Motif of the Month June 2014: Pinwheel Motif Crochet Tutorial

Hey everyone, it's Deja Yetmir from CrochetEverAfter.com. Today we're going to be making this kind of pinwheel motif. It reminds me of the pinwheels that you would blow into and they would spin. So we're just using some worsted weight yarn and a 5.5 mm USI hook. And I chose three colors. You can make it in one color, but I think it really shows off how the breaks of the rounds look so much cooler with three colors. So find your favorite three colors and we'll get started right now. Alright, to start off our motif, we're going to do a slipknot and chain four. So we're going to make an open center to this motif. So we yarn over from back to front. Turn our hook down to get through that chain easy, and then push your loop to your shaft so you get nice even chains. We do that four times. You can see that I kind of, you can either use your hand to wrap the yarn around, or you can use your hook to wrap it around. So whatever is faster for you, whatever makes you remember to go back to front, you do. So I have my four chains, and I'm going to join to make a round, and I'm going to do that by grabbing or putting my hook through my first chain. It doesn't really matter how many loops you catch, because we're going to get it all covered by our first round. I happened to catch the back loop and the bottom bump, so I grabbed two loops this time. It's not a big deal. Let me move my tail out of the way here. Once you pull up a loop, you're going to pull that loop through the loop on your hook. For a slip stitch, and now we have our center hole that you might have to pull your yarn apart to see. But what we're going to do for round one first is chain some more. So we're going to do six chains. We're going to do one, two, three, four, six. Okay. Now, for our very first point, what we're going to do is go three chains back. So we don't count the loop on our hook. We only count the chains that we've made. You can see they look like the letter V all stacked on top of each other. So we're going three V's back. One, two, and three. And then I'm going to do a single crochet in there, so I'm going to put my hook right through. I always like to catch the back loop when I'm working in chains, but you can catch the back loop and the bottom bump, which is this portion of the chain coming across. You're going to grab both of those if you want, so you'll have two loops. So it's kind of the bottom makes up the front loop of the previous chain, just in case you're trying to figure out how to grab that. So you kind of go just under that front loop only to catch two loops, but I like to catch the back loop, so I'm going to do that. I'm going to yarn over, it's more of like a layover, you just kind of lay your yarn right over the top of your hook and catch it. I'm going to pull up my loops and I'm going to bring them to the top of my chain because we're working our stitches this way, almost like it's a foundation chain, so you want your stitches on top of your chain. You don't want to just bring it up to the right in line with your chain. You want to bring it to the top. So we yarn over again and pull through so we have our single crochet. Now what we're going to do is three double crochets, but we're not working in the chains this time. And you'll see why after I finish these, it'll make more sense, but we're actually going to work around the chains. So we're going to yarn over for how we begin our double crochet, and hold onto that loop. You're going to bring your hook all the way under your chain and grab your tail. Hold on. Notice if I let go, I lose everything. So hold on to your beginning round, yarn over, hold on to that, and go all the way under the chain. Lay over your yarn, grab it, and pull it back up. Hold on to everything again, because if you don't hold on, you're going to lose everything. So you're going to yarn over back to front again, pull through the first two loops, pull through the second two. Again, go all the way around the chain, bring it back up, Pull through two. Pull through two, yarn over, pull through two, yarn over, pull through two. This is going to be the first point of our kind of star that we make out of the center. We're going to have six of these in the end. So this next portion is a repeat that we're going to do. 5 times. So we're going to do a double crochet inside our ring now. So we're going to yarn over, go right into the center of our ring, lay over, yarn over, I like to call it, I always call it a lay over because it doesn't really feel like a yarn over. Pull up your loop, yarn over, pull through 2, and yarn over, pull through 2. Now it's going to make more sense why we went around these posts. We're going to do another chain 3. Because technically, this beginning chain six was a double crochet and three chains. So it's going to be a double crochet and three chains. And remember, after those three chains were made, we single crocheted in that third chain. So do a single crochet, bring it to the top of your stitches. Then we did three double crochets around those chain threes, which is technically a double crochet. So that's what we're going to do here. It kind of looks more like a, you know, a space here to work into now so it's a little easier to work through. So we're going to yarn over and we're going to reach through that center and pull up a loop, do our double crochet. We're going to do two more of those in there. And now we have two points. So we still have four more to go. So we just follow those steps. We do a double crochet in the ring, and we chain three, we do our single crochet in that third chain, and then we start double crocheting three times around that double crochet we made. So do that, this point, and do three more points after this, and then I'll meet up with you right at the end so I can show you what to do with your yarn and your hook. Okay, that was my third double crochet of my sixth point, and now we're going to join our round by doing a slip stitch right into that third chain that we covered with the, That we began to cover. With our double crochets. So just reach right in that chain right above where your last or first double crochet was made and pull up your loop and then pull it through. Now you can see we have kind of a little ninja star, I'll call it, to begin our motif. So we're going to fasten off the white because we're going to change colors. So you can pull your tail long if you like to do your fasten off that way. I don't know why I pulled it so long. I don't need it that long. Pull it long enough to pull your tail through, and then you can cut it. I'll show you how I like to fasten off after this next round. Tighten that down, and then we'll weave those in at the end. So now we're going to move on to round two with our new color. Okay, I've got my new color. I'm going to join in a gray. And what we're going to start with is a slipknot on our hook, because we're going to join it with a slip stitch. I'll show you what that means. Put your slipknot on your hook. And then any of your chain three spaces where we did that chain three and single crochet is where we're going to join. So it's totally up to you where you want to start. I usually end up starting like where my tails are. I don't know why it's just my thing. So that chain three space is pretty small, but you want to get into that hole. Don't go into the hole where