When I started designing a year and a half ago I made quite a few small squares. I designed them with the thought that people could mix and match the designs to create customized blankets.

For example, my seven year old is absolutely in love with this cupcake design but she also wants unicorns and dinosaurs in her blanket. This cupcake square would also work great in a blanket for any pastry chef you know and also for anyone else who likes to eat delicious treats! Or how about for someone who has a birthday?

I’ve also seen people use these squares as pillows (the back panel can either be another fancy design or just something simple), wall hangings, potholders (use cotton or wool!), and wash cloths!

I used bulky pink and white blanket yarn for my interlocking crochet sample in the photo below and worsted weight yarn for the two mosaic samples (one rainbow and one pink/grey). The rainbow sample shows the adjusted mosaic pattern where the border lines and interlocking mesh dots have been removed. ALL THREE PATTERNS are included in this listing.

An assortment of cupcakes ?

You may be asking, “why does the title of this blog entry say four ways?”

I am counting them as such: the interlocking square as shown above, the interlocking version repeated (the asterisks allow you to not repeat those border lines), the mosaic version as a square like the interlocking, and the adjusted mosaic version that is repeated like the rainbow sample above.

. . .

When I was naming my original squares I ended them all with “20” (like Cactus 20, Waves 20, Wine 20, etc) because they begin with a foundation row of 20 windows when you use interlocking crochet (when I first started designing I was only doing Locked Filet Mesh/interlocking patterns).

When I learned how to create overlay mosaic patterns I went back and updated all of my patterns. I didn’t alter the charts; I just created written instructions for the mosaic technique.

There are no windows when you use the mosaic technique (the foundation row uses single crochets) but it is a size reference nonetheless so I have left that on the titles. The 20-window squares are all on a chart size of 41 x 41 and when I use worsted weight yarn they come out to 10″.

I have a permanent promotion on Ravelry: put six “20-window-squares” into your cart but only pay for 4! These small designs are NOT on Etsy because the fees eat up the small price on the small square.

. . .

My patterns all come with written line-by-line instructions and charts for BOTH the interlocking crochet technique and the overlay mosaic technique.

You can see in this picture below that the interlocking square (bright pink and white) and the mosaic square (country rose and grey, unfinished envelope border) are both made from the same chart even though they are crocheted using different techniques. The pink is the main color in the interlocking sample, and the grey is the main color in the mosaic sample; it also has some extra pink around the edge because I started an envelope border to cover the tails.


There is a bonus file in this listing: a repeatable mosaic cupcake! The interlocking mesh dots and the unnecessary border lines have been removed. The chart is only 36 x 37 instead of 41 x 41 like the original square.

Four repeats of the bonus adjusted repeatable mosaic-only version of Cupcake 20

I added asterisks (*) to the written interlocking instructions so that you can repeat the inner motif without repeating the border lines. You could do this to any of the 20-window squares but I have not updated them all to include asterisks.

Funny side story: when I create my patterns I do all the editing to the line-by-line instructions in a word document and then copy and paste it into my template for the pattern (where the key remains the same for each pattern and the methodology instructions are the same too). I took the file I had saved as “Cupcake 20” and was halfway through the square before I realized I was crocheting a “Monogrammed C”. Oops! But what a happy accident, because “C is for Cupcake!”

Get the Pattern

Cupcake 20 for Interlocking Crochet

  • Chart size 41 x 41
  • Written instructions and chart for interlocking crochet
  • Repeatable section marked off with asterisks (*)

Cupcake for Overlay Mosaic Technique

  • Chart size 41 x 41
  • Written instructions and X-marked chart for overlay mosaic crochet
  • Chart looks like Interlocking chart

Bonus Repeatable Mosaic Version

  • Chart size 36 x 37
  • Written instructions and X-marked chart for overlay mosaic crochet only
  • No interlocking mesh dots or border lines

Yardage & Hook Details:

For Interlocking Crochet, You Will Need

  • Worsted Weight Yarn (131 yards)
  • Main Color (MC) – 60 yards plus 11 yards for optional SC border
  • Accent Color (AC) – 60 yards
  • Crochet hook: 4.5 mm (US7)
  • Stitch marker
  • Gauge: 16 stitches x 8 rows in one color = 4” square

For Mosaic Crochet, You Will Need

  • Worsted Weight Yarn (130 yards)
  • Main Color (MC) – 65 yards
  • Coordinating Color (CC) – 65 yards
  • Crochet hook: 4.5 mm (US7)
  • Scissors
  • Gauge: 16 stitches x 16 rows = 4″ square

For Adjusted Repeatable Mosaic Crochet, You Will Need

  • Worsted Weight Yarn (175 yards)
  • Main Color (MC) – 85 yards
  • Coordinating Color (CC) – 90 yards
  • Crochet hook: 5 mm (H-8)
  • Scissors
  • Gauge: 16 stitches x 16 rows = 4″ square