Double Feature: Crocheting in the Round

and Butterfly Chart #3, the Syrmatia Dorilas

When crocheting in rounds, what can you do to keep your crocheted piece from buckling in the middle?

Increases in the pattern keep the work lying flat. Most patterns are written with the correct amount of increases and there is no problem. If buckling does occur, however, try adding more (or less, if needed) increases in your rounds until this corrects the problem.

Among the free patterns at this site you'll find these animal potholder patterns, that are an example of crocheting circles.

Note the increases (dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc). As the rounds become wider, there are more stitches in between the increases. (Round 4 has two single stitches between the increases, while round 5 has three single stitches between the 2 dc in next dc increases. And so on.)

These Southwestern Duo Potholder Patterns are another example of using rounds with increases.

How do you keep track of what round # you are on as your crochet hook flies 'round and 'round the circle?

An old crocheter's trick is to put a safety pin in the last single crochet or double crochet stitch of the first round, to mark the end of the round. Move the safety pin to the last stitch each time you complete another round.

If you've missed any of the previous patterns in this series, you can still get them here:

The first butterfly chart, The Zebra Swallowtail, is found in the 04/26/97 Feature.

The second square pattern, The Harris' Mimic Swallowtail, is found in the 05/03/97 Feature.

Materials
Worsted weight acrylic yarn: 1 oz. white, 1 oz. black,
small amount red

Size G crochet hook

Guage: 4 stitches = 1 inch, 4 rows = 1 inch

Apprx. size of each finished square = 10 inches

Directions
With white yarn, chain 41.
Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in ea ch across.(40 sc)
Rows 2 & 3: sc in ea st across.
Row 4: Begin chart at first row on the chart.
Rows 5 - 37: Continue to follow chart, making color changes as indicated.
After completing all rows on the chart:
Rows 38 - 40: With white yarn, sc in ea st across.
End off.

Another way is to crochet the square entirely in the background color in single crochet (or in afghan stitch) and then, with yarn, using a large-eye needle, cross-stitch the butterfly design on, following the chart, in the indicated yarn colors. This photo shows the chart done as cross stitch on a crocheted single crochet background.

Finishing
Using a straight stitch, with black yarn or embroidery floss, embroider antennae as indicated in blue on the chart.

Chart copyright © 1997 Sandi Marshall.
Free for your own personal use only.
Do not sell or redistribute this butterfly chart in any form, be it electronic, photocopying or otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide. If someone else wants the chart, please give them the URL of this page so that they can come here for themselves and explore all that this site has to offer. Thank you. URL of this page is http://crochet.about.com/library/weekly/aa051097.htm

Questions about copyright? See:
http://whatiscopyright.org - see section: "Copyrights and the Internet"
Law about copyright: an overview
Digital Theft Deterrance and Copyright Damages Improvement Act
United States Copyright Office

Note: To print the pattern only, without printing the rest of this feature, go here.

Take a close look at a sampling of different butterflies and you'll see that the SHAPE varies from one species to another. I'm striving to give you a sampling of the variety of butterfly shapes in this design series.

The 09/27/97 Feature gives links to all the graphs in the complete butterfly series.

More Free Charts on Various Subjects

Previous Features - Free Patterns and Crochet info