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Wardrobe Blowout!Posted by on Tuesday 6 May, 2008 01:05 PM Regular visitors to my blog (all one of you, lol), may remember Florence Dollington, the doll I made from the Japanese Una-Na doll book. A few weeks ago I finished some ponchos for her and started sewing little skirts and things to go with them. Here are the results. Firstly, a very pink outfit :)
The poncho is made from some handspun wool/silk that I spun a couple of years ago. I wasn't sure what to make with the rest of it but it's so incredibly light and soft that it needs to be something special. The skirt is made from a hot pink printed acrylic felt fashion fabric sample from Reverse Garbage. All the clothes are made from discarded fabric samples (so is the doll). Next are a skirt and top. I really like the way the top looks but it gets all screwed up when you put it on so any future ones will be slit down the front with buttons or ties of some sort.
Next is the same skirt with a matching buttoned stole. The stole is made from a scrap of alpaca bouclé from Rare Yarns
I added little embellishments to the ponchos and capelets that I had made previously. Here's the orange one. I added a little crochet flower and button and a matching edge.
The turquoise one has a new ribbon and flower
and the beige one has the little silver ribbon that was on my Easter chocolate rabbit :)
I also made a few more ponchos and scarves. A little brown one with a vintage button closure and matching hand bag
A pink handspun one with a crocheted edge made with embroidery cotton.
A handspun green one with contrast purple edge and tie.
And all the scarves :) The first one was knit from a lot of yarn colour card samples. I tied them together to make a fashion scrappy scarf.
A scarf made from the same handspun wool/silk as one of the ponchos
These are all crocheted by the way :) This one is made from some Bendigo Mills 4 ply baby wool that I dyed
And finally three little handspun scarves
I have fabric all picked out to sew several little outfits and shoes to match each scarf or poncho. They're very addictive.
Click Clack, Stitch Stitch, Sew Sew, Splat CrunchPosted by on Thursday 10 January, 2008 12:15 PM Ok, technically there is neither a splat nor a crunch, bet hey! Artistic license and all that :) Three or so weeks ago I promised I would upload photos of other projects I had made the next day. Then there was Christmas and New Year's and swimming and shopping and destashing and... Let's just face facts, shall we? This is as fast as I get :) I still don't have a photo of one of them, but here are the rest. I finished these wristicuffs for Miss Brittany last night.
They're made from some of my very, very early handspun. It's lumpy and bumpy and dyed with Kool-Aid. It's also incredibly soft and Brittany asked me to make her something out of it while we were sorting out the garage stash. I wanted to destash it but there you go... Techy specs - Yarn: lumpy handspun 2 ply merino, approximately aran weight. Spun by me about 10 or 11 (maybe 12) years ago. Pattern: K1, p1 rib on 4mm needles. 1 inch smaller than wrist circumference (unstretched). The next projects are quite picture heavy so bear with me. Two Una-na dolls made from the Japanese book by Mimiwn. I love making these dolls. I can see myself becoming quite addicted to making them little clothes and accessories. I had to stop myself buying a little toy kitchen dresser at the op shop the other day because it was the right size for them. (If I had my own, much larger, house I would have bought it). The black haired one is called Pansy Dollington (Brittany's) and the brown haired one is mine. Her name is Florence Dollington. Unfortunately Florence has developed a tendency to swear like a sailor when least expected (but definitely *not* when my Dad is around, haha). I suspect she's got a little bit of a dolly "drinky drinky" problem to tell the truth...
I still need to finish sewing Florence's shirt and skirt. I had to take my sewing machine apart halfway through to clean it, and then everything got put away for Christmas and I haven't been back to it yet. This first picture shows her wearing the first unsuccessful wrist warmer as a shoulder warmer type thing. I'm going to put a little felt & button flower on it.
Here she is wearing an early Spring... let's call it a "ponchette". (I love that word. It's so pretentious).
And finally here she is wearing a ponchette from the same pattern, but in thicker yarn.
