Crochet Conkers!

I do love Autumn… just when I think I’m going to dread the dark evenings and cold weather, nature gives its autumnal burst of gorgeous colours and each year I find myself falling in love with Autumn all over again! My creativity gets a boost from all that renewed inspiration too. From mushrooms which I wrote a blog post about last year mushroom walk (I’m told the fairy-tale ‘fly agaric’ mushrooms are particularly good this year) to autumn leaves and yes – Conkers!

I walked past a huge Horse Chestnut tree last weekend with a fresh crop of fallen ‘Conkers’ on the ground. They are such a vibrant colour and I couldn’t resist collecting a few.  I’m a little wary of taking them home as our dog Salty became very ill (as a puppy) when she ate some that we’d left in the garden. They are in fact poisonous for dogs so beware! Well this time I kept them high up on our kitchen table and of course I decided to crochet some! Just for fun on a rainy Sunday afternoon…

And I had a little fun making an Autumnal display…

And if for any reason you’d like to crochet your own conkers, here’s the pattern I designed…

Pattern
Materials: Any spare yarn that you have in brown and beige with an appropriately sized hook (the thicker the yarn and bigger the hook, the larger the conkers will be).

I used an acrylic DK weight yarn and a 3.5mm hook. A stitch marker can be used to place into the first stitch of each round if desired. Yarn needle, scissors.

Abbreviations: ch: chain, dc: double crochet, dc2tog: double crochet two stitches together, mm: millimetres, rep: repeat, RS: right side, ss: slip stitch, st(s): stitch(es)

To work:
With beige yarn make a ‘magic loop’
Round 1 (RS) ch1 (does not count as st), 10dc into the loop, ss to first st to join and pull magic loop tight
Round 2 *1dc in next 2 sts, 2dc in each of next 3 sts, rep from * once, ss to first st joining with brown yarn at this ss, (16 sts)

The conker is now made in a continual spiral without joining at the end of each round.

Round 3 *1dc in next 2 sts, (1dc in next st, 2dc in next st) three times,  rep from * once, (22 sts)

Rounds 4 – 6 1dc in each st around

Round 7 *1dc in next 2 sts, (1dc in next st, dc2tog) three times, rep from * once, (16 sts)

Round 8 *1dc in next 2 sts, dc2tog three times, rep from * once, (10 sts)

Fasten off leaving a 15cm tail of yarn. Gently fill the conker with a small amount of stuffing. Thread the tail of yarn through each st around and pull tight. Weave in ends.

And that’s a crocheted conker! Enjoy… 🙂 🙂