Tropical Tree: Colorful Square in both techniques

I crocheted this palm tree square with a colorful background in both of my favorite techniques: interlocking crochet and overlay mosaic crochet.

One of the things I love about interlocking crochet is that you get a fabulous image without using bobbins or tying and weaving in ends. I did a single crochet graphgan once (see it here), and although it is definitely beautiful to look at, the amount of work involved made it stressful at times.

The simplicity of a two-toned image without tangled yarn balls and 10 more hours of work after you’re “done” is one of the main benefits of my Locked Filet Mesh patterns (LFM = interlocking crochet).

But, I also love how colorful the mosaic patterns can be! Since you are cutting the yarn at the end and joining at the beginning of each row it is really easy to simply grab another color.

The biggest challenge is just to make sure the main color and accent color (or contrasting color) are not too similar. If the colors blend together too much you won’t see the image your yarn is trying to create.

All that being said, this pattern includes instructions on changing colors every few rows. It creates the beachy feel and I think it is worth the effort of weaving in tails (with interlocking crochet). The mosaic version can just use a nice envelope border like usual.

Tropical Tree on Ravelry

You can grab Tropical Tree on Ravelry. It is just a 20-window square and will join nicely with other 10-inch squares, like my flamingo! See my list of other patterns of this size here: www.ashleeslint.com/patterns#medium

As usual, the back looks striped when done with the overlay mosaic technique and has an almost reverse image when done using interlocking.

I don’t usually change colors with my interlocking patterns so I included a short explanation in the pattern.

I cut and tied off the first color and then joined my new color with a slip knot. More specifically, I put a slip knot on my hook, put it into the stitch I was just working with and pulled a loop up and through the slip knot to make its own slip stitch.