 Hi everyone, welcome to week 11 of the Patchwork Mystery Cal. My name is Tasha and I'm the maker designer behind Start of School Crochet. So this week's Patchwork Mystery Cal is the Phoenix Square and you can see the picture here. This square is fairly easy, although there are some stitches that you may find slightly complicated, but that's why I'm working a video for you. So I'm using, I used for my my Phoenix Square, I love this cotton. I'm not sure if you're familiar with I love this cotton, but it is a four-weight yarn. However, it's slightly thinner than your average four-weight for some reason. So as long as you you can get your gauge and follow the gauge in the pattern, you should be okay. Either that or you can switch up your hook sizes or however you like to meet the gauge. My square ended up being 12 by 12 when I after I blocked it. So for the row one, we work a magic circle. If you've never created a magic circle, there's a simple way to do that. You just lay your yarn open end this way. Use your thumb, grab your ring finger, and then you're going to wrap it around these two fingers, like this. Bring it around in an X, then twist your fingers up to the top. Grab the loose yarn with your pinky and the way I do this is I insert my hook below the first yarn, grab the other yarn with the hook, pull it around, and then twist it up. And then you grab the yarn that you're holding with your pinky and you yarn over and you pull it straight through and there's your magic circle. After that you pull out your loose yarn and that's your tail and you're going to work around your tail. You're going to grab your tail and your circle together. And so we're going to go ahead and chain one because we're going to work ten single crochets into the magic circle. So we're going to work ten single crochet into your magic circle. I'm going to pull mine a little bit tight because it seemed to get a little loose there. So there's one we've worked. Keep your tension tight when you're holding with your finger because sometimes the magic circle can get a little weird to work into. But I figured if you keep this tension tight and pulling with this finger and this finger tight then it makes it just a little bit easier. Okay so here I've done my ten. Now I'm going to close my loop by grabbing the loose end of the magic circle and just pull it tight like that. You don't have to pull it too tight. So here we're going to join with a slip stitch into the first stitch of our round. Working through both loops is just fine. And here we're going to chain two for round two. And we're going to double crochet two in each stitch beginning with the first stitch the same at the base of the join. So it's right there, right there. So double crochet into the back loop only. It's a little hard to get through on the first one because you're working in the same as the join. There we go. Uh oh, something went wrong. I think it's because I've been doing trebles for another pattern. So we're going to do one double crochet and two double crochets into the same back loop. So work your way around making two double crochets in the back loop of each stitch. Okay so here I've completed my round two and we have 20 stitches starting in each two four six eight ten twenty and then all around. You know I kind of skip that. So we're going to do a color join for round three and you're going to join with your second color which is color two. I denoted in the pattern as C2 and we're going to join into the top of the first stitch of the round. We don't count the chains in the stitch count. We just work into the base of each turning chain. It makes it really simple that way and kind of avoids gaps. And I don't like gaps because gaps are kind of funky. So I'm going to grab my color two and I'm going to lay color two over my hook, kind of pinch the two together, give it some tension with your finger, then pull it through and slip stitch it straight through the last loop of that last stitch. Then you can go to the back and kind of pull it pull it tight. Go ahead and grab your scissors. You can cut your first color at this point. Round three we're going to do alternating front post double crochets and double crochets. So to start for round three you chain two and then we're going to work a front post double crochet around the next double crochet, which the next one is going to be this one right here. This is our turning chain if you remember from the first. So this is our next double crochet. So we're going to work a front post double crochet and you do that by yarning over, inserting your hook below the post in between, back through the back and out the front again. And then you yarn over and you pull up a loop and complete your double crochet just like normal. And when you do a front post stitch behind the stitch is, there's where we did our front post right there. So you want to make sure that you get it in the proper double crochet for the next one. So here's our next stitch here and we're going to work a double crochet into that stitch. We're not doing any increases on this round so you don't have to worry about doing increases. So our next double crochet is the one right here right below it. Actually that's the same one. It's this one right here. So that's where you have to kind of be mindful because it looks like you might go right here, but we're not going to go there. We're going to go in the next one. Okay, here we're at the very end. So we have a front post here. We're going to work one last double crochet into that last double crochet of the previous round and we're going to join into the top. I'm going to pull this just a little bit tight because it's kind of loose right there. So we're going to join into the top of the first front post double crochet that we created and we're going