Want To Crochet Some Little Plant-Hangers? What A Coincidence: So Do I!

It’s never, ever, a good idea to begin a blog post with the words “Sorry it’s been aaaages – I’ve been super-busy”. But sometimes the temptation is so strong that I have to tie my own fingers up with yarn to prevent them from writing those words. Because yes, it’s been a while. Mostly, I’ve been in a hole. No I’m not talking about a pit of existential despair, thank goodness, I’m talking about an ACTUAL HOLE IN THE GROUND. One day very soon (possibly tomorrow), this will become a wildlife pond:-

But more about that in another post.

I have – at last – written up the pattern for my little crocheted plant-holders, in case you’d like to make some yourself. I say ‘some’ in the plural, because they’re quick to hook, and I think they look better in a cluster than alone.

To remind you of the micro-story, my parents gave me these balls of garden twine as a gift from their holiday, knowing that I was unlikely to use them for tying up anything neatly in the garden, because I don’t seem to have inherited the family ‘neat’ gene.

And they sat on a shelf in my study for some time (the twine I mean, not the parents), whilst I pondered what they might usefully become (again: twine, not parents). They’re quite little (again…), and I’m not very good at ‘small’ or ‘quick’ or ‘simple’ projects, so this was a challenge. Even I could see that this small pile of loveliness was not going to be sufficient to knit a life-size replica of the Houses Of Parliament, or any other crazy scheme.

Then at last, whilst buying pond-building supplies at the garden centre, I found some small glazed pots, and a plan formed. To those of you who mentioned macramé plant-hangers in response to my last post, YES! I had a kit for making just such a thing when I was a child. I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Here’s my crocheted version:-

So just to give you an idea of scale, the little pots are nigh-on 8cm (max) wide and 7cm high, with a lovely cracked glaze. I found them in a Wyevale garden centre, in case you’re in the ‘hood, and would like to buy some too. Each hanger is worked in three different shades of twine. The fibre is a roughly DK-weight, at 9wpi. Armed only with a 5mm (H) crochet hook and a hefty dollop of optimism, I set to work.

Would you like the pattern? It’s a little rough-and-ready, just like these plant-hangers. But here goes. I made three hangers using five little balls of ‘Nutscene’ twine, a Scottish fibre that’s still made on the same machines that first produced the stuff in 1922.

So let’s begin.

Choose-ye three colours per hanger.

• In your first shade, chain (ch) 9, then slip stitch (ss) into the first ch.
• Repeat the above, a further 4 times. You’ll have something that looks roughly like this… with emphasis on the ‘rough’, because it’s garden twine, not finest silk, and it’s never going to drape beautifully, no matter how violently you swear at it. Cut your yarn and pull through. Notice that your fingers are already starting to look a little calloused from working with the stuff.

• Take a second colour. Make a slipknot, then ch4. Ss into the outermost chain of one of the petals of the flower-shape that you made above. (Ch9, ss into the outermost ch of the next petal) four times. Ch4, then join to start of this round.
• Continuing in the same colour, (ch8, ss into outermost ch of next loop from previous round) 5 times, to complete another round.

• You’re going to work one more round in the same way and in the same colour, but right now, you’re at the bottom of one of the loops, and you need to be at the top. So, discreetly ss into the next 4 chs, in order to transport yourself to the top of a loop. Does that make sense? Now, work one more round in the same way that you worked the previous round. Cut yarn and pull through.
• Take a third colour. Join to the tip of one of the ‘petals’ from the previous round. Ch50. Pinch the final ch, then ch8, then ss into pinched ch. (This makes a little hanging loop at the top.) Ch49, then join to the tip of the next ‘petal’. Cut yarn and pull through. Join this third colour to the tip of the next petal along. Ch49, ss into the stitch at the base of the hanging loop, ch49, join to tip of next petal along. Cut yarn and pull through. Join same colour to tip of final petal, ch49, ss into stitch at base of hanging loop. Cut yarn and pull through.
• Weave in ends… and you’re done!

(And yes, I realize these photos are a bit below-par today. Pond-building and marathon-training will both be finished soon however, and normal yarny-blogging service will then resume. I’m off for an 18-mile run, now. In the heat. Ouch.)

Happy hooking/knitting.

Phil x