I don't get caught on my loops. If you get caught all the time, just start turning your hook down. You see I always kind of do the scooping motion, scoop, turn. Muscle memory will take over eventually and you won't have to Five double crochets now, then I'm going to go and move this chain three out of my way. You'll see one, two, three, I want that second one, slip stitch in there, keep doing that all the way around. Okay, I just finished my last petal, so you can see them all here. Now I'm going to join with a slip stitch in that very last middle single crochet. Slip stitch there, and then we're going to move on to the next round, round five, and what we're going to do is something you don't usually do when you're working in the round. We're going to turn our work, so we're turning it to the back, and now we are going to create some more loops, some more petals in these chain three spaces that we had skipped previously. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to single crochet into this chain 3 spot. I'm going to do 2 single crochets actually. I'm going to do 1, and then another 1, and then I'm going to chain 8. So 8 chains to make this petal a little bit bigger than the last one. 7, 8, and then 2 more single crochets in that chain 3 spot. We have to increase everything a little bit each round to make sure we are Laying flat. Now to get over to the next chain 3 spot, we're going to chain 5 in between this petal. 3, 5. And then we're going to do the same thing over. So 2 single crochets, 2 single crochets. So we're going to keep doing that around and it will meet up at the beginning of the round again. There's my last chain 5. Now I'm going to join this round with a slip stitch in that very first single crochet that I made. Now we're going to turn our work again because we're going to start doing our next set of petals. So you'll see that I am far away from my loop over here. So we're doing our middle I'm in the middle. slip stitch like we did for this petal over these little slip stitch is here. We're doing that first before we do our loop. So this is going to be a slip stitch Into that chain two space where we made our loop for the very first petal. So this little guy here, we're going behind the petal, in front of our chain five, and reaching through that chain two space. So you can see the chain two here, and then we're going to slip stitch that so that we're bridging our gap, and now we can start petal. So for this petal we're going to double crochet seven times. We did five here. Now we're going to do seven on each side with the picot in the middle. So just yarn over, start doing your seven in the picot. So chain three, slip stitch that first chain, then another seven back down. After your picot, one thing I want to mention, keep this loop right after your picot nice and tight on your shaft because if it gets real big and you start doing your double crochet, it's going to give a really messy loop over here. You're going to get a big gap. So make sure that when you start doing this first double crochet after your picot that your loop is nice and tight. You don't have to work into it, so it's not a big deal if it's super tight. That was blocking me here. Then we're going to do another slip stitch like we just did, so behind the petal, in front of the chain 5, through the chain 2 loop. Very confusing if you're just reading the instructions, so this video helps with that. Now we're going to keep doing our double crochets and we'll meet up back at the end. The very last petal of the round, and now I'm going to join with a slip stitch in the very first slip stitch that I made. So, look for your petal, find the little legs that are in the middle, and then you can stitch right there. Stitch in there. Fasten off our three-dimensional very well. You can also, if you wanted it to lay completely flat for whatever reason, you can block it if you're using acrylic yarn. If you steam it, it will kill the yarn, so I have a... Don't touch the iron to the yarn though or it will melt it, but if you look at my video on steam blocking, you'll see how it kind of relaxes the yarn and it won't stand up anymore, so it totally just lays it flat. But I like the three-dimensional. I like it looking kind of like a lily pad. Pretty. So now we're going to join in our green. We're going to do a standing half double crochet this time. So again, we're going to do a slip knot. and just like our standing single crochet we're just going to start working a half double crochet and we're going to be working in the chain fives so we're going to insert our hook right in there a loop i'm sorry this is a half double so we need to yarn over first and i got to hold on to my tail because if i yarn over and pull i just lose my yarn over so make sure that you hold on to your tail before you yarn over and then insert your hook into that chain five Pull up a loop and pull through all three. I'm going to switch to holding on to the tail with this hand so that I can get through. So I have a half double crochet. Now I'm kind of creating the circle that I'm going to be using for the last round. So I have to do some different height stitches which is good practice. So then we're going to do another half double crochet. More sense when we come to the end of the round here, what we're going to be doing. Then we're going to do a double crochet, because this is just part of this chain 5 stitch combo. You'll