The Crochet Alder Round is the fourth round designed for the Treesacret afghan project and features the shell stitch.

Design Inspiration

The Celtic zodiac has multiple iterations, including trees and animals. The ancient druids believed that a person’s birth correlated with a specific tree related to lunar cycles and that correlation contributed to one’s personality traits. My Treesacret afghan project incorporates each of these thirteen trees into one stitch sampler blanket. For the alder tree, I chose a design that mimics the pattern of the catkins. Alder (March 18 – April 14) is considered the Innovator and represents bravery, romance, and generosity.

PATTERN

Description

A crochet alder round pattern and the fourth design for my Celtic tree zodiac afghan.

Materials

Yarn: Lion Brand Hue + Me (weight 5 – bulky)
Rosewater (4.4 oz/125 g, 137 yd/125 m) – 1 skein

Hook: L/11 – 8.00mm

Stitch markers

Tapestry needle

Scissors

Sizing 

Finished Dimensions: 23” length x 23” width

Abbreviations (US)

st – stitch
sl st – slip stitch
ch – chain
sk – skip
sc – single crochet
dc – double crochet
hdc – half double crochet 

Special Stitches

Shell Stitch: [dc 2, ch 1, dc 2] 

Notes

Brackets [ ] indicate directions worked in the same st. For example, sc 5 means sc 1 in five sts; [sc 5] means sc 5 in the same st.

Beginning ch 2 counts as a double crochet

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Crochet Alder Square (Treesacret Afghan) – Instructions

Alder Round

Join with the last sl st of the Ash Round

Round 14: ch 2, turn, [sc 2] in the same st as the starting ch, *sc 51, [sc 2, dc, sc 2] in the corner tc of the previous round, repeat from * until the final corner, [sc 2] in the same st as the starting ch, sl st in the top of the starting ch (220 sc, 4 dc)

Round 15: ch 2, turn, [sc 2] in the same st as the starting ch, {sc, *sk 2, shell, sk 2, sc, repeat from * eight times, [sc 2, dc, sc 2] in the corner dc of the previous round}, repeat {pattern} until the final corner, [sc 2] in the same st as the starting ch, sl st in the top of the starting ch (56 sc, 148 dc, 32 ch1-sp)

Round 16: ch 2, turn, [hdc 2] in the same st as the starting ch, {hdc 3, ch 3, sc in the ch1-sp of the shell, *ch 4, sc in the next ch1-sp, repeat from * eight times, ch 3, sk 2, hdc 3, [hdc 2, dc, hdc 2] in the corner dc of the previous round, repeat {pattern} until the final corner, [sc 2] in the same st as the starting ch, sl st in the top of the starting ch (40 hdc, 36 sc, 4 dc, 8 ch3-sp, 32 ch4-sp)

Round 17: ch 2, turn, [hdc 2] in the same st as the starting ch, *hdc 4, [hdc 3] in the ch3-sp, [hdc 4] in the each ch4-sp across, [hdc 3] in the ch3-sp, hdc 4, [hdc 2, dc 1, hdc 2] in the dc of the previous round, repeat from * until the final corner, [hdc 2] in the same st as the starting ch, sl st in the top of the starting ch (208 hdc, 4 dc)

You can finish off or mark the sl st to add the next round later

Block

If you enjoyed this pattern, check out these other projects: Crochet Birch Square (Treesacret Afghan), Crochet Rowan Square (Treesacret Afghan, Crochet Ash Round (Treesacret Afghan), Baby Countdown Series