My favorite moment every year is that first morning when you can begin to feel fall in the air. I was lucky enough to catch the chill early this morning and it was exhilarating. My head began to fill with ideas for crochet hats and scarves, mittens and socks. Yippee!

It made me think of the scarves I designed for Day of the Dead several years ago. I remember crocheting skulls and flower motifs everywhere I went for months before finally sewing them together to create Sugar Candy Skull scarves. 

A friend of the picnic asked me for the pattern for the flower motif I had used in these scarves, and I was genuinely surprised that in three years I have never gotten around to giving it to you. Well better late than never, here it is! I hope that I will be able to find some time this fall to crochet one.

Because all the pieces are small this is a great project for traveling and for using up leftover yarn. Enjoy!

Calavera Flower

Finished size: 4.5″ across from point to point

Materials

Worsted-weight yarn in orange, green, blue, and white (or 4 colors of your choice)
F-5 (3.75 mm) crochet hook
Yarn needle or tapestry needle

Abbreviations

beg = beginning
ch = chain
dc = double crochet
rep = repeat
rnd = round
sc = single crochet
slst = slip stitch
sp = space
tr = treble crochet

Special Instructions

3-st dc cluster = *Yarn over, insert hook into ring, yarn over and pull the yarn through, yarn over again and pull through first 2 loops on hook. Leave remaining loops on hook. Repeat from * 2 more times. Yarn over and pull through all 4 remaining loops on hook. (For the 2-st dc cluster rep from * 1 more time.)

Attach with standing dc = Make a slipknot and place it on your hook. Yarn over and insert your hook into the stitch or chain space. Yarn over again and complete the stitch as you would for a normal double crochet.

Instructions

With red, ch 5 and join with a slst to the 1st ch to form a ring.

Rnd 1: Ch 3, 2-st dc cluster into ring, ch 2. *3-st dc cluster into ring, ch 2, rep from * 3 more times, join to 1st dc cluster. Break yarn. (5 dc cluster petals made)

Rnd 2: With green, ch 1, * 6 sc in ch-sp, rep from * 4 more times, join to 1st sc. Break yarn. (30)

Rnd 3: With blue, ch 1, * slst into next sc, ch 3, tr in each of the next 3 scs, ch 3, slst in next sc, ch 2, rep from * 5 more times, join with slst to 1st ch. FO. (6 petals created)

Rnd 4: Attach white with standing dc to middle tr of any petal in Rnd 3, ch 3, dc in same st, * ch 2, tr in ch-2 sp between petals, ch 2, (dc, ch 3, dc) in middle tr of next petal, rep from * 5 more times, omitting the final (dc, ch 3, dc), join with slst to 1st dc. Do not break yarn.

Rnd 5: Ch 1, * 5 sc in next ch-3 sp, 3 sc in ea of the next 2 ch-2 sps, rep from * around, join with slst to 1st sc. FO and weave in all ends.

To Make the Scarf

1. Make 6 Calavera Flowers and 8 Sugar Candy Skulls using my free pattern.
2. If you would like for your skulls to be right-side up when the scarf is draped around your neck, sew 3 flowers and 4 skulls together as follows.
3. Arrange the motifs and sew them together like this: skull, flower, skull, flower, skull, flower, skull.
4. Repeat for the remaining 3 flowers and 4 skulls.
5. Then, sew the top of the skull from the first length to the top of the skull from the second length so that these skulls are facing away from each other. This way the skulls will all be right-side up when draped around your neck.

Want some help sewing your motifs together? I put together a video tutorial to show you how!