to join with our third color. So insert your hook, grab your third color, which in my case four, which is with color three. We're going to chain one and we're going to work a puff stitch starting in the first front post double from the previous round and the puff stitch, the way those work is you yarn over. We're going to insert our hook into the same stitch, grab a loop, pull it up. You don't have to pull it up too high. Yarn over, insert into the same stitch, pull up a loop and do that one more time. Then you should have around two, four, six, seven loops. You're going to pull through the first six and then you're going to yarn over and pull through those last two and there's our first puff. So we do one puff and then we're going to do two puffs in the same stitch for the next one because we're going to do an increase by one. Sometimes they can be a little tricky to get through. This yarn is very splitty too, but if you're not using a splitty yarn then you're probably in better shape than I am because I love, I love this cotton and I love it, but it splits. So there's our repeat. So you're going to do one puff and then two puffs in the next stitch and repeat that around until you come to the beginning and then you'll have 30, 30 stitches total for this round. Alright so we're going to work round five now and we've completed 30. You should have counted 30 puff stitches. So we're going to join with our new color just like we have done in previous rounds. Go into the first stitch of the round, add your color and just slip stitch it through and then of course you can pull on your little tails to kind of tighten it up a bit. So for this round we're going to do double crochet clusters. We're going to first do a double crochet two cluster because our chain two counts as are a part of that double crochet cluster. So we've got our chain two. We're going to be working into the back loops of these stitches beginning with our turning chain stitch. So yarn over, insert your hook into the back loop. We're going to do our double crochet two cluster. You grab a loop and pull it through, yarn over and then pull through two. Before you complete your double crochet you're going to yarn over again, insert into the same back loop, pull up a loop and then yarn over and pull through two. And so here we'll have three on our hook and then we're going to complete the stitch and this is going to count as our first double crochet three cluster because our chain is counting in as the stitch. So the next one we're going to do in the back loop only of the next stitch is a double crochet three cluster. So we're going to insert into the back loop, pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through two only. Repeat that two more times. My loops get a little wide because this yarn, I know it looks funny, you see how stretched out it is. So once you have four loops on your hook, you yarn over and pull through all four and that completes your double crochet three cluster. And you repeat that around until you have 30 stitches as well. Let's see, yep, 30 because we're not increasing on this round. So you yarn over pull through two, you do that two more times to create a three cluster. There you go. Alright, so repeat that around and then when you come to the other side, when you're finished, we'll meet up. So we've finished and you should have at this point 30 as well. So we're not going to switch colors, we're going to stay with our color number one, two, three, color number four. So we're going to join into the top of the first cluster that we did. So you're going to look up for that stitch right there. It's kind of a wide one, I know, but you're going to go straight into the top of the double crochet two cluster, not the chain. The top two loops. Let me get a little bit closer. Then we're going to slip stitch through like that. And for round six, we're going to first single crochet one in the same as the join after we chain one. So you're going to chain one and then we're going to single crochet one into the same as the join. Oops, I lost my stitch. And then here we're going to bring the cluster, we're going to do front post stitches around the cluster stitches. And we're going to start off with the first cluster. So for this one, we're going to single crochet one or we're going to front post one single crochet around that cluster. So to do that, you just same as a regular front post stitch, except for we're just not doing a double crochet. And then we're going to single crochet one into the next stitch. This is an increase round. So we're actually increasing when we do our single crochet right here. And also when we do, well actually it's when we do our front post single around the cluster. Because here we have two stitches and on top we have four. So we're increasing by one. So you're going to single crochet into the stitch and then front post around the cluster. And then single crochet into the stitch and front post around the cluster. And complete doing that until you reach the beginning. And at the end of this round you should have 60 stitches. Okay, so we're going to do our first single crochet for round seven into, try to get a little bit closer. The sun's kind of going away from me now. But we're going to do our first single crochet into the back loop of the first stitch of the round. So we're going to do a single crochet. And then we're going to do a front post down around the front post double crochet like I mentioned before. So you yarn over three times, insert your hook in and around the stitch, yarn over and pull up one, pull through two, pull through two, pull through two, and pull through the last. So there you have your front post double. We're going to skip the one behind it and then work one single crochet in each of the next three