Let's Make Buffalo Plaid: A Simple Mosaic Crochet Pattern

1. Hello! : Hi, my name is Chelsea and I am a self-taught artist and crafter. I love making things with my hands and I have enjoyed crochet for over 10 years. As we enter into the cooler months, it is so nice to have a crochet project to work on, especially if that project is going to give you something nice and cozy to wear during the cold months. I love buffalo plaid. I knew I had to try and find a way to make it using mosaic crochet. There are a lot of crochet patterns in existence for making buffalo plaid. Why would I bother trying to make one that used mosaic crochet instead of just using a regular crochet pattern? Well, first of all, mosaic crochet is really fun. I just really enjoy it. I think it is easy to learn and it is just a little twist on regular crochet that makes it very interesting. Second reason is the way mosaic crochet is done is one row at a time, one color at a time. You are not going to have to worry about multiple balls of yarn and switching colors during a row. That makes it really easy to learn and really easy to take with you. I really love working that way with multicolored projects. I think mosaic crochet is great for that. The third reason is there's a lot of overlap in mosaic crochet. It is sometimes called overlay crochet because the stitches actually lay on top of each other in some places. That is going to give you a thicker, almost double layer, warmer, cozier result, which is all the better for wearing during the colder months. I am so excited to do this class with you. Thank you so much for joining me. If you join me in the next video, we will take a closer look at your project. 2. Your Project : In this class, I will be teaching you how to make a buffalo plaid hat and a cowl. You can choose to do just one or the other or you can do the whole set. We will be talking about colors, so you can do the traditional black and red or in the class videos, I will be doing a blue and yellow version or any combination that you prefer. I will go over some tips for making sure you get the perfect fit for your hat and I will teach you how to make an indestructible pom-pom that will never fall apart. If you're ready, I will see you in the next class where we will talk about the materials that you will need to get started. 3. What You'll Need : To get started, the first thing you will need is three colors of yarn. If you look at traditional buffalo plaid, there is black, red, and this third color. When weaving the fabric, the black fibers go one direction and the red fibers go the opposite direction. When the two colors cross, you see red and black fibers woven into the same square. This color is a combination of the black and the red. You can see that if you hold it further away, this medium square looks almost like a purple color, and that is a great way to make buffalo plaid with crochet. You can use a black, a red, and a purplish maroon color. From far away, it is going to give the same effect as traditional buffalo plaid. If you are making classic buffalo plaid, you'll want to choose a red, a black, and a medium purple color. Of course, there are many other color options to choose from. You can choose colors from your favorite sports team, or base your choice on a season. You can simply choose any bright color with a black and a corresponding medium color. No matter which option you choose, you're going to need three colors. One will need to be dark, one will be bright, and the third color will be a medium tone, somewhere in between the other two. If you choose white as your bright color, the result will be more of a gingham look. Have fun looking at some different options. For this demonstration, I'm going to be using blue as my dark color, yellow as my bright, and gray as my medium color. I found 100 grams to be plenty to do one hat and one cow. The medium color is the one that will be used the most. Picking up two and your medium color might be a good idea if you're not sure how much you'll use. I'm using a size 4 medium worsted weight in acrylic. If you choose a lighter weight, your squares will be smaller and closer together. I wouldn't recommend using a bulky yarn because you will have fewer squares and it might not give the same clad look over such a small project. All of your yarns should be solid colors. For hook size, you can follow the recommendations on your yarn. I'm using a size I 5.5 millimeter hook for this project. You will also need a hook that is one or two sizes smaller than your main hook. We will use this for the ribbing on the hat. I am using a size H, five millimeter hook for my ribbing. The size you choose doesn't matter so much as long as it fits your yarn comfortably. You will also need a pair of scissors, a wide eyed tapestry needle, and a larger pair of scissors for the palm, plus your yarn, of course. 