African Flower Motif

Hi guys, Mary Beth Temple here. And I want to show you how to make the African flower motif. Now I'm doing it in the traditional way with four different colors. So we'll talk about when to change colors and where to change colors but this is a super fun hexagonal motif. I've seen a lot of people make stuffed animals and really interesting blankets and throws out of it.

So let's take a look at this interesting motif. All right, we're going to begin with a slipknot. And we're going to chain four. One, two, three, four. And then we're going to form this chain into a ring by putting a slip stitch in the first chain.

And that makes a little ring. So we're going to put our first round into the ring. So for the first round, we're going to chain three. one, two, three. Double crochet in the ring.

And chain one. And now we're going to go two double crochet in the ring chain one, five times. Now, if it looks like you're going to run out of room all you need to do is slide those stitches over and you may notice I'm crocheting over the tail. I'm just doing that for two reasons. One is to keep it up on my way.

And the other reason is it'll make it faster to weave in later, but you can crochet over the tail or you don't have to. And then here's my last repeat. Now that beginning double crochet or that beginning chain three counts as a double crochet. So what I'm going to wind up with is six groups of two double crochet. So there's one, two, three, four, five, six groups.

I have my chain one at the end of the repeat and I'm going to join the round by putting a slip stitch in the top of that beginning chain three. So there is the end of my first round and I'm going to fasten off. We're going to do this in four colors which is the traditional way to do the African flower motif. So I'm going to end that off and I'm done with that color. Moving on to the next color.

I'm going to put a slipknot on my hook and I'm going to join my yarn in any of the chain one spaces. So anywhere there was a chain one that's where I'm going to join. There's my join. I'm going to go chain three, one, two, three. Then I'm going to double crochet chain two, two double crochet in this first chain space.

So there's my double crochet, chain two. Two double crochet, one, two, and then chain one. So that's what my little guy looks like here. We're building up six different corners for our hexagonal motif. Moving forward.

I'm going to put two double crochet, chain two, two double crochet in each one of these chain spaces. And I'm going to have a chain one in between. So there's my two double crochet. Chain two. One, two.

Two more double crochet in the same space. Chain one. And I'm going to do that all the way around. All right, so I've created my fifth repeat. There's my chain one.

And once again, I'm going to join that with a slip stitch in the top of the beginning chain three. So now each one of these chain two spaces is going to become a corner and we have six corners. So let's move on to the third round. We're going to slip stitch in the next double crochet. And in the next chain space.

We're going to chain three, one, two, three, and put six double crochets in the exact same space as that slip stitch was. So there's one, two, three, four, five, six and make a chain one. I remember it looks like seven because that chain three counts. So I have my chain three plus six more, one, two, three four, five, six, and my chain one. Now I'm going to skip that chain one space and put seven double crochet in the next chain two space.

Four, five, six, seven, and then chain one. And then I'm going to do this all the way around. Skip that chain one space, seven double crochets in the next chain two space, chain one all the way around to the end of the round. Okay. We're at the end of the third round.

Once again, I finished with chain one. I'm going to join that round with a slip stitch at the top of the beginning chain three. And I'm going to fasten off my second color and get ready to add my third. This is what it looks like at the end of the third round. So I'm going to my color C for the fourth round.

With a slipknot on my hook, I'm going to make an elongated single crochet. This is not the same thing as an extended single crochet. Those are two different stitches. So what I'm going to do instead of putting my stitch here in the chain space, in that top chain space, I'm going to put it in the bottom chain space but I'm going to keep my working yarn behind the motif to make sure that I enclose those chains. Here's what I mean.

I have my slip knot on my hook. I'm going not in that chain space but that one, inserting my hook, yarn over and drop a loop because it's essentially a single crochet. I have two loops on my hook. I'm going to yarn over and draw through two. Now see what I mean, if I look at the wrong side of the work, I don't see chains.

I see the back of the single crochet. And that's what I meant by having your working yarn behind the work so that those chains are enclosed. At that point, I'm going to single crochet in each of the next seven double crochet. So that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and then every time I come to a chain space I'm going to make one of those elongated single crochets. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

So my next repeat is that elongated single crochet. Remember, don't go here, go here. Keep that working yard behind the work, draw up a loop, not too tight. You do want those two chains to pull together but you don't want it to struggle. You want it to have enough room for the fabric to lay flat and then single crochet in each of the next seven double crochets.

And we're going to do that all the way to the end of the round. All right, coming up to the end of the fourth round, and we're going to join with a slip stitch in the first single crochet, which is that elongated stitch. And then we're going to end off this color. Now you can always make these in one color. I think there's enough texture in there that it's interesting, but the traditional way is to do the four colors.

This is what we look like so far. Now for the last round, I was going to say we're going to square off our edges, but it's a hexagon. So I think we're going to hexagon off our edges. Once again, putting a slipknot on my hook. This is my fourth color.

I'm going to join in that elongated stitch that was at the beginning of the last round. So I'm going to join with a slip stitch, tighten that up chain three, which counts as a double crochet. One, two, three. Now I'm going to double crochet in each of the next three single crochets. So that's one, two, three.

And I should be lined up on the center of the seven. So we had seven here, right? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So it should be lined up on the center one which would be number four. So one, two, three, four, just double check that first time to make sure you're right that everything is lined up.

Then I'm going to make a double crochet, chain two, double crochet in the same stitch. Again, keeping those corners consistent from the beginning to the end. Now I'm going to double crochet in each of the next seven. That fourth one is going to be on an elongated stitch and then that double crochet chain two double crochet in the next stitch. So we're going to do that all the way around.

Join the round with a slip stitch in the top of that beginning chain three and fasten off. And there we go. You do need to notice that that last repeat, you have your double crochet chain two double crochet in the same stitch, and then you only have three double crochets after before your join. But there you have the African flower motif. Now that you know how to make the African flower motif you can go ahead and make all kinds of projects.

I also wanted to point out this is a really great use of scrap yarn. If you have scraps laying around, and who doesn't, you can go ahead and make some sort of scrappy African flower motifs and just use up those little bits of yarn because in some instances you only need to get one round out of it. Anyway, I'm Mary Beth Temple. Thanks for hanging out. We'll see you again real soon.