So, here we are in the middle of winter in the midwest. Christmas is over. Snow is on the ground. The temperature is in the teens. And everyone around me is complaining about how cold and miserable it is. Me, I enjoy winter – as long as I don’t have to interact with it too much. I love the look of snow on the ground, the crispness in the air. I’ve lived in south Florida for the past 30+ years. But there was a time when I lived up north and I remember hating winter, too. Even back then, I knew that winter wouldn’t last forever. Eventually, spring will come, buds will appear on the trees, and flowers will bloom again.

And that’s where the idea for this project came from -- from the hope that spring will return everything to life. That the bleakness of winter will return to glorious color.

So I picked out cotton yarn in the colors of spring and, with an idea in mind, just started making flowers. Then leaves. Then more flowers. And it grew and began to look like spring.

Whether you want to make a small potholder as a gift to lift someone’s winter spirit, or a larger table runner to pretend that spring has already sprung at your house, this project is for you. Make as many or as few motifs as you want. The possibilities are endless. And as you make them, you’ll feel the winter blues melt away.

This pattern contains the instructions for the potholder shown here. To make a table runner, you will need to make more motifs than what is needed for just the potholder. The layout would be up to you. Please refer to my Spring Flower Table Runner for more ideas.

FINISHED SIZE:
Width: 10”
Height: 15”

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY TO MODERATE
The basic motif patterns are fairly simple and use the slip stitch, chain, single crochet, half-double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet stitches. Detail is added to each motif using surface slip stitches. (If you’ve never tried this before, believe me, its SUPER easy and you’re going to LOVE it!)

So while there’s nothing terribly “hard” in this pattern, I added the “to moderate” in the level of difficulty because this is more like artwork than a simple crochet pattern. You’ll need to be comfortable with making decisions on where you want some stitches to go and not expect to be directed exactly for each and every stitch. Think of it as imitating nature – no two flowers or leaves should be the same. Be creative! Enjoy each motif’s uniqueness. Now, go create!

STITCHES AND TERMINOLOGY USED:
All instructions are in U.S. terminology.
CH Chain
DC Double Crochet
HDC Half-Double Crochet
MC Magic Circle
SJ Seamless Join ()
SC Single Crochet
SS Slip Stitch
SSS Surface Slip Stitch ()
TR Treble Crochet
YO Yarn Over