Cropatched Hearts

I am sure you got idea what those might be!?
Crocheted patched hearts!

This idea ceossed my mind last week, after few weeks of practicing and all started with…
dear friend Phoebe got me hooked on free form crochet in the last few weeks. She came up with miniature tulips pattern she found at Russian sites. Here is the link to free, freeform crochet tulips Irris made on her blog.
As I started helping her translating the pattern and getting to understand what is there to be done and how…I started to work on tulip petals and my first free form crochet element.
When I discover something new like this, and this free form crochet was absolutely new for me, I go liiiiiittle crazy, and my curiosity and hunger to learn and discover more takes over.
So I went to Russian site and searched for designer who made these little tulips, hoping I will find more elements and more patterns and instructions that will help me understand this free form crochet better. And I did found Iriss and her shop!
Link to Iriss shop and her patterns you can find here. There I bought several of her patterns (I love to read patterns, practice on things I haven’t done before and this way learn something new). My first bought pattern from Iriss was Master Class, as they call photo tutorial with detailed explanations, on all the free form elements she uses in her creations (You should see her Teddy bear covered in freeform).
Dear friends…I felt like a little child with huge candy when I saw all those photos of elements, stitches used and possibilities there are when crocheting freeform.
I am not an experienced crocheter. I know basic stitches, the rest I have to look for and/or follow the pattern, but to create freeform, I always thought one really has to be master.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
As in everything you need to know and understand basics. Once that is set, then one can start creating freeform elements and play with the yarn.

I will not talk about these free from basics.I don;t know them and haven’t learned them yet in order to teach you or explain anything special

Based on my experience and with help of Iriss and her mini tulip pattern, I will show you what you can make in freeform, and from there, same as me, you can explore and search, learn more.

In order to bring all this closer, I asked Iriss for permission to translate and post her freeform petal pattern in English, to show you how to make your Cropatched Hearts. I translated just the petal used in this pattern, for this post. Iriss did give me permission to translate the tulip as well, and we can do that if you are interested in making one. I will gladly translate the whole tulip pattern for you too. Let me know!

Cropatched hearts are lovely! Not that you will make someone special happy and show how much you love him/her/them…but you will learn some of free form crochet, you will use yarn scraps that are hiding some dark corners far away from sight, and will train your creative part of brain while making them and thinking which way to go next, which stitches or color to use….

So let us start with Cropatching hearts!

To start making them we will need some yarn left overs and scraps. I collected some I had in special “not enough to make anything” box, added some skeins of colors I though would be nice to add….

Then we’ll need some heart base.

You can make amigurumi heart, or you can crochet two flat pieces in order to join them and make puffy one, in order to create nice hanging hearts. Or…if you like, you can go flat, one heart shape as base, freeform elements on top (this would make nice broch).

I have prepared both heart patterns.

Amigurumi heart

Make lobes (x2)

R1: sc6 in magic ring

R2: inc x6 (12 sts)

R3: (inc, sc) x6 (18 sts)

R4: sc18

tie off on 1st lobe. On second one continue crocheting the heart.

R5: Bring the first heart lobe and slip stitch to one of the stitche on R4. ch1, sc17, sl st to starting stitch of the first lobe, ch1, sc18 (35 sts and 1 chain st)

R6 skip sl st and make first sc to chain stitch maid previous round, sc next 17 sts. skip 1 st and sl st, sc next 18 sts (36 sts)

R7: sc36

R8: sc7, dec, sc17, dec, sc8 (34 sts)

R9: sc6, dec x2, sc13, dec x2, sc7 (30 sts)

R10: sc5, dec x2, sc11, dec x2, sc6

R11: sc4, dec x2, sc9, dec x2, sc5

R12: sc3, dec x2, sc7, dec x2, sc4

R13: sc2, dec x2, sc5, dec x2, sc3

at this point you can start to stuff your heart. continue stuffing till the last round if you can. Try to shape nice looking heart.

R14: sc1, dec x2, sc3, dec x2, sc2

R15: dec x2, sc1, dec x2, sc1

tie off, sew the last round closed and hide end. Or leave longer end and after sewing/closing last round bring it up in the middle of lobes and create string to hang your heart later.

Flat heart

For this one I used free pattern I found online. Liked this one the best. You can try with any heart pattern you have. Heart coaster pattern, or applique….

Pattern is made by www.tejiendoperu.com, but I couldn’t find the online link. If you can, please let me know and will add it to the photo. Thank you! They deserve to be credited for such an awesome heart pattern! I added the link to their St. Valentine page and few other free heart patterns.

And here are my hearts made using this chart. Both will be the base for my Cropatched Hearts later. For each one I made two hearts and crocheted around sided to connect them. Stuffed them as well (white one is badly stuffed, but I will “hide” it with crocheted patches later).

Now will give you the pattern which gave me this whole idea on making cropatched hearts. Writing it before proceeding with how I created my hearts, to make it easier for you to follow my steps later.

Translating this pattern I didn’t use any abbreviation terms. Tried to translate it in more descriptive way. Stitches I didn’t know what are called in English (such as front post cluster stitch), I described even more. For any additional help and clarifications, please feel free to ask.

Here is the petal pattern, translated from original Russian pattern made by Iriss.

