Why Another Gingerbread Kids Pattern?
Years ago, my mom crocheted very cute gingerbread man Christmas tree ornaments. They were a lot of work, she told me, because there were lots of starts and stops, leading to lots of ends to weave in.
Do you recognize this pattern? Do you know where it appeared?–if you do, will you please leave a comment to let me know, so I can acknowledge it here?
The front and back pieces were crocheted back and forth. The back piece hides the wrong side of the embroidered buttons and face, and gives the piece more stability as an ornament. The sides are joined with a round of sc.
I always have a difficult time crocheting neatly into the sides of stitches to make borders or, in this case, to make a border and join two pieces. I can never make it look professional or even good.
Also, I’m not the only crocheter who wants to minimize the ends she must weave in at the end of the project.
When I was writing Cute Crochet World, I wanted gingerbread for the “Seasons” chapter, so I pondered the possibilities. The only way to minimize yarn ends AND avoid having to crochet into the sides of rows, was to crochet a gingerbread person in rounds.
And that’s why “Gingerbread Kids.”
Embellishment Troubles or Joys?
This post was originally going to be called “Embellishment Woes.” This project is causing me trouble. I’m not quite satisfied with any arrangement of flowers and buttons so far. After thoughtful consideration, I realize this is my favorite part of the process, so no woes.
Titled 360 Degrees, this piece will be for one of the member challenges at Visions Art Museum next year. I used a piece of a rug I knitted many, many years ago.
Once again, I say, “Thank goodness for digital photography!” It’s so quick and easy to photograph different options and look at them all together. Here are photos of the arrangements I have tried so far.
Seems pretty likely there will be more photos before I make the final decision about embellishment. Really, I’m waiting for the thrill. The thrill will tell me when I’ve got the combination right.
Small and Simple Snowflake: A Free Crochet Pattern
To round out the previous post about how to make the Snow Globe Doily, here are patterns for the small and tiny snowflakes used in the project.
“Small” is a relative term here. Compared to the Frost Flower snowflakes in the Snow Globe Doily, these flakes are small. But if you crochet them in heavy yarn, they’ll be big.
The smallest thread I used in the doily resulted in a 1 1/4″ diameter Small and Simple Snowflake. The flake shown here on the pink Christmas tree is 4 1/4″ in diameter, made with Lion Brand Lion Cotton (now discontinued, but the company now offers a similar heavy cotton yarn).
Small and Simple Snowflake
Pattern Note: Triple picot = ch 4, sl st in 4th ch from hook to form first picot, ch 5, sl st in 5th ch from hook, ch 4, sl st in 4th ch from hook, sl st in base of first picot.
Ch 4, join with sl st in first ch to form a ring.
Round 1 (RS): Sl st into ring, ch 7 (counts as tr and 3 ch), (tr in ring, ch 3) 5 times, join with sl st to 4th st of ch-7 at beg of rnd (6 tr and 6 ch-3 spaces).
Round 2: Ch 1, sc in same st as last sl st of previous rnd, triple picot (see pattern note), sc in same st as first sc of rnd, ch 3, *sc in next tr, triple picot, sc in same tr, ch 3; rep from * 4 times, join with sl st in first sc of rnd (See NOTE below), end off (6 triple picots, 12 sc, and 6 ch-3 spaces).
Weave in ends and block.
Tiny Flake
Ch 4, join with sl st in first ch to form a ring.
Round 1: Sl st into ring, ch 2 (counts as hdc), ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch from hook, *hdc in ring, ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch from hook; rep from * 4 times, join with sl st in 2nd st of ch-2 at beg of rnd (See NOTE below).
The Small and Simple Snowflake and Tiny Flake are part of this Snow Globe Doily. Learn how to make a doily like this in the previous post. The snow people in this photo have Tiny Flakes around their…feet?
NOTE: For better results, do not join with sl st. Instead cut yarn and needle join. Photo-tutorial for needle-join here.
Make a Snow Globe Doily with Crochet Charm Lace
Imagine, for a moment, this dream crochet project: you can make it with leftover yarns or new yarns. You can mix yarn weights and textures. The finished piece can be any shape and size. Best of all, you won’t need to make gauge swatches.
Ah, what a lovely dream.
