Making Stitches 2025 CAL Part Three : March

March 1, 2025March 2, 2025 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello and welcome to March! Happy St David’s Day and happy first day of meteorological spring! What better time than to crochet ourselves some spring flowers?

The days are getting longer in my part of the world, you can see the leaf buds beginning to form on the trees and there are plenty of spring flowering bulbs around. Crocus seem to be at their best right now and my first daffodil flower opened yesterday just in time for this pattern release! March to me, says spring, early spring no doubt, but spring nonetheless!

As with the previous two squares for the Making Stitches 2025 CAL, the colours I have used are not prescriptive. I have made them using my own stash of Stylecraft Special DK yarns and I will include the names and numbers of the shades I’ve used in case you want to replicate what I have done exactly, but you can use any yarn you like. The only thing you need to do is make sure it’s all the same weight, ie all DK or all Aran or whatever yarn you choose, and if you are making the whole project along with me, make sure all your squares are made using the same weight and the same size of crochet hook to make sure they all measure the same size so they can be joined together easily at the end.

So, without further ado, here goes…

2025 Making Stitches CAL Part Three : March – Spring Flowers Square

This pattern is meant to be a stash buster project however, if you would like to use the same yarn as I did, here’s what I used to make this square: Stylecraft Special DK in (A) Clementine (1853), (B) Citron (1263), (C) Meadow (1065), (D) Violet (1277).

Abbreviations (in UK terms): blo = work in back loop only, ch = chain, dc = double crochet, dtr = double treble crochet, flo = work in front loop only, fyo = final yarn over, htr = half treble crochet, mc = magic circle / magic ring, rep = repeat, slst = slip stitch, st = stitch, tr = treble crochet, trtr = triple treble.
Tension: Tension isn’t important for this project as long as you maintain the same tension throughout the project so all your squares are the same size. Once blocked this square will measure approximately 20cm x 20cm. The stitch count of the final round of each finished square will be 120 plus corner chain spaces.

NOTE: The floral buds of the ‘tulip stitch’ in Round 9 are made by making 5tr into the centre of the V stitch created in Round 8. Once you complete the 5th tr, take your hook out of the working loop and insert it into the top of the 1st tr from front to back, then back through the working loop and close the bud with a slst.

Making Stitches 2025 CAL March Square creation — Once the 5th tr is complete remove your hook from the working loop

Central Daffodil motif:

Using Yarn A, make a MC.

Round 1 Ch2 (not counted as a st throughout), 12 tr into MC. Slst into top of ch2 to close the round. (12tr)

Round 2 Ch1, 2dc in every st around. Slst into top of ch1. (24dc)

Round 3A (Trumpet) Ch1, working into the flo, 1htr into every st around. Slst into top of ch1. (24htr)

Round 4A (Frill) (1dc & 1htr into first st, slst into next st)rep around. Fasten off. This will result in a frill with 12 ‘lumps’.

Round 3B (Petals) Join Yarn B into blo of one of the sts in Round 2. (Ch6, 1dc in 2nd ch from hook, 1htr in next ch, 1tr in next ch, 1trtr in next ch, 1trtr in last ch. Miss next 3 blo in Round 2 and Slst into blo of 5th st). Rep around until you have 5 petals ending with a slst into the same blo where you began. Fasten off.

Making Stitches 2025 CAL March Process photo — Round 3B First 6ch

Round 3C (Beginning the square) Join Yarn C into one of the back loops of Round 2, ch2, (2tr in blo of 1st st, 1tr in blo of next st) rep around – making sure you work into all 24 sts even the ones where the petals are attached with a slst. Slst into top of 2ch. (36tr)

Round 4 Ch2, (2tr in first st, 1tr into next 2 sts) rep around. Slst into top of ch1. (48tr)

Round 5 Ch1, (2dc in first st, 1dc into next 3 sts) rep around. Slst into top of ch1. (60dc)

Round 6 (It’s time to square your circle) Ch1, (1dc in next 3 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1dtr + ch2 + 1dtr in next st, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1dc in next 3 sts) rep around. Slst into top of ch1 and fasten off. (64 sts)

At this stage you can neatly sew the petals of the daffodil in place attaching them to the background square. I used the yellow yarn and very small stitches so they aren’t obvious. Once they are sewn into place and stop curling up, they look much more like a daffodil!