4. Slip Knot And How To Hold Your Yarn And Hook : We'll start with a medium color yarn. To make a slipknot, you're going to cross it over like an X and pull the long strand through. Let's take another look at that. Cross it over, then pull the long strand through the middle. Then, just insert your hook and pull it tight. Now, let's talk about holding your hook. You can hold it like a knife, or you can hold it like a pencil, like you're going to write something. Whatever way is more comfortable is fine. For your yarn, take the long strand that's attached to the ball and put it off to your left. Of course, if you are left-handed, everything will be reversed. I like to wrap it around my pinky and then over my forefinger. Then I use my finger to control the tension of this part of the yarn right here. You can hold it like this. You can wrap it like this. Whatever is most comfortable, that is how you can hold it. There aren't any rules. In the next video, we will learn how to chain stitch. 5. How (And How Long) To Make A Chain : To chain stitch, you hold your darn and your hook, then you're going to put your hook under the yarn and pull it through. Now, you have one chain stitch. We're going to keep doing that in multiples of 10 until your chain is as long as you need it to be. Now, how long does it need to be? To figure that out, you first need to decide if you're making a hat or a cow. I recommend starting with the cow because it has fewer steps and the measurement is a lot more forgiving. To measure for a hat, you can simply wrap the chain around your head above your ears and see how it fits. My chain is 90 stitches, but yours may be shorter or longer depending on your yarn, hook, and head size. You want your chain to fit very loosely around your head. Don't stretch it at all. Or you could use a chart to get an approximate size if you're making this as a gift or for a child. I have included a size chart in the resources section. It is a great idea to give yourself about an inch of extra space. It is way better for your hat to be a little too big than too small. If it's too big, you can tighten it up a little bit by using a smaller hook size for the ribbing. That will help it fit more snugly to your head. But if your hat is already too small, there are options to fix it, but they'll be much more difficult. This is why I recommend starting with the cow. Make your chain as long as you think it needs to be for your hat. Then add another 10 stitches to make it easier to pull over your face. Then when you're finished, you can try it on and see how close your final result is to what you expected. You can then adjust your hat measurements accordingly. Then you can hold your chain against the measuring tape very loosely. My head is about 23 inches. When I hold up my chain, you can see that it is only 22 inches long. I'm going to add another 10 stitches and see how long it is. After 10 more stitches, I can see that it is now 24 inches, perfect. When your chain row is as long as you want it to be, and it is a multiple of 10, simply add three more chain stitches, and then you're done. In the next video, we will continue building the foundation with the foundation row. 6. Foundation Row : Once you have your chain, you can look at your stitches and see that we have a row of V shapes. If we count them, we should have our multiple of 10 plus 3. Now we're going to go back along this chain from right to left to get our very first row of crochet. If you pull on your yarn, you can see the stitch that it is going through. We're going to skip this one and go into the next stitch in the row. If you're looking at the two loops of the V, we're going to put our hook under only the back loop, that's the one farthest away from us. We'll now have two loops on our hook. Then we'll put the hook under the yarn and pull it through just the first loop. You can see we still have two loops on our hook. Now, we'll do it again, but this time pull the yarn through both loops. Congratulations, you've just done the first official stitch of this pattern. This is called a single crochet through the back loop, you'll be using that a lot in this pattern. Now you want to do the same thing in the very next stitch. You can see I accidentally skipped a stitch here, that's okay. In the next video, I'll show you what to do if you find out that you're off by a stitch. We'll put the hook through the back loop, pull the yarn through once, then pull through both loops. Once again, the hook goes into the back loop, pull the yarn through the first loop, then pull it through both loops. I'm going to speed this up. Feel free to slow it down if you need to follow along. By the way, throughout this pattern, I'm going to be using the American terms for the crochet stitches. If you are in another country, be aware of that as you're reading this pattern and following along. There's a chart in the resources section that lists the US versus the UK crochet terms. Keep going until you get to the end of your row. I'm just using 20 stitches for a demonstration, but you will continue all the way across your project to the last stitch. When you get to the end, we'll cut off our yarn. You want to leave a pretty long tail, about six inches, then you'll make a chain stitch, but pull the end of the yarn all the way through making a little knot. Pull a snug, but not too tight. You're done with the foundation row. In the next video, we'll introduce a new color. 