my crocheted rose pattern, a gift for you

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Back when I first started crocheting flowers, I searched around for a pattern for a crocheted rose because roses were such a big inspiration for me. I'm a bit rose obsessed if truth be told.

I love growing roses

and painting them. 

They ended up in print sets

and collaged into hearts.

And inevitably in my fabric designs, too.

Brightly colored roses showed up in my Summer Bliss collection and these dramatic blue roses made their way into the collection called My Garden Sketchbook.

There are a lot of crochet patterns out there and it was hard to find just what I was looking for, a realistic-looking, three dimensional crocheted rose. Eventually I found one that I liked, but it still wasn't just what I had in mind. I wanted to go further and have a more realistic look for my roses, so I modified the pattern. 

Once I started making them I wanted to put them on everything.

I used fine crochet thread and added them to jewelry.

I used thicker yarn and made dramatic brooches and sewed them onto bags and purses.

I even made some out of wool yarn and felted them. 

What's fun about my pattern is that you can modify it and make many different kinds of roses. I've tried lots of variations and I'm going to share the basic pattern with you today and some thoughts on how to modify it further if you want to experiment.

Because I originally found the pattern online for free I want to return the favor and share my modified pattern for free, too. 

Because of the popularity of the pattern and repeated requests for a printable version, it's now available for at a modest cost in my original Etsy shop.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have. If you don't crochet, now is the perfect time to learn. 

In order to make this pattern as easy as possible for beginning crocheters, I've included step-by step photographs as well as written instructions. (The other patterns available in my shop are very similar to this.  The main difference is that I use abbreviations in the written instructions for the sake of brevity).

The pattern for my vine and leaf necklace, whether created as written or adapted, makes a beautiful base for a crocheted rose necklace.

I love that the possibilities are nearly limitless!

If you have any questions or need clarification at all, please let me know in the comments or feel free to email me (although this post was originally published in 2014, I'm still maintaining this blog and continue to respond to comments). I'm always delighted to hear from my readers and ready to help!

As long as you match your fiber with the correctly sized crochet hook you can use just about any weight of thread or yarn to make these roses. I love using the DMC Coton Perle size 5 that look like this:

to make the roses for my necklaces. They come in so many different colors and are readily available at just about any craft store. 

For this example, though, I'm using a mini skein of worsted weight yarn and a size G hook (4.25 mm) because it's much easier to see the stitches. 

Let's get started!

Foundation Row: Chain 55 (leave a long tail).

Row 1: Double crochet into 4th chain from hook.  This makes your first V stitch.

Chain 1. Skip 2 stitches. Double crochet into next stitch. Chain 2. Double crochet into same stitch.

Now you have 2 V stitches.

Chain 1. Skip 2 stitches. Continue making V stitches (Double crochet. Chain 2. Double crochet into same stitch), separating each with a single chain stitch and 2 skipped stitches, across to the end of your foundation chain. You will have 18 V stitches.

Turn.

Row 2: Chain 3 (counts as 1 double crochet). Work one double crochet into the first V stitch space of Row 1. Chain 2. Work 2 double crochet into the same V stitch space.

This is your first large V stitch.

Chain 2. Make another large V stitch (2 double crochet. Chain 2. 2 double crochet) in the next V stitch space. Chain 2. Continue making large V stitches in each of your Row 1 V stitches, separating each with 2 chain stitches. You will have 18 large V stitches.

What you've created so far is the base for your petals. Each of the V stitches forms the base of a single petal (so you will have 18 petals in this rose). In the original pattern all of the petals are made up of the same size stitches. In my adaptation the petals vary in size, both in the number of stitches that make up each petal and the height of those stitches. I start with the smallest petals as the center of the rose and then crochet progressively larger petals so that the outside petals are the largest.

Let's continue and finish up this rose.

Row 3 (the petals): Chain 2 (counts as first half double crochet). Half double crochet 6 times into first large V stitch space.

Single crochet in the 2 chain space between the first two large V stitches. Make 7 half double crochet stitches in next V stitch space. Single crochet in next 2 chain space.

Make 7 half double crochet stitches in next large V stitch space. This gives you a total of 3 small petals. Single crochet in next 2 chain space.

Now we'll move on to the next size petal.  Make 9 double crochet stitches in next large V stitch space. Single crochet in next 2 chain space.

Make 3 more petals with 9 double crochet stitches in the next 3 large V stitch spaces, separating them with single crochet stitches made in the 2 chain spaces between the large V stitches of row 2.

For the next size petal, make 11 triple crochet stitches in next large V stitch space. Single crochet in the next 2 chain space.

Create 4 more petals with 11 triple crochet stitches, remembering to separate the petals with single crochet stitches in the 2 chain spaces between the large V stitches.

For the next size of petal you will crochet 13 double triple stitches in the next large V stitch space. Single crochet in next 2 chain space.

You can see that the fabric is already wanting to spiral into a rose shape and that the larger petals are beginning to curve. With these large petals it will be a bit of a squeeze to get all of the stitches to fit in the V stitch space; that's what creates the curved shape of the petal.

To finish your rose create 5 more petals with 13 double triple stitches, again, remembering to separate the petals with single crochet stitches in the 2 chain spaces between the large V stitches.

Fasten off, leaving a long tail (6-8 inches should be enough. Mine is a bit shorter because I came to the end of my skein).

To finish your rose you will roll it into a rosette shape. Take the end with the smallest petals and begin rolling from the center out. Be sure you are rolling in the direction that the larger petals are curving (counter clockwise).

Line up the original chain stitches from your foundation row to create the base of the flower.

The front will look like this as you begin to roll:

Continue rolling

until you have wrapped the largest petals around the rose, making sure to keep the base of the flower flat.

Leave the tail from the last largest petal loose for now. Thread an appropriately sized needle with the beginning tail.

You will want to check the front to make sure that your petals are arranged nicely. Adjust them if necessary.

Now you will secure the rose by working the tail back and forth through the base of the flower.

Continue until you have only a couple inches of tail left. 

Turn your rose over and look at the last large petal to see where you want to secure it to the flower.

For mine I want to secure it to the middle of the petal above.

Thread the needle with that tail end and secure the final petal to the petals above it,

working your stitches down to the base of the rose.

Work the yarn through the base of the rose as you did with the first tail and finish by sewing up into the center of the base

and through the center of the spiraled petals in the front of the flower.

Work the rest of the other tail end up through the center as well.

 Fasten off.

Alternatively, you can work with longer tails and leave them loose on the back of the flower so you can attach the rose to another piece (a purse or a hat or necklace or scarf...) or to a pin back to create a brooch.

Sew multiple roses together into a lovely bracelet.

Or add one to a simple crochet chain for an easy necklace.

The pattern is also so easy to adapt. You can increase or decrease the number of petals by changing the length of the foundation chain. Just be sure your chain is a multiple of 3 plus another 4 stitches.

You can also adjust the size and number of each size petal. For this rose there were 3 petals made of 7 half double crochet stitches, 4 petals of 9 double crochet stitches, 5 petals of 11 triple crochet stitches and 6 petals of 13 double triple crochet stitches. Playing around with the number of stitches and their heights will give you different looks for your flower, so experiment with changing these numbers.

You can even make pointed petals (like the dark flowers in this necklace

by varying the heights of the stitches within each petal (for example for the small petals you may want to make a petal with 2 half double crochet stitches, 3 double crochet stitches and another 2 half double crochet stitches).

Experiment and see what different petal shapes and sizes you can create.

Whatever you make, I'd love to see it!

Happy crafting!

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