A tutorial.

I've been picking bunches of herbs from the garden as it has become huge and overgrown and I don't want to waste them. Since watching Save with Jamie the Jamie Oliver series I now make herb butters, dry bunches, freeze some chopped, freeze some in ice cube trays in olive oil and give away bunches. They smell just beautiful. The basil especially is amazing!

A beautiful lady, Cindy, emailed me asking if I would do a tutorial for the crochet roses. Well I can show how I do it... I don't read crochet patterns so have no hope to write one. Nan showed me how to do them. But this still may help someone who knows basic crochet. 

I suggest anyone wanting to learn crochet go on to you tube. Search "learn crochet" and try a few tutorials. You will be crocheting in half an hour. Seriously. Once you know chain, single crochet and double crochet come back as that is all you need! 

First of all there are no rules re size of needle or yarn. Yesterdays I had used a sparkly yarn for Christmas. If you want small neat little ones or if you want huge soft ones you choose larger or smaller, thicker, fluffy, whatever you want!

Ok to begin... 

Make 6 chain and join so you have a circle. Make 5 chain and then go through a chain on your circle so you have made an arch. You are making five arches so you can form five flower petals around your centre circle. So space this so you have room for five. So you have a daisy shape...

Now you are filling in each petal... into each petal, go under the chain rather than through it, do 1 single crocket, 5 double crochet and end on one single crochet. This forms a petal. Repeat into each. 

Once you have filled in each petal crochet 7 chain. Secure this chain in behind the gap in your petals so that this arch is behind the arch in front. 

Hopefully you can see you are forming new larger arches in behind the first row you made....

Once you have five arches of 7 chains you fill them in as you did the first row. This time you do one single crochet, 7 double crochet and one single crochet per petal.

After you have filled in each petal you crochet 9 chain... secure this in behind the last row of arches and repeat what you did last time until you have 5 arches of 9 chain. Fill in with one single crochet, 9 double crochet, one single crochet. 

There is no reason you couldn't do more rows of petals. I stop at 3 which looks right anyway. It looks lovely if you do three rows of graduated colour such as start deep pink and get softer as you go. Just like a rose.

Now this has either helped you or made you want to put the needle in your eye! Seriously there would be plenty of step by step flower patters on you tube and they make it so easy. Watching someone do it does make it very easy. 

I hope this helps someone and that all the uses for crochet flowers become possibilities for you!

In Australia a great place to get crochet cotton is Bendigo Woollen Mills, they have swatches of the colours and it is a good price, you can do it all by mail. Beautiful.