Sakura Cherry Blossom Doily – 桜ドイリー

Found this lovely free Cherry Blossom doily or coaster pattern through Crochet a Little‘s fb page, March 11, 2014 posting. Chi-sa-ko, is the original designer of this great little free charted crochet pattern.

Perfect timing for Ohanami, cherry blossom viewing season here in Japan and around the northern hemisphere. Chi-sa-ko states in the pattern she used approx 4g of Aprico thread in the Salmon Pink colorway. A Hamanaka crochet hook size 3 will provide a finished size of approx 11cm across.

Warning: As easy as it looks to crochet, there is one stitch (or stitch combination) that I have never seen before and my search throughout the internet did not bring anything to light. Nor did my Encyclopedia of Crochet by Donna Kooler. A bit difficult to search when one doesn’t know the name of the stitch. It’s a Decrease3DoubleCrochets(dc3tog US) with a DoubleCrochet(dc US) on top so it looks like a vertical stitch combination. I’ve included a short instruction video for those who have not seen that stitch combination before either:

I grabbed the first Sakura appropriate lace thread in my stash which happened to be a Daruma brand #20 thread and a size 2 hook to make mine right away. Once I figured out how to do the unique stitch combination I finished 2 in super quick time and

attached one to a felt backing to create a coaster.  Now that I know I can complete it so easily, I’m curious to see how it will look in the recommended Aprico thread, which Chi-sa-ko states means “Sunny Day” in Italian. Off to my favorite yarn store to find it!

You can check out an entire year’s worth of floral-themed doilies that were designed by Chi-sa-ko. It looks like each month there will be a new one released.