Round 7 Join Yarn A in any st. Ch1, 1dc into every st around and work 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of ch1 and fasten off. (72 dc)

Round 8 Join Yarn C in a corner space, ch5 + 1tr into that corner space, *miss 1st st, 1tr + 1ch + 1tr into 2nd st, (miss 2 sts, 1tr + 1ch + 1tr in next st) repeat along the first side to the corner space, 1tr 2ch 1tr into the corner space, repeat from * on next 3 sides (missing the final 1tr 2ch 1tr as this has already been formed at the start of the round) slst into the 3rd of the starting 5ch. Fasten off. There should be 6 V stitches on each side plus one in each corner by the end of the round.

Round 9 Join Yarn D in the centre of the first V stitch of a side created in Round 8 (on the right as you look at it) . Ch2 & 5tr into that V stitch. Once you have competed the 5th tr, remove the hook from the working loop and insert it into the top of the 1st tr from front to back, then back through the working loop and close the top of the flower bud with a slst. *Ch2 and make the next flower bud in the next V stitch (5tr, remove hook from loop, insert it into top of first tr from front to back and then back through the working loop. Close the bud with a slst. Ch2) repeat until you have 6 buds along the side and you have reached the corner space. Work another flower bud as before, ch4, and make a 2nd flower bud into the same corner space V stitch. Repeat the process from * along the three remaining sides of the square. Slst into the top of the first bud and fasten off. (32 buds)

(I am aware that the photos below don’t show the row beginning the V stitch I suggested above – please ignore that fact and stick to the written instructions!)

Round 10 Join Yarn C in a corner space. Ch1, (2dc 2ch 2dc into the corner space, work 1dc into the top of the first bud, work 2dc into the ch space, repeat along the side with 1dc in each bud and 2dc into each ch space). Rep on each side and slst into the top of the 1st dc. Fasten off. (104 dc)

Round 11 Join Yarn A in any st, ch1 and 1dc into every st around working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of ch1 and fasten off. (112 dc)

Round 12 Join Yarn B into any st, ch1 and 1dc into every st around working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of ch1 and fasten off. (120 dc).

Your square is complete now. Weave in the ends and block it to make a nice neat square.

You can alter the colours you choose for the outer rows

I chose purple for the flower bud row with the intention that they should look like crocus flowers, but you could use any colour you want to – I think the combination of rounds 8 & 9 are know as a ‘tulip stitch’ and they do look rather like tulips. As tulips come in all shades of pink, red, purple, yellow, white and even black you can go wild!

It was so lovely over the past few weeks to see lots of February ‘All You Need is Love’ squares appearing on my phone – a few of which appeared within 24 hours of publishing the pattern which utterly blew me away! If you are joining in and making a March square, please do use the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL so I can see if any ‘Spring Flower’ squares start blooming all over the place!

Some of the February ‘All You Need is Love’ Squares which popped up on my phone during February!

If you have been inspired by my daffodil square design and fancy hooking up some more daffs, you might be interested in my Up the Garden Path patterns for Dave & Cariad. You can find a free pattern for Dave on my blog here or a paid-for pattern for this lovely pair over in my Etsy shop here.

Whatever you’re up to this month, I hope it is filled with creativity and spring flowers for you.

Enjoy!

