The Flora Blanket Crochet-A-Long: Part Four

Welcome back for week four of the Fall Flora Blanket Crochet-A-Long! 

Moving along to week FOUR! Can you believe we are more than halfway through the CAL? Are you more than halfway through your flowers and squares yet? If not, no worries! We will be working on more squares this week, so still time to catch up!

If you still need help figuring out your colors, check out the downloadable planning pdf on the FAQ page. If you’d rather have your own copy of the pattern or don’t want to wait, Use the code FLORACAL here to save now on the pdf pattern.

Is it too late to join?

Of course not – it is never too late to join! You can start here for all of the details. This is where each part of the Flora  blanket crochet-a-long will be posted weekly. You will want to start with the FAQ page and the Materials List page to get up to speed. Then, find Week One, Week Two and Week Three posted! Pick your colors, your blanket size and use your Flora planning page to get an idea of your layout! We have a fun instagram crochet-a-long chat group for inspiration, support and just general friendship. If you’d like to join in with a community of friends, check it out here !

WEEK FOUR:

Alrighty, onto week four! Last week, we got a started on turning our flowers into squares. We had 49 colorful flowers, 7 of each color and they should all be turned into squares now! If you are making a smaller number of squares or a different layout of flowers, then you should have half of your squares turned into flowers for the end of week three.

For Week Four, we will be working on MORE squares but this week, we will be working on turning the main color flowers into colorful squares. There are 50 flowers this week, so they’ll break into 6 days of 7 flowers and one day of 8 flowers. If you are making a different sized blanket, you will just need to work the other half of your flowers this week and turn them into squares. 

If you are following the blanket exactly as pictured, grab your main color flowers (HL ILTY Ivory) and your yarn in each of the AC colors. You will need one AC colored yarn per day. See the materials list here if you need a refresher on color choices!

This week, we will need to turn each of the main color flowers into squares. We have 50 flowers total. There will be 7 in each color except AC 1 which will have 8. To make things easier, we will focus on one color per day so that you don’t have to carry all seven colors around! As stated above, if you are making a smaller blanket, just cut your total flowers needed in half and plan to make that half into squares this week!

Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

  • SATURDAY: Square off with AC 1 – 8 squares (HL SS Mauve)
  • SUNDAY: Square off with AC2 – 7 squares (HL ILTY Cherry Blossom)
  • MONDAY: Square off with AC3 – 7 squares (HL SS Wheat)
  • TUESDAY: Square off with AC4 – 7 squares (HL ILTY Light Sage)
  • WEDNESDAY: Square off with AC5 – 7 squares (HL ID Bluestone)
  • THURSDAY: Square off with AC6 – 7 squares (HL ID Rosewater)
  • FRIDAY: Square off with AC7 – 7 squares (HL ID Thistle)

FLORA GRANNY SQUARE PATTERN:

ABBREVIATIONS:

  • BLO – back loop only
  • ch – chain
  • dc – double crochet
  • dec – decrease
  • hdc – half double crochet
  • inc – increase
  • mr – magic ring
  • sc – single crochet
  • sk – skip a stitch
  • sl st – slip stitch
  • sp – space
  • st(s) – stitch(es)
  • tr – treble crochet
  • ( ) – work these sts in the same space
  • [ ] – repeat instructions within brackets x number indicated

MAKING THE SQUARE

To move onto turning the flower into a square, switch to the desired color for the main square. You will work around each of the petals to make a circular shape first, and then square off the circle. *Note: round numbers continue from the flower round counts*

Round 7: Working in the BLO of the first stitch of Round 6, change color to the desired square color yarn. This color change will be in the space between two flower petals. Ch 3. This counts as the first dc stitch. 

Between round 6 and round 7, change colors to the square color. This color change will occur in between two of the petals.

Continue working, starting in the BLO of the next stitch – [hdc x 2, sc x 3, hdc x 2, dc dec] x 6, hdc x 2, sc x 3, hdc x 2. [56]

Work around each of the petals placing the stitches in the BLO. This will create a ridge on the front to define the flower.
At the end of Round 7, you should have worked all the way around the flower with the square colored yarn. 

Sl st to the top of the ch 3. You will have one st from round 6 unworked.

Round 8: Ch 1. Working in the same st as the ch 1, place an sc st and then sc in the next 3 sts. 

Working around the flower, [Hdc, dc, (dc, tr), ch 3, (tr, dc), dc, hdc, sc x 8] x 3. Hdc, dc, (dc, tr), ch 3, (tr, dc). dc, hdc, sc x 4. *Note: The (dc, tr) and (tr, dc) are NOT in the same st. If your stitch counts are off, make sure that you are putting these in two different stitches.  Join to the top of the first stitch. This will square off the circle, so you are left with a granny square! Cut your  yarn, tie off and weave in your ends. Now set the square aside to block and join. 

Voila!

*If you need a visual tutorial for making this granny square, you can find the full tutorial here*

BLOCKING

*This is a recap of last week’s tutorial on blocking! Find my IG Live review of blocking here*

As you finish your squares, you can choose to block them, if desired. I found that blocking the squares while making them was enough to keep the finished  blanket pretty even and so I did NOT block the entire blanket at the end. 

If you aren’t familiar with blocking, blocking is a way to help straighten and smooth your work. With these granny squares, tension may vary in certain spots so blocking helps to make the square even and uniform. 

For this project, I used a blocking board for my granny squares. This was my first time using one, and I loved it! You can find the board I used linked here. This is a wooden board that comes with metal “skewers” for placing squares on the board. It was so easy to move the squares around and adjust the tension as needed. 

To block my squares, I set four “skewers” equidistant on the board. After finishing a square, I slightly misted it with a spray bottle, and then placed on the board. The four skewers helped to pull the corners apart to a nice, even and uniform spot. I repeated this with each of my squares. I could get almost all of the squares onto the board, but I did run out of space for the last few as I found only 15 “skewers” for the board, but needed 16!

I left the squares to dry on the board and kept them stacked until I needed to space for more. Once they’ve been blocked, move them to a basket or storage container to keep them nice and neat until joining!

Alright, that’s it for Week Four! Pretty similar to week three but get ready for some excitement because next week, we will be assembling our squares…FINALLY!

As always, thank you for supporting my small business and designs!

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