A Christmas Present: Pancake Crochet Pattern, a Christmas Card, a Christmas Market and SNOW!

I already titled last blog’s post “winter is here”, so unfortunately I can’t do that again, although it really is here now, with snow and amber weather warnings:

And with winter comes the time for Christmas, and Christmas markets, and of course Christmas presents. For one of my nephews (there are three by now, the youngest merely six days old), I made a crochet pancake set:

As you can see there is a crochet pan (totally useless of course, as the pan will flop away when you try to lift it by the handle, but it can rest on a stove, so I thought: why not. Two large pancakes to go with the crochet pan, a baking (unfinished) small pancake in the “real” play pan (like the one he has at home) and two similar sized baked pancakes. There are strawberry and banana slices, raspberries, and blueberries. Plus, yellow jam to cover the pancake with (apricot, marmelade, lemon curd, …), chocolate, and red jam. Plus of course little bowls to hold the fruit. The idea came from a pancake set pattern that I bought online. – I hesitate to give you the link, but should you wish to purchase the set, let me know, and I’ll give it to you. I hesitate, however, because I think the pattern was awful. Very few items in the picture were actually made according to the pattern, and I’ll point them out below. The whole rest was made according to my own trial and error, and I’ll give you a description below. I might make it into a pdf to download if there is interest in it.

On Friday I participated in a small pop-up christmas market at Backlit. I have been an associate member there for just a couple of weeks, and it was great to meet some other members and associate members and chat. I brought mostly prints with me (some were prints on journal covers), and it was good to see that my prices were generally in line with what I could see of others, and to hear that visitors seem to think it was a reasonable price to ask. Albeit I didn’t really make a lot of money – in the end not enough to pay the babysitter for the time I spent there. But not all benefits can be measured in money, and all in all I am very happy to have participtated.

In the picture there you can also see my Christmas card for this year (if I can find the time to post it to people – it sure is time to get them posted!). It’s a bit of a cheat as it is a combination of the card I made two years ago (the angel with the trumpet) and last year’s card (coloured circles, which I turned into baubles with a fibre pen back then).

I am curious: Do you mail out real paper cards for Christmas? Or is it all eletronic greetings for you?

And finally, as promised:

Pancake crochet pattern (British Terminology, dictionary of crochet terms at the end)

Most of the items are based on a flat round which – in my view – was a flawed construction in the pattern that I followed, so that was a first difficulty. This is how I make my rounds:

The Basic Flat Round

1. In a magic circle make 6 double crochet (dc) into the ring, finish with a slip stitch. (6)
2. Chain 1, two double crochet into each stitch, finish with a sl. (12)
3. Chain 1, [1dc, 2dc] repeat until the end, close with sl st. (18)
4. Chain 1, dc, [2dc in next st, dc into next two st] repeat 5 times, then 2dc in next st, 1dc. Finish with a sl st. (24)

• (n+2)nd round. Chain 1.
  If n is even: one dc into each of the next n/2 stitches, [2dc in next st, dc in next n st] repeat 5 times, then 2dc in next st, dc in next n/2 st. Finish with sl st.
  If n is uneven:
  [dc is next n stitches, 2dc in next stitch] repeat until the end (six times), close with sl st.
  ((n+2)*6 stitches in total)
• or in other words: in each round, add one more dc between the dc increase. If you have an even number of dc between the increase, then split them in half before and after the inc, otherwise put them in one bulk before the inc.

varying between putting the dc all in one block before, or putting the increase in the middle of each block of stitches makes that the inc are not stacked on top of each other in each round, and thus lets the result be a round rather than a hexagon.

Large Pancakes

These are completely different than in the pattern I bought, which is why I am essentially feel it is totally fine to share this pattern here. The pancake is the essential bit, after all.

In a light brown (something honey coloured would look good) work a basic flat round to a size you like. My large pancakes had 14 rounds.

Repeat, so that you then have two of these rounds.

With a lighter colour stitch the two halves together. There are a variety of ways how to do this. For me it worked best with some sort of half treble:

1. Pull a loop through one of the outer stitches of the first basic flat round and enter hook. Pull another loop through the outer stitch of the second basic flat round. You now have two loops on the hook, yarn over and pull through both loops. You now have one loop on the hook.
2. Pull a loop through the next stitch on the first half (2 loops on the hook), pull another loop through the next corresponding stitch on the second half pancake (3 loops on the hook), now yarn over and pull through all three loops.
3. Continue workign around the pancake until all stitches are filled. Finish and close with another loop worked with the needle.