your single crochet is. You can see that this is the hole that's attached to the single crochet because our V is right on top of it. So that V is a part of this hole. We're going to be working into that stitch, so we don't want to start in that stitch. We want to start in this little mini hole that's right next to it. So we're going to put our hook right through there. And then we're going to slip stitch, so we're going to yarn over, pull through, and the hole will be a little bit bigger once you start working into it. Then pull through, and I'm going to tighten that down because this is a join. It's not really a stitch we're going to count for anything. We're just joining our new color in. Now what we're going to do is we're going to chain 3 and this chain 3 is going to count as a double crochet. Then what we're going to do is double crochet in that same space. So this is important to pick that hole and not this hole because we're going to be doing stitches in both. But first we're going to double crochet right in that same hole. So go right back into that same one. Make sure you're in that right spot. Yarn over, pull up your loop and double crochet. Then we're going to do a double crochet in our single crochet. So you see that nice big hole for that one. And then we're going to double crochet in each of our three double crochets. Okay now we're going to kind of start this whole process over again. We're going to slip stitch into our next chain three space. So again there is that single crochet and it's a nice big space. Then pull on your little chain three and there's your little tiny hole. Put your hook right in there and slip stitch. And then we're going to chain three and we're gonna do a double crochet right in that same spot again. So this is just a basic repeat we're Okay, we're going to do it on all of these points. Oops, did I get the right one? Yeah. So again, we do the two, we do a chain three and a double crochet in that same spot, and then we're going to do a double crochet in each of these next four stitches. So work that around all of these points, do those same stitches, and then we'll meet up right at the end so you can see how to where we're joining and fastening off for our next round. Okay, I'm on my last double crochet. And then once you finish that last one, you're going to do your slip stitch right where you joined in your very first slip stitch, so right in that hole that we started at. So yarn over, get the tail out of the way. So I said I would show you how I like to fasten off, so pull down your slip stitch so it's nice and tight. I just do a chain, so I yarn over, pull through, and pull my chain nice and long, tighten it I'm gonna cut it and pull out the extra tail So now I got two rows done, so we're going to change color again and get to work on the third row. Okay, so now we are doing our final round, so we have a new color again, and we're going to do another slipknot. And this is almost like the last round, except we're going to add in an extra increase so that our motif can make sure we have it laying flat. So we're going to join... Our color with a slip stitch in any of the top of our chain threes. So we have all these chain threes that we started each point with. So we're going to begin by joining in there. So I'm going to just grab two loops. I'm going to grab the back loop and the bottom bump when I do it so that I don't have a really big hole. Pull through and then pull through the loop. Tighten that down. Notice I put it right to the left of my tails again. So now we're going to do a chain 3 like we did in our last round, and we're going to do a double crochet in that same spot like we did in the last round. And just like the last round, we're going to do double crochets in each of these stitches we come to. Notice this next stitch looks kind of funny, because it's next to a chain 3. It's kind of pulled a little funny. So if I pull my chain 3 over, it'll look more like the top of the stitch next to it. So you want to get under both of those loops. So don't miss this stitch just because it doesn't look like a normal one. Make sure you get under both those loops. So you have 1, 2, 3. Four, and then we have one stitch here at the end, so we do one double crochet in each of these four stitches, and then in this last stitch, we're going to do two double crochets. We're increasing it a little bit more on each point. So we're doing two, and just so you know, you see I went in, then I yarn over, and I just go right back in that same spot to do two double crochets in that stitch. And then we're going to go ahead and slip stitch at the top of our chain three like we just did. So put your hook through. Pull through, slip stitch, you can tie it down a little bit, it doesn't matter. I'm going to do a chain 3, double crochet in that same spot, do your 4 double crochets or 1 double crochet in each of your next 4 stitches, and then 2 double crochets in that last stitch. So that's our pattern repeat for this round. So work your way around the round, and then we will meet up at the end so I can make sure Exactly where to fasten off. Here are your last two double crochets, and then I'm going to fasten off and weave in the ends here. So just move your tails out of the way when they pop up. And again we're going to slip stitch it where we joined our yarn. So we're going to go right in that same spot, and then slip stitch it closed, pull it nice and tight, and I'm going to do my chain fasten off. And now I am ready to weave in my ends. This pattern looks best, you know, when you're changing color because you can see the offset of the points. But it does give you a lot of ends to weave in, so it's up to you, you know, if you want to stick with one color or if you want to change colors. But I think it looks really cool when the colors have been changed. It's the perfect size for a coaster, too, so if you need coasters, this is a cool pattern for one. But you can join these at the points, so you can line them up and maybe put two and two, so it kind of has an open weave effect. So that's some of the things that you can do with this motif. Good, I'm going to go ahead and weave in all these ends. Keep your colors within the same color, so you put the weave in the white within the white. Yarn needle is way too small for this yarn, let me get a better one. Really sweet yarn needle, here's a nice big one. So keep your white ends within your white so that you don't accidentally have any showing up to the front in your other colors. So just go, you have a lot of fat stitches in here that are easy to hide your ends with. Just go back and forth in different directions when you weave in so that it will get locked in really well and that will save you the trouble of it falling out soon after you finish Finish your project. Plus weave in lots of yarn so that way if it does stick out you aren't afraid to cut that piece that's sticking out because you know you still have a lot left that's woven in there. So I'm going to weave in the rest of these and we'll look at the finished project. Finish the motif, weaved in all the ends. Very cute. You can get really creative with the color combinations so use your favorites and think about what you can create and how you can join this to make some really fun stuff. If you have any questions leave them below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can and thank you for watching