7. Two Ways To Single Crochet: Here's our foundation row. We can see our Vs along the top. Now, we're going to insert our hook into this very first V. This time, we want to put our hook through both loops of the V, not just the back loop. You can see that we have both loops of the V on our hook. Next, we'll pick up our dark color yarn, hold onto it on the back of the project, and then pull the yarn through. Now we will do a chain stitch to anchor it in place. Next, we'll put our hook back through the same stitch we started in and pull it through both loops. This is our border stitch, which will be the same for every single row. Now, we will look at our pattern and see that it says five single crochet through the back loop. We've already done that. Let's do our first five stitches together now. Put the hook through the back loop, pull the yarn through once, then pull it through again. You can see our border stitch and then the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 single crochets. Now the pattern says to do five regular single crochet. So far, most of our stitches have been only into the back loop, but a regular single crochet stitch goes through both loops of the V. We have our V and we're going to go under both loops, just like we did for the border stitch. Then we'll follow the same steps. Pull the yarn through once, it'll go through both loops of the V, then pull it through both loops on the hook. This is a regular single crochet. Let's do five of these. If we look at our stitches, you can see the difference. We have five that have left the front loop open, which is this little line of stitches right here, and then we have the five regular single crochet that go in between these posts. This is going to be the foundation for the rest of our pattern. Now, we just repeat these 10 stitches until we get to the end of the project. Five through the back loop, five regular single crochet. When we get to the last five single crochet, we should still have one open stitch leftover. This will be for the closing border stitch. However, we might find that our count is off. It is really easy to miss count on the foundation row. It happens to me all the time. It's not a big deal. We'll just fudge this first row if we need to and get ourselves setup for the rest of the project. Let's say that you get to the end and you've done four stitches of single crochet, but instead of having two stitches left in the row, one for stitch number 5 and one for the border stitch, there are three. No problem. You can just skip one. Pretend like it's not there and put stitch number 5 right where it's supposed to be. Then you can finish your row, do the closing border stitch and you're good to go. But what if you have the opposite problem? What if you've done four single crochet, but realized that you've run out of room? There's only one stitch left and that's reserved for the border stitch. Just do your fifth single crochet right into the same stitch as you did number 4. Now, you'll have your five single crochet, you can do your closing border stage and you are good to go. Now, if you look at your row, you should have these alternating blocks of five stitches each. Five with the front loop open, five without. There should be one stitch left at the end of your row. Now we're going to learn how to do the closing border stitch. We're going to put the hook through both loops and do a regular single crochet. Now, we'll just cut the tail and pull it through. That's it. In the next video, we'll start making our medium color squares and learn a new stitch. 8. Half Double Crochet: Now that we've done one row of our dark color, we're going to switch back to the medium color. In this pattern, you can see that the medium color squares are made up of three rows of stitches. The bright and dark squares are made of two rows of stitches. Because in mosaic crochet, we alternate colors, the medium colored squares will be three rows of slightly shorter stitches, and the other squares will be two rows of slightly taller stitches. We're going to get started with our medium colored square, and I will teach you this slightly shorter stitch, which is called a half double crochet. We'll take our medium yarn and do our border stitch. Go under both loops, pull it through, then do a chain stitch, then we'll put our hook through the same stitch and do a regular single crochet. Now, we're ready to start our pattern stitch. We have this line of front loops down here. To do a half double crochet, we'll put the yarn over our hook once, this is called a yarn over. Then we'll go down into this first little loop right here, put your hook up and under the loop and pull the yarn through. Now, we have three loops on our hook, we're just going to pull the yarn through all three at the same time. Now, it is covering up the dark colored yarn. We're going to do this through all of these front loops, I'll walk you through it again. Put the yarn over your hook, then go down to the front loop and put your hook up and under, pull the yarn through, then pull the yarn through all three loops. I really enjoy doing the half double crochet, I'm not sure why. I think it's just fun to pull through all the loops at the same time. Once we've done five half double crochet, you can see that we've run out of front loops, this is by design. The next square in the plaid will be the dark color, so we're going to leave that color yarn showing. This will be five single crochet through the back loop, just like we've done before. You can see that we're leaving the dark colored front loops open for the next row. Now, we'll just repeat these 10 stitches until the end of the row. The thing that is unique about mosaic crochet is how you alternate your colors in each row and then use these front loops that you leave open to cover up the colors that you don't want to show. When we don't want the dark color to show, we cover it up with our medium color and vice versa. This is how we can get a multi-colored design without having multiple colors of yarn attached to our project at the same time. When we get to the end of the row, we'll do our closing border stitch, which is a regular single crochet through both loops. You can see the beginnings of our squares now. Then cut the yarn and pull it through. Great job. In the next video, we'll learn the slightly taller stitch that we'll be using for our dark color squares. 