Christmas crochet appliqué

Upcycling that boring blanked into a gorgeous Christmas Afghan (Part I)

It’s time to kill that old boring wollen blanked which is sitting in your cabinets for ages. (I bought mine at the Hospice shop in Nelson for a couple of dollars, years ago…)

No pity: let’s cut it and let’s turn it into a glorious Christmas Afghan (for a start)

You will need:

  • An old boring wollen blanket 😀
  • Dye: I used Dylon (Dark Green and Tulip Red)
  • 10 ply White yarn, 250gr + a 4,5mm hook (I used Katia” Kid’s cap” Monkey, shade 81 – a shinny White which gives a “frosty” effect to the trims)
  • Yarn leftovers 4 ply, 8 ply and 12 ply, in Red, Green, White and all those Christmas colors, +lurex and fancy threads + the assorted hooks.
  • A few beads and some charms and buttons + a darning needle

Cut 16 squares of 17 cm, wash them.

While your squares are still wet from the wash you gave them, soak 8 of them in the Tulip Red dye bath, soak the other 8 into the Dark Green bath. Follow Dylon’s instructions for the best result, don’t forget to wash your squares again after dyeing.


Meanwhile, let’s prepare 16 cute motifs to decorate the squares. I sourced the patterns of these on Internet for the great majority of them. Thank you very much to all the crochet artists who participated in this project by offering free patterns.

1 – The Snowman 

Head: With White leftovers (4Ply) and 3.5mm hook

Round 1: Ch 2, 6 sc in ch1. Join with sl in beg sc.

Round 2: Ch1, 2sc in same stich, 2 in each sc. Join with sl in beg ch1 (= 12 sc)

Round 3: Ch1, 2sc in same stitch, (sc in next stitch, 2sc in next stitch) repeat to end of round, join with sl in beg ch1 (= 18 sc)

Rould 4: Ch1, 2sc in same stitch (sc in next 2 stitches, 2sc in next stitch) repeat to end of round, join with sl in beg ch1 (= 24 sc) Break off.

Body: With White yarn (4 ply) and 3.5mm hook, make a magic loop.

Rounds 1 to 4: same as for the head.

Round 5:  Ch1, 2sc in same stitch (sc in next 3 stitches, 2sc in next stitch) repeat to end of round, join with sl in beg ch1 (= 30 sc)

Round 6:  Ch1, 2sc in same stitch (sc in next 4 stitches, 2sc in next stitch) repeat to end of round, join with sl in beg ch1 (= 36 sc)

Round 7:  Ch1, 2sc in same stitch (sc in next 4 stitches, 2sc in next stitch) repeat to end of round, join with sl in beg ch1 (= 42 sc). Break off.

Weave in the ends, using one of them to seam the head of the snowman to the body.

Hat: with 4 ply dark brown and hook 3.5 mm, ch 11,

Row 1: starting from second sc from hook, 1 sc in each ch (= 10 sc)

Row 2: ch1, sc in each sc. Break off.

Row 3: Join yarn in the 3rd sc, ch1, sc in same stitch, sc in next 5 sc (= 6 sc)

Row 4 – 6: ch1, sc in each sc.

Break off, weave in the ends, using one of them to seam the hat to the snowman’s head.

Nose: with 4 ply orange leftover, ch 4, break off leaving a long tail.

Insert the ch of 4 in the center of the head, and seam with the tail on the wrong side. On the right side: weave in the end into each chain several times, in order to make the nose stiffer.

Sew 3 buttons from top to bottom on the body. Make the eyes and the mouth with the darning needle and Dark Brown yarn.

Scarf: with Worsted Red yarn and hook 6mm: Ch 15 and BO. Weave in the ends and wrap the chain around the snowman’s neck. Allternatively, use 9 cm or red ribbon.

2. The Gingerbread Man

Make 2. I made mines following this cute free pattern from The Adventures of Pumkin Seed

3. Holy Berry

I took inspiration from this free pattern from Craftown – I made 3 leaves and my berries as follow: magic loop, ch1, 10 sc in loop, BO.

4. Rudolph the Reindeer

I found this lovely pattern for free at Best Free Crochet – I just stuffed the different pieces with yarn cut ends, in order to give it a bit of 3D effect. I used a button for the nose, and, the last bit I changed was the last row of the antlers (I made it in sc instead of hdc)

5. The Christmas Tree

Make a Green Granny Triangle, just like here: Granny Triangle then, make 2 rows of 5 hdc right in the middle of a side. I embellished with some charms and 4mm glass beads.

6. The Hearts

I used this lovely pattern: “Here is my heart” with a wooden button to decorate.

 

7. The Poinsettia

Try this gorgeous and easy one from Craft Passion

8. The Christmas Baubles

Big Bauble: Start with a Magic loop and the color of your choice,

Round 1: ch3, 11 dc in loop, join with sl

Round 2: ch3, dc in same stich, 2 dc in all stitches (=24 st)

Round 3: ch3, dc in same stitch, dc in next stitch *2dc in next stitch, dc in next stitch* to end of row. Join with sl in the first ch3.

Round 4: join contrasting color, ch1, sc in same stich, sc in next stitch, picot * sc in next 2 sts, picot” to end of round, join with sl in the first sc.

Small Bauble:

Work round 1, 2 and 4 of the Big Bauble.