see the full stitch combo on this next chain 5. I'm doing a double crochet here, and then a treble. So I yarn over twice, and then insert my hook in. Then work off two loops at a time. Always work off two loops at a time, unless it's a half double. Then you're doing all three at once. Pull through, yarn over, pull through two more, yarn over, pull through the last. Then I am not going to do anything to get from here to here. I am just going to start with my combo. And the combo is double crochet, so yarn over twice, insert, hook off two at a time, then a double crochet. I'm doing three half double crochets. I only did two here, but when I get to the end of my round, I'm going to do these beginning stitches that I just did To finish off this area. I'm going to do a Half double, so yarn over, insert, three, another one of those, get your hook down to get through easy, a double, I'm going back up now, this is like the end of this first combo I did, a double and then a treble. So this is what I'm doing, each of these chain five spaces, I'm doing a treble, a double, three half doubles, a double, and a treble, like a little mirror. So we go over twice, get the picture of what we're doing here, just consult the pattern. If you need help remembering the order. And we'll meet up over here so we can finish off this combo. Okay, now I'm back to this beginning section. And what I want to do is finish what I've done on these other sections. So I want to do a treble first. Into that same chain 5 spot as the beginning. Then I'm going to do a double. And since I only have two half double crochets, I need to do one more. So I'm going to do a half double, and then I'm ready to join. So I'm going to slip stitch in the top of that very first half double. So remember, you can just kind of pull it apart if you need to find the hole that you're supposed to slip stitch in. I'm trying to show it to you there. That little guy right there. So slip stitch in there. Now we're ready for our final round. So you can see we're getting... A whole little pad going. So I could make this like a true lily pad and kind of do some different high stitches. So if you wanted to make it a little bit more of like kind of the heart shape, you could add some troubles in there near whatever section you want it to be. But I wanted to make this a full circle so that it would be easy to join. So if you wanted to make like a lily pad blanket, scarf, whatever. You would be able to easily join up all the circles if it's an odd shape then it might be a little bit more difficult so you can play around with that. So for this very last round what we're going to do is just double crochets. So we're double crocheting all the way around but because we want this to lay flat still we need to put a couple... A couple, um... So we're going to do two double crochets everywhere where the three HTCs are, the three half-double crochets. That middle half-double crochet in every section, we're going to put two double crochets. So we joined into the middle half-double here. So we're going to start off with a chain three, and we're going to double crochet in the same stitch. So that's our very first increase, so right in that same hole, I'm going to do a double Double crochet. Then I'm going to double crochet to the next half double section over here. So every stitch I come to, just do a regular double crochet. There, two more stitches. So this is my middle half double of this section. So if you're having trouble looking at your stitches and seeing what they are, because I can see that this is a treble, this is a double, here's a half, half, half, double treble, but you can count your stitches too. So let me come over to this section here since it doesn't have anything in it. So if you look at the top of your stitches here, you're going to kind of cover everything else and just what you have here. So we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So we have seven Vs up there that you can count. So we're making the two double crochets in the fourth V. So one, two, three, four. There's our middle half double and we put two double crochets there. You can also count backwards. So if you've already started stitching and you forgot where to go. Count backwards four. One, two, three, four. So you can see my next stitch is my middle. So I know to put two double crochets in there. So that's what we're gonna do all the way around. Just double crochet and put two doubles in each of that middle half double crochet. All right, very last double crochet. I'm ready to join and fasten off. Hat is done. Little shot here. So I like it curling up like this. It's cute kind of three-dimensional look. You can definitely steam it down if you want it flat, gives it kind of a different flower look. I just kind of like it like that. It'd be really cute. I also made one in pinks so you could see that if you wanted to do a, maybe like a rose blanket or something, you could do that as well. So you don't have to make it just look like a lily pad, you can make it look like flowers. Thank A bunch of different flowers and a blanket would be really pretty. So if you did different combinations. So you can do up to three colors. You can even do double color petals if you want. It's all about how many ends do you want to weave in. So that's up to you. But that is the leaf lily pad motif. If you have any questions leave them below you. and thank you for watching.