Charlotte {Large Crochet Square Part 1}

I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting the pattern for my new large crochet square, and I am very excited to bring you Part 1 of 3. In this part I will show you how to make the central square. Next week I will show you how to make the triangles used to extend the square. The week after I will show you how to make the border. You can see photos of the completed Charlotte Square HERE.

I have decided to call this crochet square Charlotte because I never did hear back from Counting Crows about using ‘Anna Begins’ as a name. I really, really wanted to use ‘Anna Begins’ (for so many reasons), but Charlotte was my second choice, and I think it suits the feel of this square.

Update 2021: This post has been updated as part of the Charlotte’s Universe CAL 2021. Check out the fancy charts by Masako Kawahara!

Charlotte Large Crochet Square Part 1: Small Square

Resources

You can find links to the right and left-handed video tutorials (US) for Part 1 HERE on It’s All in a Nutshell.
If you need help with any of the special stitches or techniques used in this pattern, please see Special Stitches and Techniques.

Translations

Materials and Gauge

Please consult the relevant pattern:

Abbreviations

US Terminology (US/UK Conversion HERE)

Ch – Chain
BP – Back post (insert your hook from back to front around the post of the indicated stitch and complete the stitch as normal)
Dc – Double crochet
Dc2tog – Double crochet 2 together (see Special Stitches)
FP – Front post (insert your hook from front to back around the post of the indicated stitch and complete the stitch as normal)
Hdc – Half-double crochet
Sc – Single crochet
Tr – Treble crochet
Sl st – Slip stitch
Sp/sps – Space/spaces
St/sts – Stitch/stitches
() and * – Repeat instructions between parentheses and/or asterisks the number of times specified

Special Stitches

Dc2tog – Yarn over and insert your hook into the indicated stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over and pull through 2 loops. Yarn over and insert your hook into the next stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over and pull through 2 loops. Yarn over and pull through all 3 loops on your hook.
Standing Stitches – Standing stitches are exactly the same as regular stitches, except that they are made ‘in air’, without being attached to a previous stitch. Start with a slip knot already on your hook and complete the stitch as normal. Here are some tutorials for the standing double crochet and standing single crochet to get you started.

Charts

Credit: Masako Kawahara from Crochet_Hmmm

Please follow the charts in a counter-clockwise direction, regardless of whether you are right or left-handed.

Notes

The central Flower of this square is textured and raised slightly above the surface. When you have only made the flower, it will look like it bulges a lot (because of all those front post stitches), but as the square progresses this will become less noticeable. With use, the flower will relax down even further, but it will always remain slightly raised above the surface of the square.

For the photos in this photo tutorial, I have used Scheepjes Stonewashed XL and a 5.5 mm crochet hook. This is one of my all-time favourite yarns, and my hands are itching to work up a cream, purple, and soft lime version!

If you find that your square refuses to become ‘square’ by Round 18 (the corners are pointy and the sides are ruffled/wavy), it is an indication that you are making your chains far tighter than the rest of your stitches, which pulls the square in and prevents it from having enough surface area for the number of stitches in the last round.

You can fix this by doing one of the following:

Relax your tension when making the chains
Use a bigger hook for the chain portions when making the Flower ONLY
Add an extra chain to each chain space when making the Flower ONLY

This usually happens if you are a ‘yanker’ (please see THIS GOLDEN LOOP VIDEO).

Example Square on the right courtesy of Diane Kelly

Instructions

Round 1 (Colour A)

Into a magic ring: ch 5 (counts as tr + ch 1). (Tr, ch 1) 11 times. Join to the 4th ch of the beginning ch-5 with a sl st.

Stitch Count: 12 tr and 12 ch-1 sps

Round 2 (Colour A)

Sl st into the next ch-1 sp. (Ch 1, sc) into the same ch-1 sp. (Ch 4, sc in the next ch-1 sp) 11 times. Ch 4. Join to the top of the first sc with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count: 12 sc and 12 ch-4 sps

Round 3 (Colour B)

Join your yarn by making a standing dc in any ch-4 sp. Make 2 more dc in the same ch-4 sp. (Ch 2, make 3 dc in the next ch-4 sp) 11 times. Ch 2. Join to the top of the standing dc with a sl st.

