Red Roses Crocheted Afghan
Identifier
2025.031
Title
Red Roses Crocheted Afghan
Creator
Maude Virginia Graham Elder (2 November 1898 - 30 May 1988)
Date
circa 1975
Format
46 inches by 56 inches plus 4½-5 inch fringe.
117cm by 142cm plus 12cm fringe.
Each block is about 9 inches/23cm square.
117cm by 142cm plus 12cm fringe.
Each block is about 9 inches/23cm square.
Description
This is an acrylic crochet afghan consisting of blocks with large red Irish roses. The afghan is 30 identical blocks total arranged in a 5 by 6 grid. There is fringe at the short ends but not the sides.
This afghan was made by my paternal great-grandmother. I recognize the flower as an eight-petal version of the Irish crochet rose or Rose of Sharon. (Note there are multiple different patterns that use the name Irish Rose.) It is a center-out motif. It starts with a wagon wheel shape, then stitches for the center petals are built up on perimeter arcs. The next round consists of long chains of stitches, followed by another round to create the petals. And so it goes, each set of petal starting with a scaffold of chain stitches followed by taller stitches — mostly American double-crochet — to fill in the petal. On this blanket, there are three rounds of red petals. Then there is a round in green to suggest leaves. The remainder of the background is worked outward in white with increases at the corners. There is a lacy stitch joining the blocks, which makes me think all the blocks are worked first and then they are joined. The fringe is lark’s head knots added at the end.
I do not know why my great-grandmother made this afghan or why this one ended up in my family. I know she made many afghans. She always seemed to have a crochet afghan in progress.
When I search the internet, I see many similar crochet afghans with red roses on a white background and one round of green leaves. Most of them have a different white background pattern than the one here (often granny square clusters), although I did see one afghan on eBay with exactly the same background pattern as my example. The squares on that afghan were joined together slightly differently. I am wondering if there was a pattern in a popular women’s magazine?
This afghan was made by my paternal great-grandmother. I recognize the flower as an eight-petal version of the Irish crochet rose or Rose of Sharon. (Note there are multiple different patterns that use the name Irish Rose.) It is a center-out motif. It starts with a wagon wheel shape, then stitches for the center petals are built up on perimeter arcs. The next round consists of long chains of stitches, followed by another round to create the petals. And so it goes, each set of petal starting with a scaffold of chain stitches followed by taller stitches — mostly American double-crochet — to fill in the petal. On this blanket, there are three rounds of red petals. Then there is a round in green to suggest leaves. The remainder of the background is worked outward in white with increases at the corners. There is a lacy stitch joining the blocks, which makes me think all the blocks are worked first and then they are joined. The fringe is lark’s head knots added at the end.
I do not know why my great-grandmother made this afghan or why this one ended up in my family. I know she made many afghans. She always seemed to have a crochet afghan in progress.
When I search the internet, I see many similar crochet afghans with red roses on a white background and one round of green leaves. Most of them have a different white background pattern than the one here (often granny square clusters), although I did see one afghan on eBay with exactly the same background pattern as my example. The squares on that afghan were joined together slightly differently. I am wondering if there was a pattern in a popular women’s magazine?
Provenance
Jolie A. Elder
Collection
Citation
jolieae, “Red Roses Crocheted Afghan,” Center for Knit and Crochet Digital Repository, accessed July 14, 2026, https://digital.centerforknitandcrochet.org/items/show/41053.
Added by jolieae
Comments