Lindsay x

🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷

The 3 Making Stitches 2025 CAL blocks so far…

Happy New Year! Anyone fancy a 2025 CAL? Part One: January

January 1, 2025January 26, 2025 ~ Making Stitches ~ 4 Comments

Happy New Year! 2025 is upon us and rather than make some resolutions I probably will struggle to maintain, I thought I’d do something I’ve been thinking about for years – hosting a crochet-along or CAL.

This New Year is a special one for me – 2025 marks this little blog’s 10th birthday (officially later on in the summer time).

It felt appropriate to mark this significant year with some crafty fun, and what better than a year-long CAL? So each month I’ll be sharing a granny square pattern which is pertinent to that particular month. My plan is to use this opportunity to use some of my considerable stash of DK yarn – Stylecraft Special DK specifically which I have left over from quite a few previous projects. By the end of the year, I am hoping the finished blanket will be a riot of colour.

A selection of CALs I have taken part in

I have taken part in quite a few CALs myself in the past with Lucy from Attic 24, Eleonora from Coastal Crochet and the special Pandemonium CAL during the Covid lockdowns with The Crochet Sanctuary ladies Lisa & Lynda-Rose. I completely take my hat off to them with their ability to get patterns out every week for a period of often a few months. I know with my schedule of work and juggling everything else that there’s no way I could maintain a weekly CAL, so I’m going to be releasing patterns on a monthly basis at the start of each month.

Each square will be themed to the month it’s released in in some way, so this month being January when it’s often very cold and frosty and we even get a bit of snow, I’ve opted for a snowflake…

If you’d like to join me, I’d love that. There’s no pressure on time, this is an open ended CAL, I intend to publish 12 squares throughout the year, and the joining method & border will appear at some point along the way. I’ll let you into a little secret – I haven’t designed all of the squares yet, so I don’t know what the finished blanket will look like. I feel very much that we don’t know what lies ahead this year for us, so in much the same way, this blanket will be a voyage into the unknown.

My pledge to you will be to release a square pattern at the start of each month and although this is meant to be a stash busting project to use up some of the excess yarn I have in my secret hiding spaces around Making Stitches Towers, I will share the yarn shades I am using if you would like to replicate the yarn I have used.

What do you reckon? Fancy joining me with a new blanket CAL for 2025?

I’d love it if you joined in. If you do and you are on social media, please tag any photos of your growing collection of squares with the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL as I’d love to see what people make along the way.

So, here goes, here’s the first section of the 2025 CAL!

2025 CAL Part One : January – Snowflake Square

I used: Stylecraft Special DK yarn in white (1001), aster (1003), silver (1203) & denim (1302), 4mm crochet hook, yarn needle, scissors & a stitch marker.

Tension: Tension isn’t important for this project as long as you maintain the same tension throughout the project so all your squares are the same size. Once blocked this square will measure approximately 20cm x 20cm. The stitch count of the final round of each finished square will be 120 plus corner chain spaces.

Abbreviations (in UK terms): ch = chain, dc = double crochet, dtr = double treble crochet, htr = half treble crochet, mc = magic circle / magic ring, rep = repeat, slst = slip stitch, st = stitch, tr = treble crochet.

Pattern:

We begin with the snowflake.

Round 1 Ch2 (not counted as a st throughout), 12 tr into MC, join round with a slst into top of ch2. (12 tr)
Round 2 Ch1, 2dc in front loop only of every st around, closing the round with a slst. (24 dc)
Round 3 work in front loop only – 1dc, 1htr, 2tr, 1dtr 4ch picot 1dtr, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, 1slst Repeat twice
Round 4 Work in back loop of Round 2, slst ch7 slst into 4th ch to form a picot & 1dtr in first back loop, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, slst, 1dc, 1htr, 2tr, *1dtr 4 ch picot 1dtr, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, slst, 1dc, 1htr, 2tr repeat from * then slst into 4th ch of first ch7.

