my small dahlia - granny square pattern

as promised earlier I'm sharing my smaller version of the Dahlia granny square pattern by Joyce Lewis today.

I used three colors and this is also How I will write this pattern down. You can use only one color or even more than just three, that's totally up to you. Also you're choice of yarn and hook also depends on your tension while crocheting, so I'm not giving any advice here. I used Catania by Schachenmayr and an 3.5 hook (E). My version measures 2.25inches/8,5cm for each side. I'm enlarging my squares to be the size of the bigger squares in my blanket and also start to work the rest of the square on to sides only, this way the flower will be off-centered. This gives me some nice opportunities when putting them together later.

PATTERN:

center color
1 - start by making a magic ring and chain 2 and work 9 hdc into the ring
pull the ring closed (it will leave a little whole, which I liked and also was reflected in the plain squares of my blanket)
2 - chain 3, and repeat *hdc1, chain1* nine times, close with a slst into the second chain (you should have 10 chain1 spaces now)
Bind off

flower color
3 - turn base and with wrong side facing attach new color and work *sc1, chain5, sc1* into the next ch1sp, in next ch1sp work *sc1, tr1, sc1* repeat both step four more times (you should have 5 bumps and 5 ch5sp) - close with slst
4 - turn and continue with right side facing, chain 1, now work 3 slst into each *sc1,tr1,sc1* and the following stitches into the ch5sp *hdc1, dc4, ch2, sc1 into last dc made, dc3, hdc1* close round with a slst. (you should have made 5 pointy petals seperated by 3 slst)
5 - now work behind the petals. chain 1. *ch2, sc1 [into bottom of a petal or between two petals], ch2* close with a slst. (you should have 10 ch2sp, the first one a little longer)
6 - keep working behind the petals. chain5, sc3 into next ch2sp, sc2 into next ch2sp. sc1 between two petals, repeat from chain5 and continue with sc into the ch2sp. only work one sc into the last ch2sp, don't close the round with a slst
7 - work *dc5, ch2, sc1 into last dc made, dc4* into each ch5sp and anchor each petal with 1 sc between the sc3/sc2 of the former round, after making the last petal don't use a sc but a slst to anchor the petal
8 - chain1, *ch3, sc1 into bottom of petal, ch3* around (again you should have 10 ch3sp)

change to background color, I like to just make a knot here and hide the yarn ends
9 - chain5, sc4 into next ch3sp, sc3 into next ch3sp. sc1 between two petals, repeat from chain5 and continue with sc into the ch3sp. only work one sc into the last ch3sp, don't close the round with a slst
10 - work *tr1, dc4, ch2, sc1 into last dc made, dc3, tr1* into each ch5sp and anchor each petal with sc1 between the sc4/sc3 of the former round, after making the last petal don't use a sc but a slst to anchor the petal
!!! when making this round it's a good idea to anchor the inner petals of the flower. like this: when making the center dc of each petal, have a look at the inner petals, on the backside you can see two legs resulting from the sc that built the little pointy edge of the petal. use one of these legs and the ch5sp to create the center dc
11 - chain1, *ch4, sc1 into bottom of petal, ch4* around
12 - *chain1, into each following ch4sp work: [sc1, hdc1, ch1, hdc1, dc1]; [dc1, ch3, dc2, hdc1. ch1]; [hdc1, sc1, ch1, sc1, hdc1, ch1]; [hdc1, dc2, ch3, dc1]; [dc1, hdc1, ch1, hdc1, sc1]* repeat one more time.
13 - now start your classic granny pattern with dc clusters: ch3 move to next ch1sp and work dc3 into this ch1sp. ch1 and work dc3 into next ch1sp. Continue like this, in the corners (the ch3sp) work *dc3, ch3, dc3*.
!!! I'm anchoring the outer petals in this round using the dc stitches like pictured below

Abbreviation key:
hdc - half double crochet
ch - chain
ch1sp - chain 1 space
sc - single crochet
tr - triple crochet
dc - double crochet
slst - slip stitch

here you can see what the square looks like with one more round of dc clusters:

and this is what it looks like when being off-centered

hope you like this small Dahlia square and you give it a try. I have no idea if someone else is able to follow my pattern, since I'm not used to write patterns this way, maybe you like to give me feedback ^__^

happy crocheting