Design a Crochet Motif
Article by KarensVariety.com

You can design your own motif by following a few basic rules. There are so many wonderful crochet stitches which used to create a unique motif; picots, scallops, clusters, popcorn stitches and many more. You will need to practice and experiment but the final motif will be your creation.

Decide how many sides you wish your motif to have. Motifs are usually round or square but you can choose to have more sides if you wish.

Your first round must have a number of stitches divisible by the number of sides you wish.

For example, if you wish a motif with four sides, your first round must have 12, 16, 20, etc. stitches, evenly divided by 4. Round motifs are usually worked on an even number of stitches.

Begin with a chain. The chain should be half the number of stitches of the first round.

As an example, for a four-sided motif, if your first round will have 16 stitches, your chain will have 8 stitches. Join to form a ring.

Your next choice will be whether to have a round or square centre. Your motif may be square with a round centre or square throughout. If you wish your centre to be round, work 16 sc in the ring and join with a sl st in the first sc. If you wish a square centre, work 4 sc (or hdc, dc or tr), ch 2, 4 times.

In order to keep your motif flat, each round must increase the number of stitches.

In your first round, the smaller the stitches (eg. sc) the less increase stitches you will need. The larger the stitches (eg. dc) the more increase stitches you will need. The number of stitches, including the increases, must always be divisible by the number of sides, in this example, 4.

If your motif curls, you do not have enough increases. If it ruffles, you have too many increases.