9. Double Crochet : For this row, we will go back to our dark colored yarn and we will be working on our dark squares. We'll start with the border stitch as always. Then we'll do five single crochet through the back loop. This is our medium colored square. We want this row of dark stitches to stay on top and leave the front loops open so we can cover it up with our medium half double crochets in the next row. Now we can start on our dark square. In this pattern, the dark and bright squares are made of two rows of taller stitches. This stitch is called a double crochet. To do it, we'll yarn over and go under the front loop, just like we did for the half double crochet. We'll have three loops on our hook again, but this time, instead of going through all three, we'll only going to pull the yarn through the first two loops. Then we'll pull to the yarn through the two that are left. This is why it's called a double and the other one is a half double. The double crochet is slightly taller because it gets that extra twist in the yarn. Yarn over, go on to the loop and pull through once, pull through two, and pull through two again. Now we'll just continue this pattern to the end of the row. Five single crochet through the back loop, and five double crochet all the way to the end of the row. We'll do the border stitch and cut the yarn and pull it through, great job. You can see the square starting to form. In the next video, I'll show you a trick that you can use to save a little bit of time at the end of the project. 10. Timesaving Tip: If you make a mistake while you're working, you can always undo this knot at the end and pull out your stitches until you get back to where the mistake happened. This is one of the advantages of mosaic crochet and working one row at a time. The downside however is that you always have these tails that you need to do something with at the end of the project. For this project, the tails will all need to be woven in eventually. If you are feeling confident that you understand the pattern and don't think you will make a major mistake that you need to go back and correct later you can try weaving in these tails as you go. To do this, you'll start with your border stitch as usual. Then you'll pick up the tail that you would normally leave behind and bring it across to lay on top of the stitches you'll be working. For a half double crochet, you'll go under the front loop as usual. Then take your tail and lay it over the top of your hook. Then you'll pull the yarn through and continue to stitch as usual. This twists the tail into your stitch. This method weaves the tail in loosely. You could still pull the yarn out if you really wanted to. Remember that this is totally optional. If you feel like it's too complicated or it's too much to keep track of or you're still getting the hang of the pattern, then don't worry about it. The first time I made this hat I didn't weave in any ends at all and I did it all at the end. There's also no harm in trying it for a row or two here or there to see how it goes. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. When you get to the single crochets, simply put your hook through the back loop and go under the tail the same time. I usually weave the tail in for about 10 stitches or so and then let it hang on the back. You can tighten the yarn slightly if you need to. My sample project is very short, so I am already tends to choose from the end of the row. But in your project, you will continue across the row normally and about 10 or 15 stitches from the end you'll want to pick up the tail that you cut at the end of the previous row. You lay it across the top of the project but this time give yourself plenty of slack. Don't pull the tail tightly across. Follow the same steps as before. When you go under the front loop put the tail on top of the hook and complete your stitch. You will see that as the tail gets twisted into the stitches, the yarn will lose some of its slack. Keep going until you get to the end of the row. Pull gently on the tail if you need to take in or loosen it in either direction. Be careful not to pull too tightly so you don't pull in the edges of your project. You want it to lay nice and flat and just finish off your boarder stitch as usual. Now that we've gone over the basics of the pattern, you'll continue in the same way for the next two rows. In the next video we'll go over row 7 when the pattern changes. 