stitches working into the back loop only. And then we're going to do a front post double treble around the same front post double crochet from that we worked around before. So you yarn over three times, go back around the same stitch. This can get a little tricky because sometimes it gets a little bunched up. But just like before you have to kind of work your stitches a little loose. So there we have two and that's our six stitch repeat. And sometimes these loops get a little big but I wouldn't worry too much about that. So we've got two, four, and six. So you repeat that starting with this single crochet. So we're going to skip the one, always skip the one behind the front post double trebles. So then we're going to work one single crochet. And then we're going to front post double treble around the next front post double from round three. Uh oh, that one got a little too big. I'm going to have to do that one over. I get really annoyed when they get too big because then it just kind of makes it loose. But this pattern is somewhat forgiving so it's not the end of the world if your loops are really big. So we're going to skip this one and we're going to work three single crochet in the back loop only. And then we're going to double treble again around the same double treble front post double crochet. And then we skip and we work one. And then our repeat starts again. So that's how our, it's a six row, a six stitch repeat. And you just keep working that all the way around until you reach the beginning. Our round seven and I'm here at the end. So I'm going to join into the first single crochet that we worked from the previous round right here with a slip stitch. And I think you guys probably noticed this before I did, but I joined the wrong color. It's okay though. Still this looks pretty too. And it really doesn't matter. But in the sample I used the green and brought the green up. But this looks pretty too. So for round eight the first step is to chain one. And then we're going to single crochet in the same space as the turning chain. Or in this case just the chain one. And my loop is really super huge right here. But so we're going to do single crochet two together. So we're, and it doesn't really matter that loop because we're going to bring it all together anyway. So keep, for this round you want to keep an eye on your next stitch so you don't mess it up. Because the way that it, the way that we work the stitch is we go back through the previous front post double treble. And then we're going to yarn over and pull up the loop. We're doing a single crochet two together. Then we're going to go under the next post, yarn over and pull up the loop. And I think actually in the written pattern I failed to put work these around the posts. So I hope that I actually did put that in the pattern. Yes I did. Okay yay. So then you're going to complete your stitch by yarning over and pulling through all three loops on your hook. So you're bringing those together. And so let's pull it out so you can see. So I kind of hold the next stitch I'm supposed to work into with my thumb so I don't lose it. Because once you pull these together it kind of, it might get lost behind the stitch. So that's the one I want to work into next. And we're going to do five single crochets in the back loop only. So we've got one, two, three, and four. There's that big loop again. And then five. So basically when you work this repeat you want your five stitches to end up in the center of these two posts. Because you're going to draw them together. So then we're going to work another front post single crochet two together. And then make sure you figure out which where your next stitch is that you're not working into the same one you did before. That's why I like to hold it with my thumb because it can be a little tricky. So I'm going to hold that one with my thumb. And then you'll have to rip it back which is always so annoying. So there you do one, two, three, four, and five. And that's your repeat. So you work a single crochet two together drawing those front post stitches together. And then you work five single crochet back loop only. So work that around and then we'll meet back. Okay so now we're at the end of this round and we end our repeat with the last single crochet two together there. And then we're going to do the same and work the single crochets in the next four stitches. So we've got one, two, three, and then four. Our last stitch. And then with this round we're going to join with our third my color three which is the rosy color. Okay so now we're at the end of the round and we're going to join our new color. And then this round we're going to work a series of single crochets and then do an increase by one and work a puff stitch two puffies so puffies everywhere. So the first step is to chain one then we're going to single crochet one in the first and in the next three and through both loops two and then three. So we have a total of four single crochets to start off with and then we're going to work a puff stitch in the next stitch same as we did before. You can do yarn over two times if you want. It's up to you. And then we're going to work two single crochets in the next stitch and that's our increase. And so we repeat our pattern. We do four single crochets and I did my puff plus my two single crochets then my repeat one two three four and then I'm going to do a puff stitch in the next and then I'm going to single crochet two into the very last stitch. And so for the next round, which is round 10, we are going to work. Oh my gosh you guys I'm doing a smash-up job at doing the wrong color changes today. So I guess I was looking at the other row and I put color three right there but it was really supposed to be color two. It's okay. This is why we are all