Daisy Square Blanket

I made my husband a blanket... and it took FOREVER.  Mainly because I have an attention problem and tend to jump between 2 or 3 projects at a time.  So, I worked on it in bits and pieces for about a year.  Yeah, like I said, it took FOREVER.  But, it came out pretty good and became his Father's Day gift.  It's one of his favorite blankets (besides his Boise State Snuggie) and he keeps it close to him.  :)  That makes me feel pretty good!  I also have a Snuggie (they make awesome Christmas gifts, seriously) but I wanted a special blanket of my own.  Since I am the only one in my household with any blanket making skills, I figured I'd better get to work.  I really wanted my special blanket to reflect the love I feel for my family, particularly for my hubby who I will be doing some snuggling with in this blanket!  So, of course, I thought of daisies!

Confused?  :)

Daisies have had a special meaning in our marriage.  They were the first flower my husband ever bought for me (before we were married) and they were part of our wedding.  My girls like to wear daisies in their hair on special occasions because they know that daisies mean something special.  Anniversaries, Valentines Day, birthdays and "Just-Because-I-Love-You" bouquets always include daisies.  The last few years, they've started to include lilies as well, but that's because we had our own special Lili come into our lives (otherwise known as our 3-year old ballerina).

I adapted the flower from a pattern I had seen once.  You could make the petals even more full, but I chose to make them easy to handle as opposed to just being really big.  Assembling the gray on the outside of the flower was a bit tricky.  It took a while to get the stitches just right to make it into a square.  In the future, I may even mess around with it a bit more because I am not convinced that I've landed on the best option yet. 

Daisy Square Blanket

Materials:

* H Hook

*Red Heart Yarn in Grey Heather, Bright Yellow and Soft White

*Yarn needle

I would recommend (for the sake of time) making up all (or a lot) of flowers at one time, then adding the gray to create the square.  It saves time from switching between 3 yarns.  When I created this blanket, I went in batches.  I made 10 centers from the yellow, then switched to white and created petals for the 10 centers.  Then switched to grey and made the square for the 10 flowers.  Make sense?  Good.  :)

Daisy Instructions: Make 1 per square. 

*Begin with Bright Yellow
Magic circle (or ch 4 and join with sl st)
12 sc in center.  Tie off.


*Switch to Soft White
Attach yarn in any sc.  *Ch 3.  Inset hook in same stitch, YO and pull up 1 loop to the same height as the ch 3.  YO and insert hook again.  YO and pull up another loop to same height.  YO and insert hook again.  YO and pull up another loop to same height.  YO and insert hook into next sc.  Pull up 1 loop to same height.  YO and insert hook again.  YO and pull up another loop to same height.  YO and insert hook again.  YO and pull up another loop to same height.  YO and pull through all loops.  Chain 3 to secure.  Sl st in next sc.*  Repeat *-* around for total of 6 petals.  For last stitch, sl st in the first DC you worked.  Tie off and hide ends.

*Switch to Grey Heather. (Now you are creating the outer part of the square)
Attach yarn on right side of any petal. { } means those instructions are done in one stitch or space.

{ch 3, dc in same st}, {tc, ch 2, tc, dc in same stitch}, tc between petals, {2 dc}, {2dc}, {tc, ch 2, tc}, {2dc}, {2dc}, {2 dc, tc, ch 2, tc, dc}, {2 dc}, {2 dc}, {dc, tc, ch 2, tc}, {2 dc}, Join with sl st to first ch 3.

ch 3.  4 dc.  {2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc} in corner space.  8 dc.  Repeat { } 8 dc. Repeat { } 8 dc.  Repeat { } 4 dc.  Join with sl st to first dc.

ch 3. 6 dc. {2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc} in corner space.  12 dc.  Repeat { } 12 dc. Repeat { } 12 dc. Repeat { } 6 dc.  Join with sl st to first dc.

Square created!

There are plenty of ways to stitch this blanket together.   I went with something very simple, with the idea of making the daisy stand out in each square.  Holding the wrong sides together, I stitched the squares together using single crochet stitches.  This gives the slight ridge you see between each square.  I am still adding to the blanket, but I plan on adding a simple border as well, though I am debating whether to add a grey border or a white border.

Just to give you some ideas, you could sc or dc around the square in yellow, then join those with the sc ridges, but using white.  That would brighten the blanket up a bit more.  You could also just use white or yellow to stitch the squares together any way you normally would.  There are plenty of ways to put this together.  You can definitely use different colors altogether and just get creative with it!