11. Alternating The Squares : Congratulations, you've finished your first line of squares. Now let's take a look at how to set up our next one. In Buffalo plaid, the squares alternate in a checkerboard type of pattern. The medium colored squares go between the bright and dark ones. For the next row, we're going to want our medium squares to go above the dark squares, and the bright ones will go above the medium squares. We're going to do this by repeating the same thing we did in row one, but in reverse. Let's take our bright colored yarn and get started. Because we want the bright square to sit on top of the medium square, we're going to do five regular single crochet. This will ensure that the bottom of our bright square sits at the same level as the top of the dark square, and that everything meets up nicely at the corners. Then we'll do five single crochet through the back loop. This leaves the front loops open for our medium colored square. Let's do one more row together so you can see how this starts to take shape. With your medium color, work five single crochet into the back loop. Then start your five half double crochet. Now it is much easier to see the corners where the medium squares join up. Now you'll just continue with the pattern until you get something like this. I found four lines of squares to be plenty tall enough for both my hat and the cow. But you can add as many as you like. Remember for your hat, you'll want to leave space at the bottom for the ribbing. In the next video, we'll weave in all of our tests. 12. Weaving In The Ends : Once your project is the size you want, we're going to weave in the ends. If you were weaving them in as you go, you're going to have some like this that are toward the middle. You can just cut them off to both sides. Now, we still have some that are at the ends. Take one of your tails and you're tapestry needle. The easiest way to thread these is to fold the yarn in half over the needle, then poke the tightly folded end through the eye. Now, just work your needle into the stitches about an inch or so and pull it through. Be careful not to let your needle go all the way through to the other side. You shouldn't be able to see the yarn on the front of your project. Now, just repeat for all the tails and snap them off. That's all there is to it. Next, we'll learn how to make a perfect invisible sieve. 13. Invisible Ladder Stitch : Whether you're making a cow or a hat, you will need to sew the two shawl ends of your project together. We did multiples of 10 so that the squares would flow seamlessly into each other and there will be no obvious joint. I'll be using this bright red yarn so you can see what I'm doing, but you'll obviously want to choose your medium-colored yarn so that it blends in. First, you make a slipknot in one end of the yarn, thread your needle on the other end and pull it through a stitch at the very bottom from back to front. Pull your yarn through the slip stitch and pull everything tight. Now, we want to try to line up all of the corners of our squares. The border stitch on both sides are going to give us a guide for where to place our scene. On the opposite side from where you started make a small stitch. Then, go across and do the same thing on the other side. The goal is to have your needle pass as closely to the edge of the square as possible. The stitches that are going across should be roughly parallel like the rungs of a ladder. When you get to the corner of a square, try to make a stitch on both sides as close to the corner as possible. Then pull it tight and watch it magically disappear. If you flip it over, you'll see how the row of border stitches has been pulled to the inside to create a scene. The yarn you used should be barely visible if at all. Continue all the way across the project, matching the corners and pulling the thread tightly to make sure everything lines up. Once you finish, weave in your yarn a couple of times to secure it. On the opposite side where we started, the slip stitch already has formed a not. Simply weave the tail in once to keep it out of the way and clip it off. If you're making a cow, then you're finished. Great job. If you're making a hat, keep going to the next video where we'll learn how to add the brim. 14. Adding Ribbing (Hat Only) : Now that your project is seamed, it's a great time to try it on and see how it fits. It should fit comfortably above your ears, maybe even a little loose. The first thing we're going to do is do a row of single crochet through both loops all the way around. Choose which side you want to be the bottom of your hat, and choose a place to start. I'm going to start slightly off-center. You want to do this with the same size hook you used for your project. If you find that your hat is way too big, you can do this row with the hook a size smaller than your project. That will help pull in slightly. If you find that your hat is too small, your best option is to make a wide ribbing so that the part of the hat that is too tight sits above your parietal ridge where your head begins to curve. This isn't ideal, but it should work. Once you've completed your row of single crochet, you need to decide how long to make your ribbing. Minus about two inches long, but you can feel free to make it longer or shorter based on your preference. Switch to your smaller hook size and make a chain as long as you'd like. Minus ten stitches. Add another chain, and then start single crocheting through the back loop exactly the same way you did for the foundation around. When you get back to the bottom, you're going to find the next stitch and do a slip stitch. Put your hook under