• Floral Blackwork Pillow

Floral Blackwork Pillow

Design by Diane Poellot

Blackwork is an interesting and intricate centuries-old embroidery technique. For examples, see www.blackworkarchives.com.

Finished Size

16"/40.6cm square

Materials

• Caron Simply Soft or worsted yarn:
• 12 oz./340g off-white
• 2 oz./57g blue
• 1 oz./28.4g green
• 1 oz./28.4g rose
• 1/2 oz./14.2g yellow
• Blue 5/8" shank button
• 14" pillow form
• Tapestry needle
• H/8/5mm crochet and G/6/4mm afghan hooks or hook sizes needed to obtain gauge
• Embroidery Illustration (PDF Format)

Gauge

With H/8/5mm crochet hook, 7 sc = 2"
With G/6/4mm afghan hook, 4 sts = 1"/2.5cm; 7 afghan st rows = 2"/5.1cm

Front

Row 1: With afghan hook and off-white, ch 62, leaving all lps on hook, insert hook in second ch from hook, yo, draw lp through, (insert hook in next ch, yo, draw lp through) across, do not turn; to work lps off hook, yo, draw through one lp on hook (see illustration a), (yo, draw through 2 lps on hook) across leaving one lp on hook at end of row (see illustration b), do not turn. (62 sts made)

NOTES: Always skip first vertical bar at beginning of each row. Lp remaining on hook at end of each row is first st of next row.
For afghan st, skip first vertical bar, *insert hook under next vertical bar (see illustration c), yo, draw lp through; repeat from *across to last vertical bar; for last st, insert hook under last vertical bar and st directly behind (see illustration d) at same time, yo, draw lp through.

Rows 2-58: Afghan st across; work lps off hook.
Row 59: With crochet hook, sl st in each st across. Fasten off.
Using backstitch and eye stitch (see illustrations), embroider petals and leaves of flowers on Front according to embroidery illustration.

Back

Row 1: Repeat same row of Front.
Rows 2-42: Afghan st across; work lps off hook.
Row 43: For first side, afghan st 17; for decrease (dec), insert hook under next 2 vertical bars, yo, draw lp through; leave remaining sts unworked; work lps off hook. (18 sts)
Rows 44-59: Afghan st across to last 2 vertical bars, dec; work lps off hook.
Row 60: Sl st in last st. Fasten off.
Row 43: Join with sl st in next unworked st on row 42, sl st in next 23 sts (last lp on hook will be first st on this row); for second side, dec, afghan st across; work lps off hook. (18 sts)
Rows 44-59: Dec, afghan st across; work lps off hook.

Flap

Row 1: With afghan hook and off-white, ch 22, insert hook in second ch from hook, yo, draw lp through, (insert hook in next ch, yo, draw lp through) across; work lps off hook. (22 sts made)
Rows 2-21: For increase (inc), draw up lp under next horizontal bar (see illustration); afghan st across to last horizontal bar, inc, afghan st one; work lps off hook, ending with 62 sts in last row.

Rows 22-25: Afghan st across; work lps off hook.
Row 26: Sl st in each st across. Fasten off.
For edging, with crochet hook and blue, join with sc in end of last row, ch 1, (sc in next row, ch 1) across; working in starting ch on opposite side of row 1, sc in first ch, (ch 1, skip next ch, sc in next ch) 5 times; for button loop, ch 5; sc in next ch, (ch 1, skip next ch, sc in next ch) 5 times, ch 1, (sc in end of next row, ch 1) across. Fasten off.

Outer Edging

Rnd 1: Holding Front and Flap pieces wrong sides together, matching last row of Front to first row of Flap, with Front facing you, working through both thicknesses, with crochet hook and off-white, join with sc in first st, 2 sc in same st, sc in each st across to last st, 3 sc in last st; holding Front and Back wrong sides together, with Front facing you, working through both thicknesses, matching ends of rows, sc in each row across; working in starting ch on opposite side of row 1, 3 sc in first ch, sc in each ch across to last ch, 3 sc in last ch, sc in end of each row across, join with sl st in first sc. Fasten off.
Rnd 2: Join blue with sc in second st, ch 3, sc in next st, *(ch 3, skip next st, sc in next st) 30 times, (ch 3, sc in next st) 3 times, (ch 3, skip next st, sc in next st) 29 times, (ch 3, sc in next st) 3 times*; repeat between **, ch 3, sc in last st, join with sl st in first sc. Fasten off.
Sew button to center of row 30 on Back.
Insert pillow form.

Copyright © May 2002 Crochet! magazine. All rights reserved.