Technical details: The red and beige yarns are discontinued dk weight commercial yarns, and the bright blue is some of my hand dyed handspun yarn with (I think) mohair, angelina fibre and possibly something else thrown in. The blue is 2 ply and a bit finer than fingering weight. Next is a quickie that I knit at the doctor's the other day.
The mysterious pattern was posted on Cosymakes a few days ago. Since I had just finished all my simple knitting and I had to leave quite soon, I scribbled out the pattern, grabbed needles and yarn and had a go. I just can't resist small vintage patterns that don't have pictures :) I love this little stocking boot so much that I'm thinking of making a bunch of them during the year in whatever scraps I still have lying around after my major destash (I'll get to that BTW). Techy details: I used thinner yarn and smaller needles than the pattern calls for, but only slightly. The pattern calls for 5mm needles and (I guess) a worsted weight yarn. I used 4mm needles and dk weight. The green is some of my handspun, the purpley red is Jo Sharp DK wool. Well I think that's enough for today! I have more projects to share with you but I think I'll leave them and the story of the destash until tomorrow. I've already taken the photos, so you won't have to wait another three weeks, I swear! The All-Yarn PostPosted by on Sunday 21 October, 2007 09:19 AM There's an awful lot of crafting going on around chez knitting-and lately, most of it due to my deciding to knit a lot of Christmas presents, but some of it just for fun. Not that the Christmas knitting isn't fun, because I'm having a riot with that (all the Christmas projects are small!) Having found the proper white balance setting on my camera, I am no longer relying on the really pointless "daylight" and "incandescent" settings so my colours are accurate! I've only had the camera for about 7 years... **ahem** As an aside: If you're looking for a digital camera to take photos for your website and your budget is under AU$50, take a look on ebay for a Cybershot DSC-F505V. They're old technology and only 3.3 megapixels but they're still a great camera, especially for web photos. I paid over AU$2,000 for mine brand new when they first came out, it's paid for itself time and time again and I still use it daily. OK, back to the fibre crafts. Remember that blue wool that refused to be used up? It has been conquered! Not only did a measly 168gms of blue corriedale make one large adult sized watchcap and one toddler sized jester hat but it also made some lovely stripes on this watchcap-in-progress. (Pattern from The Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book)
but that's not all! Yes, even after all that stripy goodness, there was still some left over. Determined to use every last scrap, I used the very last few meters in a weavette square for the Square Deal Weave-Along, week 3. (bottom right hand corner).
I can honestly say that there is not a single scrap of that blue yarn left. Not an inch. Not a centimeter. Not even a millimeter! These four squares are made with the "Fancy Weave" design from week 3. And so are these:
The next 8 squares are made with the "Basketweave" design, also from week 3. They look just like the back of the fancy weave squares. I made 8 of each because I was having so much fun playing with colour.
My original intention was to make a blanket using weavette squares and crochet granny squares but I'm thinking that it might look nicer if I just use the weavette squares and crochet around each one. I'll have to get all the squares I've done so far out and have a play with them. I'm going for a vintage "scrap quilt" look, as you can probably already tell. I can always use the crochet squares in a blanket later on. But wait, there's more!
I'm having great fun knitting a dalek or two. These are being made using the Extermiknit pattern by Penwiper. I tried to resist, but they're so cuddly and evil. Sigh. I gave in :-). What really made me cave was that the designer made the pattern to the specs in the Dr Who technical manual. Now that's dedication! I'm going to see if I can strengthen their appendages with some leftover millinery wire as these are intended for adults. I hate knitting the bobbles but they're over with pretty quickly and the end result is so incredibly worth the trouble! Speaking of cuddly evil, I made a Kate Gilbert bunny too.
What do you mean pink bunnies aren't evil? That's what they want you to think... I think these are nicer made with a novelty or fluffy yarn but mine is for a baby so I made it from two smooth yarns held together because it's safer. I used 2 DK (Aussie 8 ply) weight yarns on 4mm needles so the stuffing wouldn't show through. I also gathered the neck slightly after stuffing to give it a bit more shape. The very last thing that I finished recently is a kitten pot holder made from a book published in 1946.
The book is called "The Complete Book of Crochet" by Elizabeth L. Mathieson (misspelled Matheson on the cover of my printing). It's full of wonderful vintage patterns such as this kitty pot holder, lots of bedspreads, table cloths, doilies and other wonderful things. If you like vintage crochet snap up a copy of this book! It sold so well over the years that you can still find a copy relatively cheaply even 61 years later. My copy cost me US$3 on abebooks.com (about AU$12 including postage from the US) and I'd have happily paid twice that. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about my fantastic finds at the local book fair. Stay tuned! Sometimes I Feel Like I Have ADD or Something...Posted by on Thursday 13 September, 2007 11:21 AM Seriously though, I don't have ADD, I'm just totally out of practice with editing my website (and concentrating on anything) after spending three and a half months spending every waking moment sewing the suffolk puff quilt. So, having said that, here's what's flitting around my brain at the moment! First of all I had an urge to blend some of the fibres from my stash.
I started by drum carding 400gms of fine merino/baby alpaca that my sister gave me. It was already carded and mixed in the packet but the two fibres weren't blended together much so I put it through the drum carder once to mix it up a bit. I'm not going to spin it yet because I haven't decided what to make with it. Next I decided to card together some "little bits and pieces" in order to turn them into a usable amount of yarn. I took some absolutely divine natural coloured combed merino tops that Jenny from Virginia Farm Woolworks sent me as a sample when I bought my cotton hand cards and lace whorl from her last year. This stuff is so divinely soft, it's amazing. It had been sitting in my stash awaiting a project that would do justice to it, but I couldn't figure out what to use it for because there was such a tiny amount. It suddenly occurred to me last night that I should combine it with some silk that my sister gave me, because the silk had been sitting around for exactly the same reason.
This is the result. I ended up combining pale grey and dark grey tops from Virginia Farm, a scrap of 22 micron merino (about 10-15 grams I had left from a 1.5 kilo bag!) also from Virginia Farm, 10 grams each of blue, dark brown, medium brown, burgundy and gold silk, and 5-10 grams each of several other shades of brown silk. I ended up with 120gm of gorgeous light as air wool/silk, about 50/50 in volume. I'm going to spin this laceweight. It's so incredibly light that I should be able to get some amazing yardage out of it. Have a closeup.
I envision that it will change colour slowly as I spin, but I better not think about it too much right now or I'll find myself having started another project :P And it is soooo tempting to start more projects around here because look what has arrived in the post over the last 3 or 4 weeks! I was browsing ebay a couple of weeks ago when I saw an amazing crochet book from 1946. I felt it was far too expensive considering I couldn't look at it (over $30 including postage) so I had a look at abebooks.com just in case there was a copy for sale. It was a long shot considering the book is so old, but I found a copy for $3! Including postage from the US, it ended up costing me roughly AUD$12 and now that I've seen it, I would have to say it was worth the $30 I saw it for on ebay. :-) It's called "The Complete Book of Crochet" by Elizabeth Laird Matheson and was published by Greystone Press in 1946 (mine is a 1947 reprint) It's full of amazing doilies and tablecloths like these
and also has some really incredible deco style pot holders. At the time of writing this there are 5 copies available on abebooks, if you love vintage crochet go and snap one up! If that weren't distracting enough, I also found this tatting book from the 1950's on abebooks with about a zillion edgings and several doilies that I want to make:
and this booklet that I want to add to the knitting wiki:
That one came from an auction site (not ebay). This book did come from ebay though :) Una-na dolls. It's in Japanese but, having had a thorough look at it, that won't be a problem as it has great instructional illustrations.. I fell totally in love with these dolls when I saw the book on ebay and I can't wait to make one! But I will wait because I'm feeling overwhelmed by all the projects I have on the go, and by how far behind I am on updating the website. Speaking of which, I found something new to add :P We went to visit my Dad on the weekend to deliver his father's day present (it arrived a week late but he loves it so that's cool). He gave me this scrapbook that he bought at an antique shop. He'd purchased it for an article that it had about a steam engine, however the rest of the scrapbook is about spiritualism and since he has no interest in it he gave the rest of the book to me.
The entries date from 1907-1930 and it contains letters, the owner's thoughts on the upcoming war (WWI), photographs, prayer cards and many articles about spiritualism, ghosts, clairvoyants and possession. It's incredibly fascinating so I'll be adding that to the site as well. In an attempt to get back into the swing of things, I'm off to do the housework. Then I'm going to start work on adding the new categories to the website. I intend to put the framework for the new sections up with a single article each, upload those and then add an article at least once a fortnight to each section. To recap what I have said in earlier posts the new sections will be: Hairpin lace I need staff :P All Over the PlacePosted by on Thursday 23 August, 2007 11:19 AM I'm a bit allover the place with my needlework projects at the moment so I thought I'd give a quick pictorial update as to what I've been up to. My keyboard is also dying, which is beginning to make typing difficult (half the top row of keys won't work and the shift and control keys seem to have a life of their own!) I received this in the mail this week (I love the ring-only edging on the cover):
and have decided to use this motif out of it for the doily I wanted to make, instead of the one from Modern Priscilla which I had decided on before. I prefer this one because it's a bit more complex than the one I was originally going to use, which will make it a bit more challenging.
I've been working hairpin lace samples for a couple of articles, plus about half of the first strip for my shawl (the white thing at the top)
I've been learning to use the Singercraft tool to make pile fabrics
and finally, I started a piece of teneriffe lace on my Koppo cushion
The cream thread is size 40 and the "random kingfisher" is size 20. If anyone knows where I can find more random kingfisher in any size thread please let me know! I bought one ball at an op shop so it's probably vintage but it's my favourite colour and I'd like to stock up on some more. I Get to Play With the Cool Kids!Posted by on Thursday 16 August, 2007 02:13 PM I received my invitation to Ravelry this morning and have been having a great time adding projects and books to my notebook. There were already 24 projects from knitting-and.com listed in the database, how cool is that? If you want to add me to your friends list, my username is Knittingand (naturally). Now I'm off to play with it some more. You'll just have to wait for the hairpin lace info until I've finished geeking <VBG> Potterflies and Crochet TreesPosted by on Monday 13 August, 2007 10:00 AM I finally had time to fix the thread crochet butterfly that I stuffed up a couple of weeks ago!
and followed by getting totally carried away making more butterflies :-) The first one was meant to be a potholder but I wanted to make it as a decoration so I used slightly finer yarn than the pattern called for. Behold the potterfly!
and finally, since you just can't escape the suffolk puff explosion around here, a suffolk pufferlfy of my own deranged devising.
I made the top of the wings with the extra large Clover quick yoyo maker and the bottom with the large yoyo maker. The body is a rolled up strip of felt bound with size 10 cotton and decorated with some french knots. I'm still playing with hairpin lace techniques. I just found some more patterns in an antique magazine I was looking through last night. Did you know that hairpin lace is also known as hairpin crochet, fork work, krotchee crochet, fourche work, Portuguese lace, Maltese lace and Maltese work? If you're looking through vintage or antique publications and see references to any of these techniques they may refer to hairpin crochet. Maltese lace and Portuguese lace also refer to bobbin lace and other crochet styles so it depends on the individual pattern. Some patterns just marked as crochet also contain hairpin lacework so it pays to keep your eyes peeled. I had no idea I had so many hairpin lace patterns and techniques in my little collection of antique books and magazines until I read through them all. Anyway, here's what I've been doing. Since I won't be adding the hairpin lace section to knitting-and.com until after my brother's wedding (next Sunday), I'll put some rudimentary instructions here in the blog for the time being. First of all, I have come up with a pleasing and extremely simple design for a stole that I want to make for Sunday. (I hope the yarn arrives today!)
Made with fingering weight yarn on a two and a quarter inch staple. The strips of crochet are made with the double stitch, meaning you work 2 double crochet (US single crochet) into the front of each loop before turning the fork instead of just one. The hairpin braid is then joined together using the cable join as shown here on the Stitch Diva website, but joining two loops through two instead of single loops as shown in the tutorial. I'm going to make my stole 6ft long (I'm 6ft tall in flat shoes), with white fingering weight yarn, and as wide as I can make it before I run out of time. I want it to be at least 12 inches wide, I hope to make it 24 inches wide though so I'll need 12 - 25 strips. Wish me luck :-) I also had a go at tree stitch, which is great fun to work and makes a really interesting centre to the braid.
To work tree stitch, work a slip stitch into the front of the large loop on the fork, pass the crochet hook under the front thread of the large loop, yarn round hook and draw through (2 loops on hook), *yarn round hook, pass the hook under the front thread of the large loop, yarn round hook, draw loop through** (4 loops on hook), repeat from * to ** once more (6 loops on hook), yarn round hook and draw through all 6 loops on the hook. Turn the fork and repeat for the next stitch. It's really important not to forget the slip stitch to start with. One thing I did find with the Clover hairpin lace tool is that it feels incredibly awkward with any yarn finer than Aussie 8 ply (DK weight). I ended up switching to a Pony brand hairpin staple in size 4 to work with the fingering weight yarn in these samples and immediately found it a lot easier. Next time I get to the newsagent I'll pick up a pack of large paperclips to see what I can do with those. I suppose I should sew my skirt while I wait for my yarn to arrive, but first a cup of tea... Suffolk Puff/Yoyo Coverlet Update & Hairpin Lace PatternsPosted by on Wednesday 8 August, 2007 08:46 AM The suffolk puff/yoyo quilt is almost done! First I took the 100 squares that I had sewn together and laid them out on the bed to figure out how I wanted to arrange them. Then I stacked them from left to right (the leftmost square on the top) and tied them into numbered bundles, 1 bundle for each row and stitched all the squares into their individual rows. Yesterday I started sewing the rows together into the finished coverlet and have done 4 rows so far.
As you can see this is a nice size for a cover on the recliner in my tiny studio X living room. Those paper tags you can see at the bottom are the number tags. I tied them onto the leftmost square of each row so I wouldn't stitch the rows together upside down. :-) I just have to stitch the other 6 rows together and I'm finished! I hope to get another three or four rows done today and have it finished and hidden by Friday when my brother (the groom-to-be) comes to pick up my daughter for dancing lessons (she's a bridesmaid & the best man thought dancing lessons would be fun). Continuing my hairpin lace investigations, I hauled out my Weldon's Practical Needlework reprints (most of which are still available from Interweave Press) and have bookmarked all of the hairpin lace instructions and patterns. I'll write out a list of what's in there tomorrow. There's some really great instruction in there which I'm going to eventually rewrite, photograph step by step and put on the website. I might add a little video too. There does tend to be quite a bit of assumed knowledge in antique needlework patterns and I think, since some people will pick up hairpin lace before they learn to crochet, that the step by step instructions would be beneficial. Hairpin Lace FringePosted by on Monday 6 August, 2007 08:26 AM I'm still sewing the suffolk puff/yoyo coverlet together, enjoying my Farscape marathon and taking breaks with a little hairpin lace experimentation :-) After seeing pictures of hairpin lace fringe forks in The Young Ladies Journal (downloadable from Google.com) I thought I'd have a go and see if I could find the best way to make fringe and I think I came up with a nice technique. Here's what a traditional fringe and fork would have looked like (from the Young Ladies Journal):
so I set my Clover loom up like this to imitate the traditional fork:
Here are the fringes I came up with.
Top: 1 double crochet (US single crochet) worked in the regular way (through the stitch) and then the short loops were chained together as a cable edge. I tied some loops in a knot, then snipped the ends and fluffed out the fringe for another look. I don't like this fringe as I find the header to be all floppy and unattractive. Middle: This is the technique I like for a plain fringe. I worked one double crochet per row again, but instead of working through the middle of the loop, I worked under both threads, trapping the whole loop within the stitch. You do have to put a thread through the small loops when you take it off the loom or they will threaten to undo. I threaded the small loops like a cable edge on this sample again. This made a nice tidy and firm header. Bottom: The same as the middle sample but worked with two novelty yarns held together and a larger crochet hook. The purple yarn shrank when I soaked it overnight. I would have preferred if they had remained the same length. Now I guess I should try some fancier fringes like the ones in the Victorian needlework books! I will be documenting these techniques properly by adding a new section on hairpin lace to the website. Eventually... I've also decided on a motif for my next tatting project!
