Properly clever pattern - you make the square first, and then add the flower petals afterwards.

The pattern is well written and easy to follow. There are a lot of steps, but making it methodically, row by row, building up the base and then adding the petals, it is straightforward and looks amazing, whether all in one colour, or in many colours.

For the cream one, which is for my afghan, I used worsted yarn and a 4.5mm hook, which got me to 12” by the end of row 13, so I couldn’t add the spike stitch border.

For the coloured yarns one, which I made for the row-by-row photo tute for the 2012 bamcal group, I used DK and a 4mm hook, and was able to do one row of the spike DC, plus one row of SC.

I’m not a particularly loose hooker, so if I really did want to add the rows of spike stitch border, I’d use DK. However, I think it looks just fine without it!