human. So I'm going to improvise and use my other color, my one two three fourth color, but it's okay. Hey this is turning out pretty. I like it. I got a little knot right there. I'm gonna chop that off. Okay so for round 10 we're going to do these things I call puff spike stitches. And it's actually just a combination of a puff stitch and a spike. You're actually just it's not really a spike I guess. You're kind of just working into where you would work a spike stitch. So first I'm gonna join my new color in and pull that little thing tight. I'm gonna join it into the first single crochet of the round and also apparently today my attention is so tight that I can't get my hook through. And there's a car alarm going off. Yay! Okay so I'm going to join this color but I might pause it until this alarm goes away. Sorry you guys. Okay the alarm is gone and the airplane is gone. So the idea of the puff spike is to actually hide the single crochet row so just the puff stitches show through. And that's why I wanted to do it that way. So it kind of isolates that the color underneath the puff or the puff stitch color. And these puffs too see how they're kind of more puffy on the back. You can just push them forward and when you block it you can push them forward so that they they pop up through better. Okay so let's get started on round ten. So for round ten we're going to chain one to start and then we're going to immediately work the puff stitches and the spike stitch into the stitches. But we're going to work them down below so we're actually going to go this is our join right here. So we're actually going to just follow that down and work into the bottom of the V. So head down straight to the bottom of that V and then yarn over pull up. So there's our first one and it kind of makes for a longer puff stitch. Try to zoom in just a tad. And then so we're going to work four of those. One in each of the first four stitches or down below the four stitches I should say. So go straight down below that single crochet because you want to try to hide it and then work your puff straight down below. And you always want to kind of pull with these puff stitches. The secret I guess to them if there is a secret is to keep your tension proper. You just want to pull it up to the level that you're working and pull up each stitch as you do it. And that keeps and hold on to them with your thumb so they keeps them the same size puffs for each one. So there we've got our four and then we're going to single crochet in the top of our puff stitch that we did from the previous round. And then this is where our repeat starts. We're going to puff six of them. One in each. But when you get to this one where we did the increases you're going to actually do two into that because we're working below. So we have the two stitches there. So just go down below there. Also I wanted to say I live in the heart of Memphis. So this is like I live in the city and we get city sounds. So you'll hear sirens, airplanes, motorcycles zooming by. It's all kinds of crazy in here. So here I did one and I'm going to just go ahead and do another one in that same the same bottom of that single crochet two. And then work on to the next one and we're going to do six of them. So that's two we've done. This is three. I'm going to speed up just a tad. You also get bird sounds which is nice. Okay so there we have it and we're going to single crochet one into there. So that's your repeat. You're going to do six and then one single crochet. And when you reach the ones that have two increases make sure you just do two puff stitches in there. And see there we go. It kind of hides the single crochets and then accentuates the little puff stitches. Alright meet me around the other side. Wow okay I don't think I ever want to do a puff stitch again. Sorry guys. I mean I love them though. I do love them but they can be a little tedious. So especially that many of them. And at the end of that round you should have 70 as well. 70 stitches. So now we're going to join the color five which is my fifth color which is neutral into the top of that first puff stitch. And we're going to work half double crochets for this round. So the first step you're going to chain one and then half double crochet six starting in the first as your same as your turning chain. So you got one two three four five and six. And then we're going to do a half double crochet increase in the next. So you work two into the same stitch. And then you repeat this all around until you reach the very beginning and then you should have 80 stitches when you're finished with this. Now that row wasn't so bad. So the next one we're going to do we're going to join and I'm going to use the same color. And I think I just went through the wrong two loops. So I'm going to join with the slip stitch into the first stitch of the round. And then I'm going to chain one. And we're going to do our try to coordinate out just a little bit for this next round. So we start off with a chain one and then we work 19 half double crochets into the back loop only. And actually if you want you can probably do this in the front front or both loops as well. Because it I thought I was going to do an overlay right there but I decided against it so instead I just did normal stitches from here on out. So if you want to you could do both loops like that. It'd probably make it go faster actually. And I don't think it would change the design of it too much. But I mean I do kind of like the little ridges that the front post or the front loop back loop. Back loop stitches make. So we do 19 and then we're going to half double crochet 3 into the 20th stitch. So I'm going to pause and then come back to the end of round 12. And now this is round 13. So you just like we did before join into