Photo of Iriss’s little tulips and petals:

Freeform petal pattern

Working in spiral so don’t feel confused when you see stitches worked one over another in the same round (this will happen in R1 when creating spiral shell shape)

R1: sc6 in magic ring, work in back loops from this part; hdc2 in each of the next 4 stitches, dc2 in each of next 5 stitches
R2: 5 popcorn stitches in each of the next 5 stitches, continue with making 11 bullion stitches
R3: this round is about making tunisian stitches over popcorns made R2. Simply try to loop each of the popcorns and ch stitches to form the base of the first row for tunisian stitch. Some of you will loop more, some, less. Try to come up with 9-11 loops on your hook. Make tunisian stitch for several rows, or that any that you find nice looking and shaping your freeform nicely.
When making petal in Iriss pattern, this tunisian part will form the length of your petal. I used this stitch to cover one side of pink heart (you can see in the photos).
R4: single crochet the right side of tunisian piece made, towards the top and down the left side. Without turning, stitch same round using reverse or crab stitch (this time going from left to right).
R5: ch, turn, having your hook ready to work over bullion stitches made in R2. (dc1, ch1) x11 (dc on each of bullion stitch)
R6: ch1, turn, stitch that is used here I call cluster, but I might be wrong. Will try to explain how it is made. Yarn over and work the stitch as you would front post dc. Pool out the loop, yarn over and draw the yarn through 2 loops. Now yarn over again, draw the hook same way, as making front post dc, pool out the loop. Yarn over and draw the yarn through 2 loops. Repeat this 3-5 times, or as many needed to cover dc you are “hugging” or making these fpdc on. Once all front post dc are done, you will end up with 4, 5 or 6 loops on the hook (depending if you worked 3,4 or 5 hugging stitches). To finish this stitch, yarn over and draw the yarn through all loops. Sc to chain stitch made in between dcs previous round, ch1, and repeat this front post hugging cluster 10 more times (or on top of each dc stitch made R5).
R7: using slip stitches or chains, try to reach the spiral and stitch reverse or crab stitch on front loops left R1.

That will make your first freeform element finished.
Make different size elements, use different colors when working different stitches. If you can’t make heart shape in one piece, make small parts and patch them together on top of you 3D or flat heart.
Possibilities are endless!

Now I can explain how I’ve made my cropatched hearts!

Will start with this one as it uses almost all elements of Iriss’s petal pattern.

I started with light blue, or the spiral (hard to see covered with reverse stitch in white), changed color to light yellow and made 5 popcorns following the pattern again.

Next were eleven bullion stitches in pink. Each bullion has 8 wraps. I am not very good in making bullions, but are worth trying. On this one, I could’t do single one at once, so ended with placing wraps from hook to thread with fingers, one by one. Still think they are beautiful. They bring something so unique and special look to freeform elements.

After bullions, I followed the pattern again, changed color to green and made tunisian part.

As I worked tunisian rows, I kept on checking to see how they’ll fit the side. Wanted them this long so I can cover entire half of the heart. When I finished green part, I single crocheted left side of it, in order to reach the middle or center of piece.

There changed color to orange and made R5 & R6 from the pattern (hugging clusters), but to keep and create heart shape, I had to made them less number that from what the pattern calls. This again I kept on testing and trying, placing my work on heart shape base and measuring.Instead of making 11 of them I ended up making just 4 hugging clusters.

Then the purple! This part you wont find in the pattern. I needed something that will create me fan looking shape. I needed these two rows that will form and shape my upper heart part (lobes).

Used stitches there were on orange part, aproximately counted how many I might need for this fan looking shape and used stitches; started from lowest possible or slip stitch, then used single crochet, half double and double crochet. two of each. To return to beginning of row I used reverse stitch in front loops only. Then repeated 2sl st, 2sc, 2hdc, 2dc in back loops and closed again with reverse stitch (front loops). This way I got my lobe done. you can tie off here.

Attached yellow in the center of the piece. Here I Improvised. Did see this stitch being used in freeform, but haven’t practiced it nor done it before.

I worked on single crocheted side of tunisian part (green part) of this element.

Chained 2 skipped 2 and in 3rd st I made 5 double crochet stitches. Chained 1, turned and made those hugging clusters over these dc stitches. If you start from the middle as I did, they will face wrong side front, but as you can see, they look charming like this.

After you make your hugging clusters add light blue and make tunisian over clusters. Each row they will decrease on the end what will shape your bottom of the heart. To connect them to purple part, simply slip stitch and return to making new row of tunisian.

It is freeform, so improvise 😀

Use the light blue to single crochet all around your freeform heart to make it easier to sew and attach to your base heart later.

In my work I made patches on front side of the heart. Back I left clean and clear. You can make patches for both sides. Try and see which you like better.

Hope the petal pattern and this little explanation on how I made my cropatch will help yu get started.

Once you start moving, you will see, it is not so difficult, and it is a lot of fun.  Here are few more photos of work in progress I have, to give you ideas.

Use different yearn weight to achieve different sizes of shapes. Experiment with the hooks. As I mentioned earlier, if making heart in one piece is to difficult, cut it and make small pieces instead and then sew them all together later. That is why we call this CroPatched Hearts! But most of all, try to relax and have fun creating something unique and special for someone you love!

Hope you enjoyed, and like me, learned something new. I always feel so happy when I can share something new I learned.

Big thank to Phoebe who found mini tulip pattern that make me start exploring this wonderful field of freeform crochet and in same time making me meet wonderful designer Iriss and her shop. And off course, huge thank to Irina (Iriss) who made mini tulips in free form and this beautiful petal pattern, granted me permission to translate and share it here with all of you.

And THANKS to all of you for staying with me and reading this loooong post!

Hope you had fun!

Regards,

Vanja