Category: Tutorials

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

Chances are, wherever you are in the world, this coming weekend, you’re likely to encounter at least a couple of Irish people.

And those Irish people (and their kids ((and their kids’ kids neighbour’s dogs)) ) will likely be wearing something green, and singing lilting ballads about a lost love (or a lost shoe) that leaves you yearning to visit the beautiful island of Ireland.

Chances are, there’s an Irish pub somewhere in your closest city, and chances are on Paddy’s Day – the 17th – they’ll happily serve you a pint of black stout that’ll curl your toes. There’s also an excellent chance that that stout will have a three-leafed design poured into its foamy top.

That shape – the three-leafed shamrock – is a national symbol, and unlike our other national symbol, the harp, is much easier for school children and publicans to draw.

The shamrock is also something we wear pinned to our chests on the feast day of one of our three patron saints – Patrick.

And before we get to the crocheting the lovely little thing, I thought ye might all like a few facts about Ireland, and the day we’re all here to celebrate.

1. The Shamrock is associated with Saint Patrick because according to legend, he used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain to the pagan Irish how one god could be made up of three aspects ☘️ (the father, the son and the holy spirit). In reality, the Irish were very well aware of what a three-fold deity was. They had plenty of their own. But we love the story nonetheless.
   
2. 4-leafed clovers are not our thing. According to my Nanny, the 4th leaf “let the devil in”, so be aware and count your leaves carefully!
   
3. Arthur Guinness – he of the famed black stout – chose the harp (a deeply rooted symbol in our culture) as a logo for his brewery long before the formation of the Irish state. So, when the Republic of Ireland was founded, the decision-makers found they couldn’t use it without their official documents being mistaken for beer-related business. They decided not to overthink it, they turned the harp to face the opposite direction and carried on creating the modern Irish Republic.
   
4. Ireland has three patron saints.
   Patrick is one of them. We all know him. He was a very serious man, and he’d have haaated the party in his honour.
   Brigid is another. Half pagan goddess, half christian saint. Something for everyone, really. We love her, and now she has a bank holiday of her very own, so we love her more.
   And Colmcille – who very few people know anything about, probably because he spent most of his adult life in Scotland.
   
5. Patrick is also the patron saint of Nigeria, and Montserrat. Pretty cool.
   
6. It’s “Paddy‘s Day”. Not “Patty’s Day”.
   Patty is the female form of the name Patricia (and also the slab of meat one might put in a burger).
   Paddy is the male form of the name Patrick (and also a waterlogged field in which one might grow rice).
   
   If you wanna make an Irish person’s day brighter, use the right word. We’ll be ever so grateful.

If you wanna make my day brighter, stay til the end and see some of my Ireland-inspired patterns!

Pattern Info:

The hook I used for my samples was a 3.75 mm hook.
The yarn I used is a cotton DK (Rico, Ricomuri DK in colours 44 and 49 to be exact)

These patterns are written using UK stitch terminology.
UK dc = US sc.
UK htr = US hdc
UK tr = US dc

Traditional Crochet:

Step One: Make 3 chain stitches.

Step Two: Work 3 tr into first ch made (this ch will be the very centre of our shamrock), 2 ch, 1 ss into first ch made.

Step Three: Make 2 chains

In order, work Step Two, Three, Two.

Bind off. Weave in starting yarn strand. Trim end strand to desired length.

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Tunisian Crochet:

Step One: Make 4 chains, make a circle with 1 slip stitch into the 1st chain.

**Step Two: Make 4 chains.

Step Three: Forward Pass: Skip 1st chain and insert hook into 2nd ch.
YO and draw yarn through ch.
– 2 loops on hook

Insert hook into 3rd ch, YO and draw yarn through ch.
– 3 loops on hook

Insert hook into 4th ch, YO and draw yarn through ch.
– 4 loops on hook

Insert hook into ch-4 circle, YO and draw yarn through ch.
– 5 loops on hook

Return Pass:
*YO, draw through 2 loops* repeat until 1 loop is left on hook

Step Four: Forward Pass:
*Locate closest “bar” on surface of previous stitch. Slide hook through this bar.
Yarn Over (YO), and draw a loop back through the bar and onto the hook* repeat 2 more times
– 4 loops on hook.

Return Pass:
*YO, draw through 2 loops* repeat until 1 loop is left on hook

Step Five: Forward Pass:
*Locate closest “bar” on surface of previous stitch. Slide hook through this bar.
Yarn Over (YO), and draw a loop back through the bar and onto the hook* repeat 2 more times
Insert hook into ch-4 circle, YO and draw yarn through ch.
– 5 loops on hook

Return Pass:
*YO, draw through 2 loops* repeat until 1 loop is left on hook

Repeat Steps 4 and 5 one more time.
Complete first leaf segment by crocheting dc sts into each bar on the edge of the last st made. 1 ss into ch-4 circle. **

Repeat from ** to ** for each additional leaf segment.

Make 4 ch for stem.
Bind off and weave in ends.

Aoibhe’s Ireland-Inspired Crochet Patterns

More From Aoibhe’s Blog

We may all wear “the green” on Patrick’s Day, but did you know that each county in Ireland has its own, unrelated colour scheme?

By the way, if you’ve met me in person on one of www.knittingtours.com‘s wonderful Irish craft-centric events, then you’ve been to either Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow or Clare. And lucky you, too. They’re all gorgeous.