Hook to Hook Challenge | Keep Calm and Crochet On U.K

There is less than two weeks to go until Mother’s Day here in the UK and, as many of us haven’t been able to see our mums in recent months, it got me thinking about how nice it would be to pop something handmade in the post this year!

Butterfly-Card — © Intermediate Publishing – Issue 81 / February 2019

You may or may not remember that back in February 2019 I took part in the Simply Crochet magazine ‘Hook to Hook Challenge.’ This was a fun mini competition between two designers to come up with a unique pattern for a Mother’s Day Card using the same yarn – my design was the ‘Wings of Love’.

The rights of the pattern have now returned to me and I thought I would share the design here on the blog in case you would like to create your own crochet Mother’s Day card this year.

Mother’s Day in the UK this year is Sunday 14 March and in the US it’s Sunday 9 May so hopefully I’m giving you plenty of time to hook up your own cards, but as the butterfly motifs are small they really don’t take long to hook up!

Pattern

The pattern below is written in UK crochet terminology.

Yarn: Scheepjes Catona (100% Mercerised Cotton) 10g/25m) I used the following colours for my new card:

10g x Lemonade (403) – Yellow (A)
10g x Fresia (519) – Pink (B)
10g x Cherry (513) – Dark Pink (C)
10g x Kiwi (205) – Bright Green (D)
10g x Apple Granny (513) – Green (E)

Hook: 2.5 mm (US size C/2)

Notions and Accessories: 21 x 15cm embossed card, PVA glue (or glue gun), washi tape or sellotape

Tension: Tension is not critical for this project

Measurements:

Small Butterfly 2.3cm (0.8in)
Medium Butterfly 3.3cm (1.3in)
Large Butterfly 4cm (1.6in)

Small Butterfly | Make 2.

Rnd 1: Using Yarn A / C, make a magic loop, 6dc into the ring, sl st to the top of the first dc to join. 6sts

Rnd 2: (Ch2, 2htr in the same st, ch2, sl st to the same st) sl st into the next st, repeat ( ) once, sl st into the next 2 sts, ((ch1, 2dc in the same st, ch1, sl st to the same st)) sl st in the next 2sts, repeat (( )) once. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Using Yarn B thread a small section of yarn through the middle loop and tie in a knot between the two larger wings, snip off ends to form antennae.

Medium Butterfly | Make 2.

Rnd 1: Using Yarn B / A, make a magic loop, 6dc into the ring, sl st to the top of the first dc to join. 6sts

Rnd 2: (Ch2, 2htr in the same st, ch2, sl st to the same st) sl st into the next st, repeat ( ) once, sl st into the next 2 sts, ((ch3, 3tr in the same st, ch3, sl st to the same st)) sl st in the next 2sts, repeat (( )) once. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Using Yarn C thread a small section of yarn through the middle loop and tie in a knot between the two larger wings, snip off ends to form antennae.

Large Butterfly | Make 2.

Rnd 1: Using Yarn C / B, make a magic loop, 6dc into the ring, sl st to the top of the first dc to join. 6sts

Rnd 2: (Ch3, 2tr in the same st, ch3, sl st to the same st) sl st into the next st, repeat ( ) once, sl st into the next 2sts, ((ch4, 3dtr in the same st, ch4, sl st to the same st,)) sl st into the next 2sts, repeat (( )) once. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Using Yarn A thread a small section of yarn through the middle loop and tie in a knot between the two larger wings, snip off ends to form antennae.

Embroidering on Card

Your blank greeting card should be made of a fairly heavy, sturdy cardstock. You’ll be handling this card a great deal as you stitch, so you need something that will withstand bending without tearing.

Sketch your design, of grass and heart, onto the card lightly with a pencil.
Then using a sharp needle punch the holes (about 0.4cm / 0.157 inch apart) along the lines.
Rub out your pencil marks before you start stitching
Using Yarn D embroider the grass onto the card, then repeat with Yarn E for the heart, use a bit of washi tape or sellotape to secure into place

Finishing

Leaving a space at the top of the card for any message with PVA glue add the butterfly motifs around the card.

Thank you for crocheting along with me – I can’t wait to see the cards you make. Please tag me @KCACO.UK on Instagram (or use hashtag #kcacouk) as I always love to see your makes. You can also share your projects photos by linking them on your favourite social media sites: Ravelry, Facebook page or Facebook group and Pinterest if you aren’t on Instagram.

Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

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If you are a fan of Simply Crochet magazine then you are probably familiar with their ‘Hook to Hook Challenges’ where two designers compete to come up with a unique pattern, to a given brief, using the same yarn. I always love seeing these challenges as the results are always so different! So I was super excited to be asked to be one of the challengers for Issue 81. And this is what I came up with…

The theme for this challenge was ‘Mother’s Day Card’ and I was given five 10g mini balls of Scheepjes Catona and some card with which to design some motifs suitable to create a card to give on that special day.

I actually came up with a few different ideas for card designs but in the end I settled on creating some butterfly motifs. I love butterflies, I just think they are wondrous creatures and always delight in seeing them so it was fun to come up with some small designs in keeping with my card idea.

I also decided to add an extra handmade twist of embroidering with the yarn directly onto the card. That was really fun to do and it produced exactly the effect I was looking for with the card.

As it was my mum that taught me how to crochet this Mother’s Day card would just be perfect for her!

I did laugh when I saw that my competitor was none other than Eleonora from Coastal Crochet! You may remember that I’ve met her a couple of times and interviewed her here on the blog too (read that here). It’s so fun to be up against someone I know and I certainly wouldn’t mind if she won. I love Eleonora’s cat and floral motif card – it certainly is purrrfect for Mother’s day too!

One of the fun bits of the Hook to Hook Challenge is that YOU can vote for your favourite of the two designs on the Simply Crochet Instagram page. To vote, simply double tap and comment on the design you prefer, and one lucky reader will win all the yarn that you need to make the project.

A winner will be announced on Wednesday 20th February 2019 at 1pm (GMT) on the Simply Crochet Instagram page, the competition is open to UK entrants only and T&C’s will apply.

So please, go check out the challenge, vote, and then I hope you’ll pop to the shops to pick up your copy of Simply Crochet Magazine for both Mother’s Day card patterns so you can have a go at making them yourself!

Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx