Rainbow Decoration – Free Crochet Pattern

My wonderful plans of being home with my new baby is yet another thing that Corona has ruined for me, but keeping things in perspective my family has been happy and healthy and that’s all that matters. For now I’ve just had to learn new juggling tricks with 2 kids at home, but hey, at least this feels a lot easier than the first time around. 

For one, as I’ve already been going to bed at the same time as my toddler, I get plenty of sleeps. Night waking still feels hard, but there’s light in the horizon. Baby no.2 has started to sleep through some nights and when that happens, I wake up around 3 or 4 am and get time for myself.

First time this happened, I got confused and didn’t know what to do except walk around the house thinking what could be the best use of my time, but the second time it happened I made this fun rainbow hanging decoration. I have been meaning to try this for quite some time, so had all the yarn ready for it and it felt sooo good to get hooking again. 

The rainbow is crochet as one piece in the round, until half way of the last round (colour red) the piece is folded in half to form a rainbow and the last half of the round (red) is crochet through both halves.

I’ve used a Super Chunky/Bulky yarn (Drops Snow previously Eskimo) and an 8mm crochet hook on the bigger rainbow and an Aran/Worsted yarn (Drops Paris) and a 4mm crochet hook on the smaller rainbow. You can of course use whatever yarn you like with an appropriate size crochet hook.

Tools and Material:

  • Yarn in 6 different colours. Eg. Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange & red.
  • Crochet hook
  • Scissors
  • Wide Tooth Comb (optinal)
  • Darning/Tapestry Needle

The pattern in written in UK terms. In US terms all the tr stitches are dc stitches. All other stitches are the same in both terms.

Abbreviations:

  • Beg = beginning
  • St = stitch
  • Sts = stitches
  • Yoh = yarn over hook

Instructions

With purple yarn make a loop that is approx 7 cm/2 3/4inch tall for the bigger rainbow (Drops Snow) or a loop that is approx. 4.5cm/ 1 7/8inch tall for the smaller rainbow (Drops Paris). If you are using a different weight yarn you will have to adjust the size of this loop accordingly.

Purple Round: Ch2 (this will not count as a stitch throughout), 24tr in the loop, ss to top of beg ch2 to close the loop. (24 sts)

Cut the purple yarn whilst leaving a long tail for sewing at the end and weave in the shorter one. Change to blue yarn.


Blue Round: ch2, [1tr in next st, 2tr in next st] 12 times, ss to top of beg ch2 to close the loop. (36 sts)

Cut the blue yarn and weave in ends as you work. Change to green yarn.


Green Round: ch2, [1tr in the next 2 sts, 2tr in the next st] 12 times, ss to top of beg ch2 to close the loop. (48 sts)

Cut the green yarn and weave in ends as you work. Change to yellow yarn.


Yellow Round: ch2, [1tr in the next 3 sts, 2tr in the next st] 12 times, ss to top of beg ch2 to close the loop. (60 sts)

Cut the yellow yarn and weave in ends as you work. Change to orange yarn.


Orange Round: ch2, [1tr in the next 4 sts, 2tr in the next st] 12 times, ss to top of beg ch2 to close the loop. (72 sts)

Cut the orange yarn and weave in ends as you work. Change to red yarn.


Red Round: ch2, [1tr in the next 5 sts, 2tr in the next st] 6 times, this is halfway through the red round. Now fold the piece in half to form  a rainbow. 

Crochet the rest of the stitches for the red round = [1tr in the next 5 sts, 2tr in the next st] 6 times, but before the last Yoh+”pull yarn through all loops”, push the hook through the top of the next tr st from the first half of the red round.

First half of the red round. The bottom half of the whole piece is then folded over and the red round is finished whilst attaching the two halves together to form the rainbow. Note that I haven’t weaved in any of the ends in this photo but that needs to be done before completing the 2nd half of the red round.

This picture is from the right side of the piece: first stitch of the 2nd half of the red round is just about to be completed.

Next step is to fold the piece in half, push the hook though the last stitch of the 1st half of the red round (the stitch that was just worked) and complete the stitch. This picture is from the wrong side of the piece right before it is folded in half.

In this picture two stitches of the 2nd half of the red round have been worked and the piece has been folded in half.

Work the rest of the red round.

Cut the red yarn, use the longer purple end to sew the purple seam shut and weave in ends.

To make a tassel push the crochet hook through the bottom of the rainbow, back to front.

Grab the centre of the threads and pull a loop through to the back side of the rainbow.

Now pull both ends of each thread through the loop, and tighten to form a tassel.

Lastly cut the tassels to an even length. A wide tooth comb can be handy, but not a must.

Happy Crafting!

Pattern Copyright Ida @ Lemon Bee Designs 2021-2024. All rights reserved. You may not sell copies of this patterns. You may sell finished products made with this pattern, but kindly credit back to Ida @ Lemon Bee Designs as the designer.

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