Small Pancakes

These were not included in the pattern at all. Work a basic flat round to a size a little smaller than you want your pancake. Mine had 11 rounds, yours will have m rounds, so on the outer perimeter you have m*6 stitches. Now I worked an irregular border (because at least my pancakes are never exactly round) :

1. First m stitches: Dc into next stitch, m half treble into next (m-2) stitches, so there will be two htr incr, then dc.
2. now essentially this has to be repeated a total of 6 times to go once around the pancake, but to make it irregular, you could substitute a tr for a htr at some point, or a sl st for a dc, or maybe make one of the portions a little longer than m+2 stitches and then the next one a little shorter accordingly.
3. The last round should have m+12 stitches.

Jam/Sirup/Cream pieces

The original pattern wanted this shape to represent sirup or cream and thus recommended colours accordingly. We put nutella or jam on our pancakes, so I made these thingies more colourful. They are of the few items I actually made almost according to the instructions (with the exception that they had a different construction for the basic round), so I will be even shorter with those.

1. Make a basic flat round in the colour and to the size you please.
2. decide how many waves you want on the border. If you basic flat had m rounds, 6m needs to be divisible by that number. Let’s call it x.
3. So you are going to work x of these waves, and each one will be worked into 6m/x stitches. Work out a symetric pattern like for example “dc, htr into next 2 st, 2tr in next st, htre in next 2 st, dc” if you had 7 stitches to fill.

Bowl

I used a thicker, firmer thread for the bowls; one that would be suitable for potholders, and I used two colours. Or rather two shades of the same colour, like a baby pink and a hot pink, or a light turquoise and a blue.

1. Work a basic flat round to a size you fancy for the base of your bowl.
2. For the larger bowls I changed colour with the ch.
   Chain 1, 1dc into each stitch of the previous round, work in back loop only. Finish with a sl st
3. Chain 1, 1 dc into each stitch of previous round, work through both loops again. Finish with a sl st.
4. Repeat step 3 until your pot has the desired height. For small pots I changed colour with the chain 1 when I was about 1/3 of desired height of wall for two rounds.

Banana Slices

1. With a creme coloured yarn work 6 dc crochet into a magic circle. Close with a sl st. (6)
2. Add yellow thread to the creme (working with both colours).  Chain 1, [2dc in next st, dc in next st] repeat 3 times. Close with a sl st. (9)
3. Only with yellow yarn. Chain 1. 3dc in each st all around. close with sl st to start. (27)
4. Chain 1. Working only in the backloop work one dc into each stitch. Finish off. (27)
5. With light brown and black embroider seeds and lines.

Do this a second time for the other half. Then join both halfes with sl stiches all around. Stuff before closing completely.

Depending on the thickness of your yarns, you might have to experiment a little with how much to increase stitches in each round to give it a flat top.

Raspberries

I made these with the same, thicker yarn I aso used for the pots. If you are using a thinner yarn, you might want to adjust pattern.

1. In a magic circle work 6 or 8 dc (I varied to get slightly different sized berries). (6/8)
2. work in the round (use stitch marker or count really carefully) [dc, 2dc] repeat until the end. (9/12)
3. +4. dc in each of the stitches. (9/12)
   you could add another round if desired.
   finish off.

Blueberries

I made two variants. One according to the instruction that can be found here as a free pattern on ravelry. And for the others I made a very small basic sphere:

1. In a magic circle work 6 dc, finish with a sl st (6).
2. chain 1, 2 dc in each st. close with sl st (12).
3. chain 1, dc in each st, close with a sl st (12).
4. chain1, 2toc double crochet in each st, close with a sl st. (6).
5. stuff, cut thread and pull through, weave through all st and pull together tight.

Strawberry Slices

Small with tippy end

1. Chain 3 with white (or very light pink) thread.
2. Into 2nd chain from hook 1dc, 3dc into next and last chain, working around the knot and onto the other side, then on the other side, work 2 dc into last (and first) ch (such that essentially there are 2 basic chain,  with 3dc in each one, close with a sl st. (6)
3. Change to light pink (or darker pink) thread, chain 1, 2dc in each st, close with sl st. (12)
4. change to red, chain 1, [2dc, dc] until end, join with sl st. (18)
5. Chain 1, 2dc, dc, 2dc, sl st in next 5 st, then chain three, sl st through 2nd chain from hook, sl st in next 5 st, [2dc, dc] repeat until end, do NOT close, instead finish off and sew to 4th round to create a dimple.

Large with round end

Is very similar to my bought patter, therefore a little less detail:

Start with 4 chain, so that you have a basis of 3chain. Over the middle chain, have just 1dc in rounds 2 to 4. In last round, work symmetrical, Do not work the picot at the end, to create a rounder end. Finish off as above.

Glossary and Dictionary of crochet terms:

Abbreviation – British term – US term

dc –  double crochet – single crochet

sl st – slip stitch – slip stitch

inc – increase – increase (two stitches into one)

2toc – two together, double crochet decrease – single crochet decrease

htr – half treble – half double crochet

tr – treble – double crochet