Here’s my county fair afghan entry, slowly, slooooowly coming along. I think this will be the fourth or fifth year I’ve been working on it, a little at a time. I wrote about this a little bit before (here if you want to read about it), and while I’m still plugging away at it, it seems that sometime between when I started this and now that the pattern has gone out of print.

I got a request a few days back if I could share the pattern since it’s not readily available. Mindful of copyright laws, I did my best to search on Amazon, eBay, and elsewhere on the internet to see if I could find a legal copy to direct the searcher to, but I found nothing. Finally, I decided to call Herrschener’s directly to see if they had back copies in stock or anything like that.

I talked with them for a bit, and when they confirmed that the pattern was out of print and that they couldn’t direct me to another place I could purchase it from, I asked them if it would be all right to share the pattern. I was told that yes, I could share the pattern as long as I was not making any profit off of it. So, I am happy to share with everyone this free Tropical Delight crochet pattern.

This is one of the most beautiful squares I’ve ever crocheted, and the assembled afghan is even more spectacular. I found it originally in Herrschener’s More Blue Ribbon Afghans – it was the first pattern in the book and it caught my eye instantly. To make a pdf file, I took photos of the copy in my book and compiled them together to download. The pages are not perfect – there are coffee and paint stains, but the pattern is clear and legible.  See note below. 

Again, I want to reiterate that this is not my pattern, and I was given permission to share it for free.

Update Feb 16, 2015.  Download file has been temporarily removed in order to convert it from photocopy to text, so as to avoid publisher copyright.  I apologize for any inconvenience.  The pattern should be back online soon. 

Update Feb 26, 2015: Pattern is back – still the pattern, but not photocopies of the book.  The pattern was originally published through Herrschner’s before it was included in the Blue Ribbon book I own.  Hopefully this clears any concerns!

Tropical Delight Crochet Pattern

^^^ click here for printable pdf ^^^

Edit 3/9: If you’re looking for a photo tutorial of the stitches,  you can find them here. 

Edit 3/31:  I can’t post photos of their illustrations for the Figures, but I will describe them the best I can here below:

Figure 1 shows the chain-4 worked just underneath the next two loops of the stitch, instead of into the two loops of the stitch.

Figure 2 and Figure 3 shows the stitch being worked into the space that is created by the first sc (so basically, all popcorn stitches are worked into the one sc) for the former. For the latter, they’re worked into the bottom of the trc instead of the sc – so, the first wrap of the trc from the bottom. In both cases, they’re not worked into the foundation, but a tiny bit up from that, on the bottom space of whatever stitch is called for.

Figure 4: after you’ve made the 1 trc and 2 dc into the stitch specified, you’ll take the hook off of the yarn and insert it into the front and back loops of the trc. Pull up the yarn, put your hook back in, and then pull the yarn from the end of the second dc through. You’ll have a 3-stitch puff that comes is slightly pointed at the end.
sh-pc-B is essentially the same, with the hook removed and put into the trc, and then finishing the stitch.
sh-pc-C is the same, worked into the beginning triple crochet.

Figure 5 shows the center stitch in the petal. It says: “Work in front of petal in the same dc as two previous rounds. Insert hook behind st, come to front in the center of st. Yo, pull through lp on hook, sl st made. Insert hook back through center of st again. Come to front, left of st. Yo, pull through lp on hook. Sl st made.”
The picture is of the center petal, with a slip stitch in the center and an sc on top of that. On either side (one on the left, one on the right), there is a slip stitch.
So what you’re doing here is making the base in between each white outer petal, where it connects to the round 4 of petals below. You make two slip stitches in the stitch of the center petal stitch of round 4, behind the round 5 slip stitch outline. The two slip stitches make the end of one petal and the beginning of the next, both in the same stitch.

Figure 6 is simply an invisible join, which can be found on youtube and a good deal of crochet sites.

Let me know if you have any problems accessing it, and I’ll do my best to help out.  Enjoy!
~Mellie ★