But wait! You can turn the dream into reality with a technique called Crochet Charm Lace. To do it you will need crochet motif patterns, yarn and hooks for crocheting motifs, waste fabric, safety pins, tapestry needle, scissors, and supplies for blocking.
For your first crochet charm lace project, consider making something small, like a scarf or the Snow Globe Doily shown here.
A Quick Summary of How to Make Crochet Charm Lace
- Cut a fabric template in the shape of your choice. It won’t be part of the finished project.
- Crochet motifs from one type or many types of yarn, weave in ends and block.
- Arrange and pin motifs, face down on the fabric template and safety-pin in place.
- Sew motifs together wherever they touch.
- Remove safety pins and turn your crochet charm lace piece right-side-up.
HOW TO MAKE THE SNOW GLOBE DOILY
For the Snow Globe Doily, you will need:
- A selection of white yarns and threads. The yarns in “Snow Globe” range from No. 30 crochet cotton (very fine) to worsted weight yarn, and they represent many different fibers, like cotton, linen, and wool.
- One or two icy blue yarns the same size as one or two of the white yarns you chose. To be used as accents and for filler motifs.
- A selection of crochet hooks to give a firm gauge with the chosen yarns.
- Books:
- Sturdy fabric to make a template in the shape you choose. “Snow Globe” is 16″ in diameter.
- Pens, templates (such as a large platter) as needed to make a template with fabric.
- Iron, press cloth, ironing surface, pins
- Patterns for Filler Motifs (see end of this post) and Small and Simple Snowflakes and Tiny Flakes (see tomorrow’s post)
Cute Crochet World: A Little Dictionary of Crochet Critters, Folks, Food & More, “Snow-People” pattern.
Crochet Garden: Bunches of Flowers, Leaves, and Other Delights, “Frost Flower” pattern.
OR any patterns for small and large crocheted snowflakes and snowmen.
Make a Fabric Template
Cut out the desired size and shape of your project from any sturdy fabric. The fabric will not be part of the finished piece, but you need it to create the shape of the Crochet Charm Lace.
For the Snow Globe project, I traced around my largest round platter—about 16″ across—with a ball-point pen, onto leftover cotton twill fabric. Round is nice, but you can cut out a heart or square or whatever. You can even use a piece of clothing as a template.
Choose Motifs
The motifs used in Crochet Charm Lace are stand-alone crocheted motifs. In other words, they are NOT afghan motifs. We are lucky to have quite a few non-afghan motif books on the market, featuring everything from flowers to dachshunds to sea creatures.
I chose motifs from my own books to make the Snow Globe Doily shown here. The “Snow-people” are from Cute Crochet World. The large snowflakes are “Frost Flower” from Crochet Garden: Bunches of Flowers, Leaves, and Other Delights.
Two or three motif patterns are plenty for a crochet charm lace design. Pick your favorite flower and leaf designs, for instance. Or consider groupings like televisions and stars; oak and maple leaves; or clouds, umbrellas, and rain boots. Find several ideas here.
In addition to the main motifs, you’ll need small motifs to fill in awkward spaces in your crochet charm lace creation. A filler motif can be as simple as one round of single crochet or half-double crochet.
Choose Yarns and Hooks
Here’s a general rule for choosing yarn. If you have many textures and weights of yarn for your crochet charm lace project, keep to one or two colors for the major motifs; on the other hand, if you are using lots of colors, keep to a narrow range of weights and textures.
You are welcome to break this rule.
The filler motifs can blend or contrast. I chose DK weight cotton and wool yarns, No. 10 crochet cotton, an even lighter cotton than that, and even some handspun wool. My light blue filler motifs contrast with the mostly-white snowflakes.
Choose hooks that will give you a firm gauge with the different yarns. Consult the Craft Yarn Council’s yarn and hook chart at http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/weight.html and go for the hooks at the smaller end of the scale for each weight of yarn.
Crochet!
Crochet enough motifs to thickly cover your fabric template. I crocheted “Frost Flowers” in several sizes of yarn and thread. The pattern in Crochet Garden includes a “Fancy Flake” option, which I used for a few of the flakes. I used pale blue as an accent in some of the Frost Flowers.
To add variety, I made Small and Simple Snowflakes and Tiny Flakes. I will post the patterns tomorrow.
Finish the Motifs
Weave in ends and block the motifs.
To block, hold small motifs like these under the tap, squeeze out excess water, hand-stretch and flatten each motif, and press gently using a press cloth to protect the crochet.
When a motif just won’t lie flat, pin it out and let dry.
Arrange and Pin
Arrange motifs right-side-down on the template, with an eye toward distributing color, shape, and size in a pleasing way. Take them right up to the edge of the template. If you have a few large or major motifs, lay them out, more-or-less evenly-spaced across the template. Arrange the other motifs around them, with edges touching wherever possible.
Squeeze in as many motifs as you can, as if you were working a crochet jigsaw puzzle. They won’t all fit perfectly together, which is what results in the lacy effect of Crochet Charm Lace.
You may need to make a few more motifs. Estimate how many and make a list like the one in the photo below.
Do you see spaces that need to be filled, but they’re too small for the regular motifs? Make filler motifs, like my blue sc-circles, to fill those spots.
In this experimental arrangement for the Snow Globe table mat, I was trying to figure out how many more flakes and filler motifs to crochet. Before pinning the motifs, I turned the pieces face-down.
Arranging motifs will probably take more time than you expect. Feel free to take a break and come back later.
As I arranged and rearranged motifs for the Snow Globe Doily, my daughter said, “Mom, the snow people should be holding hands.”
Her instincts were right, as usual, so I put them closer together with their hands touching. I also felt they would look better if they “stood” on the Tiny Flakes, which seemed more like solid snow.
Act on your thoughts and ideas about placing motifs. If you have a pretty satisfactory arrangement, but want to try something else, photograph the original arrangement first. That way you can recreate it from the photo, if necessary.
When the motifs are exactly the way you want them, pin each one to the template with one or two safety pins.
Sew Motifs Together
Sew motifs together wherever they touch, skimming the tapestry needle under the loops just inside the edges of the motifs (see the photo below). When you tighten the stitch, the motif edges will pull together on the right side (which you can’t see at the moment). The stitch won’t show on the right side.
Note how the sewing stitch catches the loops just inside the edges of the motifs.
For sewing, use the thinnest thread or yarn you crocheted with. For heavier yarns, reduce bulk by splitting 4-ply yarns into two 2-ply strands for sewing.
Sew with yarn that matches the color of one or both motifs you are sewing. You will frequently have to weave in ends, cut the sewing yarn, and start in a new place.
On the wrong side of the piece (which you see while sewing), small lengths of sewing yarn may show at the edges of some motifs. The stitches will not show on the front.
For many crocheters, stitching is not the most fun. But keep at it. It’s worth it. If you need a morale boost, unpin a finished section of your crochet charm lace project and peek at the right side. I think it will give you incentive to keep going.
Finish
At some point, you will finish sewing motifs together. Really. You will.
And here comes the best part! My favorite! Take out the safety pins. This photo captures the moment: pins gone and then…
Set the fabric template aside.
Imagine a drum roll.
Turn the piece right-side-up. Live the dream.
NOTES:
To supplement the instructions for the Frost Flower in Crochet Garden, please look for the photo-tutorial at www.textilefusion.com/step-by-step-frost-flower.
Sc Filler Motif
Ch 4, join with sl st in first ch to form a ring.
Round 1: Ch 1, 7 or 8 sc into ring, cut yarn, and needle-join (also known as invisible join)–7 or 8 sc.
Two Scarves in Love of Crochet Magazine
Publishing craft designs in magazines is all about waiting. And waiting. But the waiting eventually pays off, like it recently did for me.
The Winter 2015 issue of Love of Crochet features two typically Suzann-ish scarves.
The Sparkling Snowflake Scarf is a Crochet Charm Lace project, made of small, medium, and large snowflake motifs. The flakes work up quickly in Lion Brand Wool-Ease and Wool-Ease Chunky.
See how Crochet Charm Lace works in these posts.
Crochet Garden readers will recognize the double bullion stitches on this silvery gray scarf, crocheted with Premier Yarns Deborah Norville Collection Alpaca Dance.