It's from the Priscilla Tatting Book #1 and I think I'll make it in size 20, blue thread. I don't have much blue size 20 thread left so I'm going to see what they have at the needlework store on Thursday. Now, back to sewing all those suffolk puffs together! Another Hairpin Lace ExperimentPosted by on Sunday 5 August, 2007 05:24 AM I spent most of yesterday catching up on Farscape DVDs (I never got to watch it when it was on TV) and sewing my suffolk puff/yo-yo coverlet together, but whenever I took a break I worked on this:
Another hairpin lace experiment. This one has three trebles (US double crochet) worked on each row instead of one double crochet (US single crochet). I really like the strong geometric quality of this stitch, the way the thick zigzags are echoed in the thinner ones that join the strips together. This sample was made with Aussie 8 ply wool (DK weight) and a 3.5mm crochet hook on a 4cm wide staple. I want to try it again with a 2 or 3cm staple to see what it looks like more densely packed together. I also want to try working with fine crochet cotton but I think I need a lot more practice with the teeny tiny crochet hook. I did try with a 2/22 wool but just couldn't get it to work. But that's more about my inexperience with the technique rather than a poor choice of yarn, I think. I'll document the different stitches and joins and add them to the website if anyone is interested. More Hairpin Crochet LinksPosted by on Thursday 2 August, 2007 07:00 AM Crochet Pattern Central - hairpin lace Hairpin lace combined with needle lace (picture) Hairpin lace and tatted snowflake Hairpin lace patterns at freepatterns.com. You will have to sign up to the website but the patterns are free. The Encyclopedia of Needlework on Project Gutenberg contains a couple of interesting fringes and insertions made with hairpin lace Dentelle Ténériffe by Thérèse de Dillmont is in French, but includes some teneriffe lace pieces that include hair pin lacework to dramatic effect. It can be downloaded for free here. Search for the title and you'll find the link to download the book. The Priscilla Yoke Book contains a pattern for a nightgown yoke in "Maltese crochet". There are also other really beautiful designs in tatting and crochet. You'll find it for free here, Search for the title in the page and you'll find the three files to download. Centerpieces and Other New Designs contains instructions and a couple of projects using hairpin lace to make dainty cotton edgings plus tatting and regular crochet. You'll find it here for free. Search for the title in the page to find the file to download. Bungalow Crochet Book contains a couple of cute doilies with hairpin lace edgings. Click this link then search for the title in the page to find the file to download Not hairpin lace, but a flat doll woven on the Clover Hairpin Crochet Tool Finally, Mrs Beeton's Book of Needlework doesn't contain anything about hairpin lace but the tatting and crochet (especially) is this book are incredible. And you can download it for free from project Gutenberg. Hairpin Crochet & Things that Begin With the Letter "R"Posted by on Wednesday 1 August, 2007 09:42 AM I'm getting far too distracted with new toys at the moment, when I should be finishing the suffolk puff/yo-yo coverlet so these will be the last little experiments with new toys until I've finished my current projects (or at least most of them!) I took the test pieces that I made on my new hairpin lace tool last night and played around with them to see what I could come up with.
First of all was a cool ric-rac braid. Made with a small width and a fine thread this would be great as ornamentation on crazy quilting. Made with yarn you could join lots of strips together to make a retro afghan. The waste threads I mentioned in my previous post made this incredibly easy to do because I was never worried about picking up loops from the wrong side of the braid. I also found reference to hairpin rosettes in one of Interweave's Weldons reprints (I've forgotten which one, I'll have to go through them again) and had a go making one in yarn.
