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… 🙂 🙂
Cute! I love conkers – I’ve been known to stuff my pockets full of freshly dropped, shiny conkers, like a magpie attracted to sparkly objects! Got to say, how would you win a game of conkers if they are crocheted?? ;-D
Ha ha! I can’t resist picking them up either! And a crocheted conker would surely win every time!! 😉 🙂
True! 🙂 And any swing-back would hurt less!
I love conkers, maybe that’s what I should do this weekend, and your crochet ones are so sweet.
Thank you Cathy…oh yes, you should definitely go in search of some conkers! Always fun to search for autumnal nature… 🙂 🙂
These are just so super cute. Thank you so much for sharing your pattern. I’m going to have to make some of these xx
You’re more than welcome… thanks so much Nicola! ❤️😀😀😀
Thanks for sharing! This just bought back memories of me as a child, conker picking with my grandpa. ❤️
Awww, thank you! Your happy memories sound really wonderful and I’m glad I made you think of them!! ❤️❤️❤️☺️
They’re perfect! I love collecting conkers too, although I never knew what to do with them!
Thanks Hannah… glad you like them! 😊❤️🌰🌰
Great pic and artistic view.
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Thank you
Reblogged this on Yarnsage and commented:
Too cute!
Thank you! 😊❤️🌰❤️
Thank you for the pattern for the conkers which I will be using to decorate my next postbox topper. I love conkers and over 20 years found some in a plastic bag in the shed which we had collected for our son and then forgotten about. They had started to sprout so I planted them up. Now in 2021 I have 3 glorious horse chestnut trees in the garden that are now producing conkers of their own.
That’s amazing!! What a wonderful story… 🥰💙💙