Sunflower Granny Square

I've been going a little crazy with sunflowers lately!  They're  one of my favorite flowers and something about August always makes me think of them.

And one of my favorite crocheted flower motifs is the African Flower I used as a base for face cloths in this past post.  So, I thought .... how easy would it be to change it from a hexagon shape to a square and still keep the six petals instead of the eight one usually sees it done in?  Not as easy as I thought (of course nothing ever is!), but I've managed to come up with something that works - it's not perfect, but it works!

I used KnitPicks Cotlin in canary, swan, creme brulee, sprout, and brown sugar and a size E crochet hook.

The first thing to do is make the African Flower motif through Round 4 in the above mentioned post.  I used brown sugar for Round 1, canary for Rounds 2 and 3, and creme brulee for Round 4.

Round 5:  Attach sprout.  Make a single crochet in each of the next 7 stitches, then a *half double in the following stitch, and two doubles in the next stitch.  In the next stitch make 1 triple crochet, 1 chain, and another triple crochet.  In the next stitch, make two doubles, a half double in the next*, and then 6 singles in the next six.  Repeat the stitches between the *'s, then make 7 single crochets in the next 7 stitches, Repeat the stitches between the *'s, make 6 single crochets in the next 6 stitches, and repeat the stitches between the *'s one more time.  This should bring you within one stitch of where you began - see, I told you it wasn't perfect!!  Slip stitch in this last stitch and then join to your first stitch and fasten off.

Edit:  I've been tweaking these a bit - it's working out better for me to put 7 single crochet stitches on each side between the corner groups instead of putting 6 stitches on two of the sides.

Round 6:  Attach creme brulee.  Chain 3 and then double crochet in each stitch until you reach the first chain 1 space.  In this space, make 2 double crochets, 2 chains, and 2 more double crochets.  Continue on around the square making double crochets in each of the previous round's stitches and repeating the stitches between the *'s in each of the chain 1 spaces.  Join to the third chain in that first chain 2 and fasten off.

And you have your first sunflower inspired motif!  Really more of a rectangle than a square, but not by much.  So my plan is to make a light sofa afghan from these - I'm thinking I need about 60.  Hmm, time to get hooking!

Happy Creating!  Deborah