I just made up the regular crochet part as I went. DK weight yarn on a 4cm pin with a couple of rounds of regular crochet made a 13.5cm rosette. I might use this idea to make a scrap yarn afghan. Edited to add: A study of tatting combined with hairpin crochet lace. With lots of interesting links if you just want to do the crochet. Wrights Classroom with a section on hairpin lace. I have to go out now but I'll see what other links I can come up with for tomorrow! I Should Get Back to My Suffolk Puff/Yo-Yo CoverletPosted by on Tuesday 31 July, 2007 03:14 PM but I haven't :-) I picked up my tatting last night and got into "the zone". Before I realised it the bobbin was empty and my 3rd "motif" for the 25 motif challenge was finished.
It's actually a really pretty variegated orange but my old digital camera hates photographing the correct colours half the time so this is as close as I could get, even after photoshopping. At the bottom of the photo you can see the beginning of my next edging, Sunshine's antique edging which I'm working in the size 20 variegated turquoise thread that I used for my first one. I must admit that I've been a very, very bad shopper this week. I also bought a Clover brand hairpin lace tool. I love the look of hairpin lace and the way it can be used with some many other needlework techniques, from tatting to teneriffe lace and, of course, regular crochet. So I thought I'd give the Clover tool a go.
It feels a bit awkward to hold at first but I found that once I got used to it, it's as easy to use as regular pins. The bit I really like is that you can thread your lace onto two pieces of waste yarn as you take it off the pins and it stops it from twisting when you're joining pieces or working other needlework onto it. Twisting is the main reason I haven't been terribly into making hairpin crochet in the past so now I can get stuck in with confidence :-) To use it, you take the clamp off the top and work until the pins are full. Then you replace the top clamp, take the bottom one off and release the lace down onto the waste thread, or just off the pins if you don't want to use the waste thread. There's also an optional central pin if you want to put a thread down the middle for gathering or as a tie if you're making a 19th century style headband. OopsPosted by on Thursday 26 July, 2007 01:08 PM Sam D, this is for you, to show that I don't always get stuff right <VBG> My crochet skills are rather limited (to spiral beanies and granny squares), so I thought I might see if I could put my skills to the test and make a butterfly from size 10 thread. I don't tend to work well with line by line instructions. Whenever I knit lace I always use a chart because I get lost if I try using the written out directions. This was always going to be a challenge! After ripping out the left wing once because my tension was really inconsistent, I thought I was getting the hang of it and finished the whole thing, soaked it in water and pinned it out. Hmmmm. My wings don't look the same. Oops.
It seems that I stuffed up the beginning of the pineapple on the left hand wing by working the trebles (US double crochets) between the trebles on the previous row instead of in the tops of the stitches. Luckily I can easily cut the wing off and do it again once it's dry. And it really is a very pretty and well written pattern that even a crochet jellybrain like me can figure out. Eventually :-) Some Things That Make Me HappyPosted by on Saturday 7 July, 2007 10:00 AM In order to avoid posting endless posts that just say "I finished another 4 squares", I thought I'd blog about some things that make me happy. In no particular order.
Shiny Things!Posted by on Wednesday 24 January, 2007 04:13 PM OK, they're woolly things but they're just as pretty as shiny things.
Three crochet hats made from oddments. The orange hat is made from a commercial yarn spun by my sister, and the other two are made from my own handspun leftovers. I do hope to show you a hat that will be featured in my book shortly. I just have to catch the teenager so I can take a photo. Hey Diane!Posted by on Tuesday 24 January, 2006 09:21 AM My email to you bounced so I'm putting the answer to your question here in the hopes you'll see it. A long treble is one stitch larger than a treble. So you put the yarn round the hook twice before making the stitch, rather than once, then work off the loops 2 at a time. It's known as a double treble these days. To any Americans reading this: Our Aussie crochet stitches have different names than yours. It's what you guys would called an ordinary treble stitch. :-) Biggest Post EverPosted by on Tuesday 27 September, 2005 10:21 AM Mission accomplished! I recently finished a crocheted scarf, which I made from some of my handspun wools, and decided to challenge myself with the leftovers. I decided that it would be fun to see if I could use up every last bit of yarn and not even have an inch left over. First I made a scarf, which I have already posted about here. Then I decided to go back to crochet and I designed this hat:
I ran out of the handpaint most of the way through the last round so I undid it and added a contrast edge in brown. I made this hat 3 times before I was happy with it. First I tried it with trebles (US double crochet), but I didn't like the length of the stitches with this yarn. Then I started again with half trebles (US half double crochet) but I joined the rounds and started each new one with a couple of chains for the first stitch. That made a horrible colour jog that I couldn't live with so I ripped it out again and crocheted the whole thing as a whackingly big spiral. I liked it so much that I made another with small amounts of leftover green.
