I created the following instructions for making Block 3 because it's causing some grief. It took forever to get on facebook so I've copied it here so that I don't have to put myself through that effort again!
Round 1 – making the front of the flower bud
Start with a circle that has 12 tr in it. This is the front of your flower bud.
Round 2 – making the back of the flower bud
Start to work decreased half trebles (“dec 2htr”) which will fold into a circle at the back of this one. This is the bud of the flower. To work the decreased half treble – take the yarn around your hook, put the needle through the next tr and pick up one loop. Repeat this on the next tr. You should have 5 loops on your hook. Take the yarn around you hook and then pull that loop through all 5 loops on your hook.
Continue this way until you have worked the beginning decreased half treble (“2ch, 1htr in next st”) and the “5 dec 2htr” repeats. You will have 6 stitches in total. Note how your circle has folded back on itself to form a closed circle at the back. This is the back of your flower bud.
At this stage the front of your flower bud should look like this if you turn your work over.
The decreased half trebles are at the back. In the next round, you will work from the back to create the loops for petals.
Round 3 – making the loops for the base of the petal
With the back of the flower facing you, create the 2 ch loops that you will use to form the base of each petal. In each half treble stitch at the back work a double crochet and then a 2 ch loop between stitches. You will have 6 double crochet and 2 ch loops. You will be making the petal into these loops.
Round 4 – making the first round of petals
With the front of the flower facing you, work a series of “1dc, 1htr, 3tr, 1htr, 1dc” into each of the 2 ch loops. Note how you create the petal at the back of the flower bud this way.
The pattern then tells you to do “1ch, sl st around bp of st in row below” on the very last stitch of round 4. See Round 5 below for how to do this.
From the front your flower should look like this:
Round 5 – creating the next round of loops (3 ch) for the second round of petals
In this round you will be creating another set of loops at the back of your flower. Have a look at it now from the flower now and note how there is a small “bar” created in Round 3 by the double crochet between each 2 ch loop (see where the hook is pointing in the pic below).
This is the back post (“bp”) that the pattern is referring to. Turn your work over now so that you can create the loops at the back of the flower.
With the back of the pattern facing you, you need to take your hook and push it under the double crochet stitch – from the back, to the front, then to the back again as follows:
From here you take the yarn around your hook and pull through to create a double crochet. (On the first stitch, the instructions have you working a slip stitch first to “anchor” the stitches). Work 3 ch and then repeat the double crochet through the back of the next “back post” (ie the next double crochet bar created from round 3).
From the back, your ch loops should start to look a bit like this (there are two loops at the side of this flower):
This round of double crochet and 3 ch loops forms the base of the second round of petals. However, it also creates the next set of “back posts” for round 7. And so on.
Rounds 6 to 9 – continue making petals and loops
Turn you work around so that the front is facing you for the petals, and the back is facing you for the loops. Repeat the process from Rounds 4 and 5 until you have completed 3 sets of petals and created one further set of loops (round 9). This final set of 5 ch loops will give you the base for round 10 – where you start to work normal rounds of treble.
Rounds 10 to 13
Follow the pattern from here on to create several rounds of treble, with 2 tr, 2 ch, 2 tr in each corner. Finish with the usual round of dc.
On the craft front, I received a lovely book from Pingu and think that I will make one of these for the step-daughter's easter bundle. Not a traditional present, but something I think she'd love. I had a more traditional bunny in mind but might make that for the daughter and/or son.