Stitch Count: 36 dc and 12 ch-2 sps

Round 4 (Colour B)

Ch 2 (doesn’t count as a st). Make 2 FPdc around the post of the same (first) dc from Round 3. Make 2 FPdc around each of the next 2 dc. Ch 1. (Make 2 FPdc around each of the next 3 dc, ch 1) 11 times. Join to the top of the first FPdc with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count: 72 FPdc and 12 ch-1 sps

Round 5 (Colour A)

Join your yarn by making a standing dc into any ch-2 sp from Round 3, working OVER the ch-1 sp from Round 4. You will find the ch-2 sps between Petals {Photos 1 and 2}. Dc in the same ch-2 sp. (Ch 4. Make 2 dc in the next ch-2 sp from Round 3, working OVER the ch-1 sp from Round 4) 11 times. Ch 4. Join to the top of the standing dc with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count: 24 dc and 12 ch-4 sps

Round 6 (Colour B)

Work in front of the ch-4 sps from Round 5 when making this round. You will need to dig around a bit to locate the first FPdc of each 6-FPdc ‘group’.

Hint: Work in 12 lots of 6 stitches to make sure that you don’t accidentally skip any stitches. You should make 6 stitches into each Petal.

Join your yarn by making a standing FPdc around the first FPdc of any 6-FPdc group from Round 4. Make a FPdc around each of the remaining 71 sts. Join to the top of the first FPdc with a sl st.

Stitch Count: 72 FPdc

Your flower will be ruffled at this point. Don’t worry about it.

Round 7 (Colour B)

Ch 2 (doesn’t count as a st). (FPdc2tog, working into the first 2 FPdc of the Petal. FPdc in the next 2 sts. FPdc2tog, working into the last 2 FPdc of the Petal. Ch 3) 12 times. Join to the first FPdc2tog with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count: 48 FPdc and 12 ch-3 sps

Round 8 (Colour A)

In this round, you will be working between the 2 dc that form each 2-dc group in Round 5. You will work OVER the ch-3 sp from Round 7 and the stitches of Round 6 (between Petals). You will need to apply quite a bit of tension to ensure your dc sts are ‘tight’.

Make a standing dc between any 2 dc from Round 5, remembering to work OVER Rounds 6 and 7. Make another dc between the same 2 dc. (Ch 4. Make 2 dc between the next 2 dc from Round 5, remembering to work OVER Rounds 6 and 7) 11 times. Ch 4. Join to the first dc with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count: 24 dc and 12 ch-4 sps

Round 9 (Colour B)

Join your yarn by making a standing FPdc2tog around the first 2 sts of any Petal from Round 7 (in other words, around the FPdc2tog and the first FPdc). FPdc2tog around the last 2 sts of the Petal. Ch 4. (FPdc2tog twice into the next Petal of Round 7. Ch 4) 11 times. Join to the first FPdc2tog with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count: 24 FPdc and 12 ch-4 sps

Round 10 (Colour A)

Join your yarn by making a standing dc between any 2 dc from Round 8, working OVER the ch-4 sp from Round 9. Make 4 dc in the same sp. (Ch 2 and make 5 dc between the next 2 dc from Round 8) 11 times. Ch 2. Join to the first dc with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count: 60 dc and 12 ch-2 sps

Round 11 (Colour B)

Join your yarn by making a FPdc2tog around the remaining 2 sts of any Petal from Round 9. (Ch 6 and FPdc2tog around the 2 sts of the next Petal from Round 9) 11 times. Ch 6. Join to the first FPdc2tog with a sl st. Fasten off and work away ends.

Stitch Count: 12 FPdc and 12 ch-6 sps

At the end of this round, your flower will bulge quite a lot. This will relax but it won’t completely go away. The final flower will be raised slightly above the surface of the square.

Round 12 (Colour A)

In this round, you will work IN FRONT OF the ch-6 sps from Round 11.

Join your yarn by making a standing hdc in the first dc of any 5-dc group from Round 10. Hdc in the same st. Sc in the next 3 sts. Make 2 hdc in the next st, which will be the last dc of the 5-dc group {Photo 1}. FPdtr in the dc from Round 8 to the left of the next Petal (to the right if you are left-handed) – Photos 2 and 3. FPdtr in the dc from Round 8 to the right of the same Petal (to the left if you are left-handed) – Photos 4 and 5. You are essentially doubling back, and you will need to fold/turn your work to make it easier to get into that stitch.

*Make 2 hdc in the first dc of the next 5-dc group from Round 10. Sc in the next 3 sts. Make 2 hdc in the next st. FPdtr in the dc from Round 8 to the left of the next Petal (to the right if you are left-handed). FPdtr in the dc from Round 8 to the right of the same Petal (to the left if you are left-handed).*

Repeat from * to * 10 more times. Join to the first hdc with a sl st.

Stitch Count: 108 sts {36 sc, 48 hdc, and 24 FPdtr}

Round 13 (Colour A)

Ch 1 and sc in the same st as the sl st join, which will be the hdc after 2 FPdtr. Sc in the next 2 sts. (Make 2 sc in the next st, which should be the central of the 3 sc from the previous round. Mark the second sc with a SM if you are going to have trouble finding it in the next round. Sc in the next 8 sts) 11 times. Make 2 sc in the next st. Sc in the last 5 sts. Join to the first sc with a sl st.

Stitch Count: 120 sc

Remember to check your gauge at the end of this round.

Round 14 (Colour A)

Ch 1 and sc in the same st as the sl st join. Sc in the next 4 sts. You should now have 5 sc, the last of which should fall in the second (marked) sc of the increase from the previous round.

*Hdc in the next st, dc in the next 2 sts, tr in the next 2 sts. Ch 4, skip the next 4 sts and sl st in the next st, which should be the second (marked) sc of the increase from the previous round. Ch 13 and sl st in the same st to form a loop. Ch 4 and skip the next 4 sts. Tr in the next 2 sts, dc in the next 2 sts, hdc in the next st. Sc in the next 11 sts. The first and last sc should fall in the second (marked) sc of the increase from the previous round.*

Repeat from * to * 3 more times, omitting the last 5 sc on the last repeat (because you’ve already made them at the start of this round). Join to the first sc with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Have a look at your work before continuing. The flowers formed by the ch-4 and ch-13 loops are your corners. Each of them should fall between 2 Petals. If they don’t, you’ll need to check your stitches to see where you have gone wrong.

Stitch Count: 84 sts {44 sc, 8 hdc, 16 dc, 16 tr, 8 ch-4 sps, and 4 ch-13 sps}

Round 15 (Colour A)

Join your yarn by making a standing hdc in any ch-13 sp around. Try to make this st close to the middle of the ch-13 sp. Into the same ch-13 sp: (3 sc, ch 2, 3 sc, hdc). This is your first corner made. Move these sts up so that they fall over the centre of the ch-13 sp. You can adjust them later if it looks a bit wonky now.

*Ch 3, skip the ch-4 sp, sc in each of the next 21 sts. Ch 3 and skip the next ch-4 sp. Into the next ch-13 sp: (hdc, 3 sc, ch 2, 3 sc, hdc).*

Repeat from * to * 3 more times, omitting the last corner on the last repeat. Join to the first hdc with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Counts:

Total: 116 sts {8 hdc, 108 sc, 8 ch-3 sps, and 4 ch-2 corner sps}
Per Side: 29 sts {2 hdc, 27 sc, and 2 ch-3 sps}

Round 16 (Colour B)

Join your yarn by making a standing sc in any ch-2 corner sp. (Ch 2, sc) in the same sp. This is your first corner made.

*Sc in the next 4 sts. Make 3 sc in the next ch-3 sp. Sc in the next 21 sts. Make 3 sc in the next ch-3 sp. Sc in the last 4 sts. Don’t accidentally skip the hdc right after the ch-3 sp. (Sc, ch 2, sc) in the next ch-2 corner sp.*

Repeat from * to * 3 more times, omitting the last corner on the last repeat. Join to the first sc with a sl st.

Stitch Count: 148 sc and 4 ch-2 corner sps {37 sc per side}

Round 17 (Colour B)

Sl st into the ch-2 corner sp. Ch 4 (counts as hdc and ch-2). Hdc in the same sp. This is your first corner made.

*Skip the first (hidden) st. Hdc in each of the remaining 36 sts. (Hdc, ch 2, hdc) in the next ch-2 corner sp.*

Repeat from * to * 3 more times, omitting the last corner on the last repeat. Join to the second ch of the initial ch-4 with a sl st. Fasten off and work away your ends.

Stitch Count: 152 hdc and 4 ch-2 corner sps {38 hdc per side}

Round 18 (Colour A)

Join your yarn by making a standing hdc in any ch-2 corner sp. (Hdc, ch 2, 2 hdc) in the same sp. This is your first corner made.

*BPdc in each of the 38 sts across. (2 hdc, ch 2, 2 hdc) in the next ch-2 corner sp.*