Embroidery: I made some embroidery stitch in the center of the baubles, with a contrasting color. I used (dark brown) back stitches to figure the hanging thread.

9. The Christmas Wreath

I found inspiration from Mango’s Christmas Wreath project (the picture came without a pattern, so I build my own).

Ch 20, join with sl to the first ch to make a ring.

Round 1: Ch3, 39 dc in ring. Join with sl.

Round 2: ch1, sc in same stitch, *ch5, sk3, sc in next* to last 3 stitches, ch2, dc in first sc. (= 10 loops)

Round 3: ch3, 2dc, hdc, dc in loop, *sc, hdc, 5dc, hdc, sc*  in each ch-5 loop. In last loop, work: sc, hdc, 2dc, join with sl in 3rd ch of beg ch-3

Round 5: ch1, sc in same stitch, *ch7, sc in the 3rd dc of next shell* repeat to last shell then work: ch3, dc in first sc.

Round 6: ch4, 3trc, 2dc, hdc, sc in loop, *sc, hdc, 2dc, 5trc, 2dc, hdc, sc* in each loop. In last loop work: sc, hdc, 2dc, 2trc, join with sl in 4th ch of beg ch-4

With 6.5mm hook, and chunky Red glittery yarn, ch around 100. BO and weave in ends. Weave the chain in the wreath’s loops, all around. Make a knot, fix the position with a few stitches.

10 The Christmas Angel

I couldn’t resist this cute one by Crochet Millan

11 Santa Claus

I found inspiration with this model show by Crochet Plaisir and, because I wanted it a bit bigger and fluffy, I made Santa as follow:

Face: Using Tan (skin color), start with a magic loop.

Round 1: ch3 (count as first dc), 9 dc in Tan (skin color) – Join White and work 18 dc. Join with sl in the 3rd ch of beg ch-3

Round 2: Join Tan. Ch1, sc in same, *2sc in next, sc in next* 4 times (=13 sc in Tan) join White, 2dc in first White dc, 1dc in next, *2dc in next, 1 sc in next* to end of row, finish with 2dc in last White stitch, join with sl in beg sc.

Round 3: continue with White: ch1, sc in each sc (= 13 sc) ch1, *dc in dc, ch1* to end of row, join with sc in beg sc.

Round 4: Ch3, turn. Working on WS, ch3 make picot, dc in ch-1 space. *Dc in next dc picot, dc in ch-1 space.* repeat to end of row (make a picot on the last dc). Bread off and weave in ends.

Hat: RS facing you, join Red on the 2nd sc. Ch2, work hdc in the next 10 sc.

Row 2: ch2, 2hdc tog, hdc in next 7 sts, 2hdc tog.

Row 3: ch2, 2dhc tog, hdc in next 5 sts, 2hdc tog

Row 4: ch2, 2hdc tog, hdc in next 3 sts, 2hdc tog

Row 5: ch2, 2hdc tog, hdc in next st, 2 hdc tog

Row 6: ch2, 3 dc tog. BO

I made the eyes with the Dark Brown yarn, and added a button to make a nose.

 

12. The Snowflake

Here is a a quick and easy pattern and video tutorial from B.hooked Crochet.

I made the large one with a 4.5mm hook, and the small one in golden lurex with 3.5mm hook. I added a button in the center.

13. The Stars

Made following the Grandma Twinkle Tutorial

I made the small one with White yarn and 3.5mm hook, the big one with fancy sparkly yarn and 4.5mm hook.

14. The Christmas Lights

I used this lovely tutorial at Repeat Crafter Me. – I used 5mm hook and fancy yarns to make 4 bulbs. Then, with 3.5mm hook and golden lurex, I chained 40, 3 hdc in bulb 1, ch 40, 3hdc in bulb 2, ch 40, 3hdc in bulb 3, ch 40, 3hdc in last bulb.

15. The Candle

With White and 3.5mm hook, ch 7.

Row 1: starting from 3rd ch from hook, hdc in each ch. Turn.

Row 2 – 8: ch2, hdc in each hdc

At the end of row 8, ch1, turn and sl all around the rectangle. BO.

Flame: with Golden lurex and 3.5mm hook, ch6. Make a pop corn with 5 double treble crochet in the first ch. BO.

The Holly Leaves’ pattern can be found on the blog of Attic 24 (make 2)

16. The Christmas Stocking

With Red yarn and 3.5mm crochet, ch 15

Row 1: 3 sc in second chain from hook, sc in neach ch (=

Row 2: Join White, ch3, dc in next dc, *skip 2 stitches, 3dc in next stitch* repeat 4 times, 2dc in last st 

Row 3: ch3, dc in same st, *3dc in next space between clusters* 4 times, dc in last st.

Row 4: ch3, dc in same st, *3dc in next space between clusters* 5 times, dc in last st.

Row 5: ch3, *3dc in next space between clusters* 5 times, dc in last.

Row 6: ch3, dc in same st, *3dc in next space between clusters 2 times, dc in next space between clusters (= 2 clusters)

Row 7-8: same as Row 6

Row 9: Join Red yarn, same as Row 6

Row 10: Join fancy yarn, Ch3, dc in each dc (= 9dc)

Last round: join Red yarn and work a row of sc all around the stock. Break off you’re done ! 

Christmas Afghan… To be continued…

 

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