both loops of the v. When you pull the yarn through, pull it through the loop that is on your hook as well. Do that again in the next stitch in the line. Next, flip your project around to the other side and locate your bottom stitch from the foundation row you just made. Single crochet into the back loop and continue all the way to the top. When you get to the top, do a chain stitch, foot the project around and single crochet through the back loop, back down to the bottom. Slip stitch into the next two stitches, and repeat the entire process all the way around your hat. This will give you the same look as knitted ribbing and it should be nice and stretchy. Let's pretend that I've gone all the way around the bottom of my hat. When you get back to where you started, complete your last two slip stitches as close to the beginning of the round as possible. Go back up the row the same way you've been doing. Next, line up the edges, and you're going to try to slip stitch into the loops that are closest to each other. Put your hook into the back loop of the first side and the front loop of the second side then slip stitch. If you're having trouble figuring out which loops to do, don't sweat it too much. Just try to be consistent and it'll look fine. When you get to the bottom, it might be a little tight, but get as close to the bottom as you can so there are no gaps between the ribbing and the base of the hat. Now you can cut your yarn, pull it through, and weave in the ends. 15. The Indestructible Pom Pom : I don't know if you've ever made a pom-pom before, but this is how I used to do it. I'd wrap the yarn around my fingers however many times, tie in the middle, and clip the ends. But no matter how tightly I tied it, the pieces always pulled out. Very frustrating and not at all ideal for a hat. Here's a better way to make sure your pom-pom isn't going anywhere. If you have a preferred method for making pom-poms, go for it. But this is my favorite way. I start with a very long tail and then begin weaving it through my fingers in a figure 8 pattern. Keep going until you feel like you have enough. I did 100 loops for this pom-pom. The more yarn you use, the bigger and fluffier your pom-pom will be. When you're done, cut the yarn and thread one end into your tapestry needle. Wrap the yarn around the middle once, this will help catch any pieces on the outside edges. Next, we're going to sew back and forth through the center of the pom-pom. It's good if you encounter resistance, you want the yarn to be securely fastened in the middle. Once you've done that, do the same thing with the other tail. Wrap it around the middle, and then sew back and forth through the center. When you feel like it's secure, slip it off your fingers and give it a tug. Hopefully, nothing budges. If you have some loose strands, thread your needle and try to stitch them down. Now, take your tails and tie them in a few knots, just for extra security. You can cut all of your loops and then do another tug test. Now comes the fun part, it's time to give your pom-pom a haircut. I love doing this. It feels like I'm sculpting a topiary, or grooming my pet Tribble, or something. You can trim as much or as little as you want, depending on the look you're going for. The more you trim, the fluffier your pom-pom will be, but it will also get smaller. When you're done, you'll have a perfect little indestructible poof. In the next video, we'll learn how to sew it on and then your hat will be finished. 16. Finishing The Hat : The first thing we need to do is make this hat actually hat shaped. We're going to start with a long piece of yarn the same color as your pompom. Thread one end, make a slipknot on the other. Now, we're going to start weaving the needle back and forth all the way around the edge. You don't have to go into every single stitch. I skipped a stitch between [inaudible]. When you get to the end, hold your yarn through the slip stitch and secure it. Next, you're going to stitch the top of the hat like a drawstring bag. Go slowly and make sure it is folding evenly and that you like the way it looks. When you're happy with it, pull it as tight as you can. Now, you're going to put your needle straight through the center of your pompom and pull it all the way through. Go right back down through the center of the pompom again and try to have your needle come out of the hole at the top of the hat. Flip the hat around and do a couple of stitches across the opening on the inside in an X shape. Go back up and down through the pompom one more time. Do another X-shaped stitch across the whole. Check your pompom and see how secure it feels. If it feels wobbly, repeat these steps as many times as you need to. Once you're happy, secure your yarn on the inside with a knot. For the tail on the other side, you can simply cut it off, weave it into the hat, or thread it through the center of the pompom, and then cut it off. You are all done. Great job. 17. You Did It! : Thank you so much for joining me in making some fine buffalo plaid accessories. I hope you enjoyed learning mosaic crochet. Please post photos of your projects or your works in progress in the project gallery down below. If you feel comfortable, I'll love to see a photo of you modeling your project. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope to see you again next time. Stay warm.