Squirrel Picnic

My grandma receives a knitting lesson from my great-grandmother.

Ask any knitter or crocheter where they learned their skills, and the vast majority will tell you from their mother or grandmother.

I remember when I first moved to Colorado, my mother flew out to visit me for a week. I was living in a studio apartment with nothing but a couch in my living room and not much to entertain us. My mom taught me how to crochet a granny square that week. (That’s all the entertainment we needed!) I really took to it, and before long I was crocheting granny blankets for everyone I knew.

My grandmother was also an avid and prolific knitter. I think she knit a sweater for every one of her grand kids. My brother got a sweater with a really cool dinosaur on it, and I got a Southwest-inspired one that I still have today. In most of my memories of her, she is knitting. Grandma even took her projects with her on all of the long, cross-country trips that she and Grandpa loved to take. I feel like she and I have so much in common. I am very thankful that I inherited her love of fiber arts as well as her abundant yarn stash.

In celebration of my mom and grandmother and all that they taught me, this Mother’s Day I thought I’d crochet a brooch out of vintage mohair yarn that once belonged to Grandma.

In keeping with the vintage motif, I designed a brooch that’s reminiscent of the filigree knot jewelry that was popular in the 1950s and 60s. I guess there is a chance that this mohair could be from that time period too!

Mother’s Day is just around the bend, but you still have time to make something for your mom. Maybe a brooch in her favorite color would do nicely. And don’t forget to thank your mom for everything she’s taught you, especially if one of those things was knitting or crochet.

Crochet Mohair Brooch

Materials

Small amount of fingering weight mohair yarn in light aqua (ArtYarns Silk Mohair in Aqua, 60% mohair, 40% silk, 0.88 oz [25 g] / 312 yds [285 m])
Small amount of fingering weight yarn in white (Bernat Baby in White, 90% acrylic, 10% nylon, 1.75 oz [50 g] / 191 yds [175 m])
C-2 (2.75 mm) crochet hook
Yarn needle
1” bar pin
Sewing needle and thread
Beads (optional)

Instructions

Wrap aqua yarn around index finger 10 times to form a ring. Insert crochet hook, yo, and pull through all the loops. Slst to secure.

Rnd 1: 24 sc into center of the ring. It’s easier if you sc a few before taking the ring off your finger.

Join with slst to 1st sc.

Rnd 2: (Ch 8, sk 3, sc) 5 times. Ch 8, sk 3, join with slst to 1st sc.

Rnd 3: Sc 11 in ea ch-8 sp. BO

Rnd 4: Hold the brooch with RS facing. Ensuring that your yarn is in front of the brooch, attach white yarn in any center sc of the 3 skipped in Rnd 2.

* Ch 12. Hold the next aqua loop forward. Working behind the loop, sc in the next center st by inserting your crochet hook from front to back.

Ch 12. Hold the next aqua loop backward. Working in front of the loop this time, sc in the next center st.

Rep from * to the end. BO. Weave in ends.

Sew on beads if desired.

Position the bar pin at the top of the center ring created in Rnd 1. Make sure that you can’t see it from the front. Sew bar pin on.