Crochet Diamonds

How to Crochet  A Diamond Shape

Crocheting the diamond shape is not challenging….you just need to understand the increase/decrease concept….but joining them to make a coherent and beautiful project is challenging. I have often thought that, you can’t do much with this shape in crochet until I saw Jellina’s crochet in geometric patterns. To say that she is a genius would be an understatement.

I have shown you 2 ways to do the diamond motif

Diamond Motif 1: Where you hook in a diamond using single crochet(scs)..this is the Jellina way

Diamond Motif 2: The Diamond is worked using double crochets(dcs)

Abbreviations:

Chain – ch

Single Crochet – sc

Stitch – st

Skip – sk

Yarn Over – yo

Double Crochet – dc

Diamond Motif 1

Our first pattern for the diamond motif is made with single crochet stitches.

This pattern is from  the blog little Woolie….I have shared her link at the end of the page. I suggest that you go through her blog…She specialises in crochet diamonds and her work is Beautiful.

BASIC DIAMOND PATTERN

Begin With:

Ch 2

Row 1: 2 sc into 2nd ch from hook, turn.

Row 2:  Ch1(turning chain) 1sc into first st, 2sc into 2nd st, turn.

Row 3: Ch1, 1sc into 1st st, 1sc into 2nd st, 2sc into last st, turn.

Row 4: Ch1, 1sc into 1st st, 1sc into each st across until last st, 2sc into last st, turn.

Repeat row 4 until you have  as many stitches as you like, more stitches means a bigger diamond . For this tutorial I have stopped with Row 4.

Start decreasing.
The decrease pattern is as follows:

Ch1, sk 1st st, sc into next st and each st across, turn. (reduces by 1 st in each row)

Continue doing this to each row until you have 1 st left and fasten off.

Here are some patterns using the sc.

How to crochet a diamond

http://www.jellina-creations.nl/blog/patroontje-ruit

http://www.ehow.com/how_8302223_crochet-diamond-section.html

How to crochet a diamond Afghan

http://www.jellina-creations.nl/blog/patroontje-ruit

How to crochet a diamond

Diamond Motif 2

Here, we hook in the diamond shape with double crochet stitches(dcs)

These graphs are off the internet and I thought that they are very well illustrated.

Begin with 4 chains

Row 1:

dc into 4th chain from hook. Turn (2)

Row 2:

3 Chain up, dc in same stitch; 2 dc in next stitch (4). Turn

Row 3:

3 Chain up, dc in same stitch;  one dc in next 2 stitches; 2 dc in last stitch; (6). Turn

Row 4:

3 Chain up, dc in same stitch; one dc in next 4 stitches; 2 dc in last stitch; (8). Turn

Row 5:

3 Chain up, dc in same stitch; one dc in next 6 stitches; 2 dc in last stitch; (10). Turn

Depending on how big you want your diamond to be keep increasing the dcs in the beginning and end of each row. In the graph above the designer has gone up to 9 rows. I have stopped at Row 5.

What you have now is a triangle, in order to get a diamond shape and taper that end…we have to begin decreasing the dcs. Since we increased the dcs by 2 in each row to get this triangle…..we now have to reduce the dcs by 2 each row to get that diamond.

Decreasing the Stitches

Please Note…that from now on, you chain up by 2 at the beginning of each row

Row 1:

2 chain up, dc in same stitch; dc in each of the next 8 stitches; 2 dc in the last stitch;(12). Turn.

Note that though I have mentioned decrease…in this row we have actually increased the stitches by 2….it’s just part of the pattern to get a smooth decrease.

Row 2:

2 chain up; dc in next stitch {( This works out like a dc 2 together and is a decreasing stitch), cos though you have put in 2 stitches…the effect is only one stitch…Just count the chains to confirm this};

dcs in the next 8 stitches;

dc in the 9th stitch…but do not complete the stitch …leave 2 loops on the hook and yarn over(yo), push your hook into the last stitch of the previous row, You have 4 loops on the hook, yo, reduce by 2, now you have 3 loops on the hook, yo and pull through all 2 loops.

Count your stitches and you will find that you have reduced the total count by 2……that is you have only 10 stitches now.

Row 3:

Continue as in Row 3…and you reduce the stitches by 2 getting 8 stitches.

Row 4:

Reduced by 2….6 stitches

Row 5:

4 stitches

Row 6:

2 stitches…and you are done..!!!

Personally I prefer the dc method…it has more finesse…..but then each to her/his own.

Examples of Work using diamonds from the net:

A Diamond Baby Blanket

Made by http://solgrim.blogspot.ae/2015/02/harlequin-blanket.html?spref=piage

CROCHET COASTERS

HOW TO MAKE CROCHET COASTERS

 

 

Crochet Chronicles

I got carried away with the yarn I had just bought and decided to play around with these gorgeous colours. so I made a few single crochet rounds and a few African hexagons. Using lovely reds, yellows, purples, mustards and oranges along with some luscious variegated yarn from Laura Kitting cotton.

Then …I thought ….how does one use these….the first thing that came into mind was …a bag esp with the hexagons…….and then I looked around and realised that I didn’t have  a decent set  of coasters so……that ‘s what I did with them.

Material Used:

Laura Yarn (Available at Pradhan Mumbai)

Hook # 3:00mm

For the pattern for the crochet round and hexagon motifs used here, Pls scroll down to the links at the bottom of the page.

To convert yarn based motifs into coasters…….First make sure you give the coasters a thick back so that the heat from  a cup  will not travel down onto the surface that you are trying to protect. I used an old plastic table mat for the backing. This idea was from a crochet pal of mine Sajjini Durairaj….and I must say that it is a stupendous one. In one shot you recycle plastic, protect your furniture and make something useful, gorgeous and economically viable….What more can you ask for?

Mark out your coasters on the table mat…I used an old bottle cover to draw out the circle and then cut it off. Then I cut out  2 pieces of fabric  in a size  1″ larger than the plastic circles…… I then placed the right sides of the fabric facing each other.  Marked out the edges and then sewed them together leaving enough gap to push the plastic circle in

Push in the plastic circle, then sew up the gap and hand sew the whole thing onto the back of the crocheted motif……..

 

 

How to make a solid round in scs for this coaster, Check out this link

https://crochetnmore.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/how-to-make-a-crochet-round/

How to make a Hexagon for this coaster, check out this link:

https://crochetnmore.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/how-to-crochet-a-hexagon-african-hexagon-flower-patterns/

There you are simple. pretty and practical……crochet coasters..:-)