Round 5 Work a slst around the edge of all the sts on the snowflake. At the 6 picots work 5ch and slst into the picot 3 times into each one to form the 3 ‘lumps’ on the end of each ‘arm’. Where the two layers of the ‘arms’ of the snowflake meet, work through both layers to join them before moving on to go around the next ‘arm’. Work all the way around and fasten off white yarn and break yarn.

Now the snowflake is complete, it’s time to work on the square.

Round 1 This is Round 1 of the snowflake
Round 2 With aster blue yarn, join yarn into one of the back loops of Round 1. Ch2 2tr into that first st, 2Tr in every back loop around, slst into top of ch2 to close round, (24tr)
Round 3 Ch2, 2tr, 1tr rep around, slst into top of ch2 to close round. (36 tr)
Round 4 Ch2, 2tr, 1tr, 1tr rep around. slst into top of ch2 to close round. (48 tr)
Round 5 Ch2, 2dc, 1dc, 1dc, 1dc rep around, slst into top of ch2 to close round. (60 dc)

Round 6 turning the circle into a square

Round 6 Ch1, 1dc in next 6 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1dtr 2ch 1dtr in next st to form corner of square, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1dc in next 6dc, repeat around. It’s useful to mark the first dc with a stitch marker so you know where to stop! Slst into top of first ch1 to close the round. (64 sts)
Round 7 Join white into any st, 1dc into every stitch around and work 1dc 2ch 1dc into each corner space. (Each side will have 18 sts – 72dc in total)
Round 8 Join silver grey into any st with 2ch, 1htr into every st around working 1htr 2ch 1htr into each corner space. Fasten off. (Each side will have 20 htr – 80 htr in total). At this stage it’s a good idea to stitch the arms of the snowflake into place using white yarn to hide the stitches.

Round 9 Join denim blue yarn into the last st of one of the edges before the corner chain space. Work 1dc in that last st, then 1dc 2ch 1dc into the corner chain space and 1dc around as before with 1dc 2ch 1dc into each corner. Slst into the top of the first st to close the round. (Each side will have 22 dc – 88 dc in total).

Round 10 Ch1, 1dc, 1dc 2ch 1dc into corner space and work 1dc into first 4 sts of the next side. Make a 4tr bobble into the next st using white yarn, closing the bobble with denim to give a clean effect (see instructions below if you are unfamiliar with bobbles). Using denim, work 1dc into next 4 sts then repeat with a white bobble, repeat this process across that edge until you have 4 bobbles and end with 4dc in denim before turning the corner. Repeat the process all the way around with 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc on each side until you come to the last side where you work the remaining stitches after that last bobble and slst into the top of the first st to close the round. (Total of 80 dc and 16 bobbles).

To make a 4tr bobble:

Yarn over hook (white yarn in this case), insert hook into st, yarn over, pull up loop, yarn over, draw through 2 loops on hook – repeat this another 3 times so you have 5 loops on your hook and all are worked into the same st. Yarn over with denim yarn and pull through all of the white loops to close the bobble. If the bobble is poking through the back of the work, gently poke it back through to the front. If you would like a bigger bobble, try it with 5 treble stitches instead.

Round 11 Ch1, 1dc into every st around working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Fasten off and break yarn. (26dc on each side and 104 dc in total).

Round 12 With silver yarn, join into any st, ch2 and 1htr into every st around, working 1htr 2ch 1htr into every corner space. Slst into top of first st to close round and fasten off yarn. (28htr on each side and 112 htr in total).

Round 13 With white yarn, join in any st, 1ch and 1dc into every st around, working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of first st and fasten off, weave in all the ends. (30 dc on each side ad 120 st in total.

And that is the end of this first part of the Making Stitches 2025 CAL. If you are joining in with the CAL, please do let me know, tag me on Instagram @making_stitches_blog and use the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL so I can see how you’re getting on.

I can’t wait to see this blanket develop over the coming months! I hope you enjoy it too.

I hope the start of 2025 is a great one for you! Happy making!

Lindsay x