the first stitch of the round. I usually grab on to that stitch so I don't lose it too. So the next round is round 13. So we're going to chain 3. This one counts as a stitch for this round. So we're going to double crochet one in each of the next 20 stitches. So we're going to start off with the second stitch there and double crochet in one in each of the next 20. All right. So because we're used we started off in the second stitch of the round. We're counting the chain 3. As you can do a standing double crochet 2 there if you want. So we should have 21. So we've got 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20. I have 22. Okay. So I don't know what I did wrong. Overcounted. That's why it's good to count your stitches folks. So we're counting this as a stitch. And so I said double crochet one in each of the next 20. So that would make me have 21 stitches here. So I've got 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21. So in our 22nd stitch because we had 88 stitches in our previous round. So we want to keep 22, 22 and 22 right? So for this next one we're going to do our cornering again. We're going to try to corner it out just a bit. And you're working into the center half double crochet of the half double crochet 3 corner from the previous round. So we're going to work 2. I keep doing trebles because I'm working another pattern that's filled with trebles. So we're going to do 2 double crochet. We're going to chain 2. And then work 2 double crochets all into the 22nd stitch. So we have our little corner. And then we're going to do a double crochet 1 in each of the next 21 stitches again. And then do your corner stitch. So you're basically, this is your repeat here. So you're doing 21. And in the 22nd stitch you're going to do your double crochet 2, chain 2, double crochet 2. So we're back at the beginning of the round. And we've done our little cornering out. It's not the most perfect cornering in the world. But, you know, it is what it is. And blocking does help. I think maybe it has this little kind of like non-circle shape because of those increases that I did. It kind of turned it into hexagonal. But that's okay. I still like it. So for round 14, I'm going to switch out my paper. So this round, we're going to do front post double crochets. And we're going to work around the stitches, the double crochets from before. So for this join, we're going to go ahead and there's three in the chains. We're going to go ahead and join into the top of that chain from the beginning of the round. And so we're going to chain 2 to start. And then we're going to work our front post stitches around each of the 23 stitches that we have here. So just to make sure you're on track, I'd go ahead and count them starting with this stitch here. So we've got 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22 and 23. It's off screen a little bit. So I should be good. So you're going to start directly below the chain and do a front post double crochet and work those around each. And the front post is just like you do any other front post. And I did it like this because I thought it looked cool because it kind of extended that double crochet from down below to kind of make it go a little bit higher, which I thought looked pretty. And it added texture of course. So if you want to meet back at 23, we can do that and then we'll do the corner. Oops. I'm coming up on the last, my 23rd stitch. And so here we're going to work into this corner space and we're going to do five pup stitches into the chains 2 space. I know. Don't hate me. More puff stitches. Oops. I was counting five. I don't know why I did that. Probably because I need five of them, right? I made that one a little bit tight, but that's okay. So you just do five. See how many do I have? One, two, three, four, five. Yep, that's it. And then after that you're going to do front post stitch around the first one and you work 25 of those across until you reach the next corner like that. So that goes all the way to this stitch and then you repeat it just like we did before. So you'll work all your front post stitches, work your five puffs, and then front post stitches. Actually I think that would probably be where I can end this tutorial because the next two rounds, round 15 and 16, are single crochets and those are totally basic. So and I don't think there's anything fancy in there that would confuse anybody. So I really hope you guys enjoyed this crochet along and I am sorry for all the little silly mistakes I make, but I make them. I'm human. I really enjoyed it. I hope everybody has a good week and please post your finished squares to the Cal Group, Facebook, Patchwork Mystery Cal, and then there's an album in there created just for the Phoenix Square. So you can post all your Phoenix squares in there and then at the end we're doing a giveaway. So I haven't really decided what I'm going to give away yet, but the square that I think is the best, which is kind of weird for me because I love all beautiful things. I don't want to have to choose. I'll just say that. But maybe I'll do a prize for everybody who participates and then do like a grand prize for the Best in Show or something like that. So anyway guys, subscribe to my YouTube channel. Hit the little bell button down below and you'll get notified of my new stitch tutorial videos. I do free patterns. I do stitch tutorials, Saturday Stitch Explorer tutorial series and that's a fun series. I try to do a new stitch every week. Sometimes I could do it every two weeks. I also have a podcast I started a couple weeks ago, which I'm enjoying. They're about 15 minutes long. We just talk about different techniques, crochet, and things like that. So anyway, I hope you guys have a great afternoon and happy crocheting. Thank you for joining.