This time I'd only done a couple of colours before I realised I *should* be joining the end of every round and using a chain to start. My gauge was a tiny bit off so I shrank it for a few minutes in the washing machine. It doesn't look felted but it's the right size now. Then I decided a bit of knitting was in order because I still had a huge ball of brown left.
So I made this rolled brim hat with a check stripe. It reminds me of a policeman's hat. Which is a shame... At this point I was left with a medium sized ball of brown (still!) and a lot of teeny tiny scraps of various greens. Things began to get desperate. With the fibonacci sequence in mind, I started another knitted hat.
I knew I had more than enough left to make a basic beanie, so I decided to decrease away about a half of the stitches as I normally would, then I worked 4 rounds between decreases instead of decreasing every round. I'd seen a ski hat in a 1950's pattern book that used a similar technique and I really like the shape so I thought "What the heck". After all, I was only using tiny scraps that I'd normally have thrown away at this point.
But even then I still had teeny amounts of some green and brown left! I enlisted the help of a scrap of rainbow handpaint (even though it's not handspun), and made these, to sew on future hats.
Those little skeins at the snake's noses are for sewing them on. And I don't have a single scrap of yarn left! A Nicer PhotoPosted by on Tuesday 20 September, 2005 04:57 PM of my handspun scarf from the previous post.
FO RoundupPosted by on Monday 19 September, 2005 09:06 PM
Crochet rolled brim hat (pattern by Arlene Williams)
Crochet scarf (pattern by me). This is made from my handspun yarns. They're sportweight 2 ply merino (a bit finer than Aussie 8 ply) and a 3.5mm hook. It was supposed to be 6ft long but it's about 7 ft long since I suck at measuring gauge in crochet! It doesn't matter though, because I'm 6ft tall so I can get away with wearing a scarf that long. :-)
Eyelet hat from one of the chemo hat websites (I've forgotten which one, sorry). I really don't like this hat. I think the rolled brim is stingy and the shaping on the top is clumsy. I think I'll stick to my own shaping for the tops of hats from now on.
Baby sized jester hat (pattern by me)
Yet another knut hat made from my beginner's handspun.
Another k3, p3 scarf. This one is one strand of novelty yarn (a discontinued yarn by Panda called "Angel"), and one strand of ordinary 8 ply (That's DK weight to the non Aussie yarn speakers). I love this scarf.
I also figured out the kerchief pattern from the mid 1800's. I got some yarn out of the lockup today in case I decide to actually make one and write up the modernised pattern. Don't wait for it, I haven't decided if I'm going to make one yet... And my current WIP:
A k3, p3 check scarf knit on 10mm needles. This scarf uses 3 of the same handspun yarns from my crocheted scarf. Catching Up With a Few FO'sPosted by on Sunday 3 July, 2005 10:58 AM I thought I'd catch up by announcing a few finished projects. I'll post one (or one set) per message so I can link to them in the FO's for 2005 menu on the main blog page. Firstly, I crocheted something!
This is a hat from Crocheting for Dummies. It's made from purple handspun with a 2 ply handpainted wool and purple metallic thread carried along for extra bling. I really like this pattern and plan on making some more. It's true, I'm not only addicted to knitting hats, I'm addicted to crocheting them too. If I had any fabric stash left after making totes I'd be sewing them as well. BTW, the only way to get my totes now is to email my sister. She took them all to sell in the shop since they weren't selling well over my website. |
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