In Crochet Garden, you’ll find the tall double bullion stitch in the Russian Spoke Flower on page 100, and the shell picot in the Russian Picot Daisy on page 76. Find a tutorial for the Russian Spoke Stitch/Picot here, where Photo 6 shows the complete Russian Spoke Stitch, and the rest of the photos are about how to make the Picot.
If you can’t find the print edition of Love of Crochet in your favorite magazine-shopping spot, a digital version is available here.
Knitting and Quilting Puzzling Pinks
At 42″ x 31″, Puzzling Pinks is among my largest wall hangings. That’s a lot of knitting! Luckily, at the Ultimate Sweater Machine, I can crank out the stockinette stitch in record time.
As usual, I knitted a varied, shaded fabric by changing yarn every one or two rows–easy on the USM. With the green yarns sorted into groups of gray greens, yellow greens, and plain old green greens, I hoped to knit the impression of sun and shadow. There’s even a little blue for the sky in this garden of pink flowers.
To create the patchwork squares of green background, I tried a little something different, cutting squares from fusible interfacing first, fusing them onto the knitted fabric second, and finally cutting them out. This worked pretty well.
My quilting friends look forward to summers, because we get together in Dublin, Texas, for a three-day quilting retreat. Of course we sew, but it’s also three-day talk and laugh fest with yummy food and fun games.
My goal was to have Puzzling Pinks pieced and ready to quilt in time for our get-together. Managed. Quilting the piece took several hours, but this fun group of women helped the time pass quickly.
With three days of mostly uninterrupted sewing, a person can get a lot done. We were all very productive. By the end of our retreat, Puzzling Pinks was quilted, labeled, and bound.
Luxurious Picot Fringe Scarf to Crochet
Interweave Crochet Accessories 2016 brings us another project-packed issue, with a convenient pattern index that shows about how much time each project takes to crochet.
Among the more time-consuming, but totally worth it, projects is the Picot Fringe scarf by me!
A pretty flower-lattice pattern makes the body of the scarf, while each strand of fringe includes six sets of picots. The subtly shaded yarn, Dream in Color Smooshy, gives extra depth to the already unusual and extravagant picot fringe.
The print magazine, Interweave Crochet Accessories 2016, is on newsstands now. Purchase print or digital versions online.
Photos by Donald Scott, photographer. Copyright 2016 by Interweave Crochet. Used with permission.
Crocheting Flowers for Puzzling Pinks
Pink! It’s my most favorite color. It’s a good thing too, because the Puzzling Pink wall hanging is covered with dozens of pink flowers and I crocheted them all. And appliqued them.
These softly variegated flowers, made with Prism’s Kid Slique, are adapted from the Russian Picot Daisy pattern in Crochet Garden. Such luscious yarn!
Also from Crochet Garden, I made Anemones in Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 crochet cotton, Begonias in a Spud & Chloe yarn, and Tabby Ovals in a long discontinued yarn.
The long-stemmed buds are from the Valentine Roses pattern in Cute Crochet World.
Powerful Motivation
Need motivation to make a few wall hangings? Simply agree to show them in a quilt exhibit or two, scheduled for a few months away. Be sure to note how large you said they would be, so you can make them accordingly.
That’s what I did. The result? I’ve been working diligently, consistently, and pretty much exclusively on wall-hangings for the last six months. Tuesday, November 3rd, was the deadline for the last of the quilts. I did it! I met the deadlines!
The quilts in the photo are at the Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council River North Gallery, Stephenville, TX, until December 12. If you’re near Stephenville, please drop by and see them plus dozens more quilts made by members of the Town & Country Quilt Guild.
The other result of intense wall-hanging activity? I suffered from “wall-hanging eyes.” That’s when you have been sewing for so long, your eyes are focused at sewing machine distance or hand-sewing distance, and it takes a while to refocus them to see the real world.
And when I refocused last Tuesday afternoon, I saw that my house needed cleaning, papers needed filing, and blogs needed updating. That’s the plan for the next two weeks, before I start the next round of wall hangings. They’re not committed to an exhibit. Yet.
On the Map at IQF 2015
“I’m here with my sister, who quilts, but I knit!” exclaimed a smiling lady. She had wandered into my TextileFusion exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston last week. All thirteen pieces in the exhibit were knitted and quilted, then embellished with crochet, embroidery, buttons, and beads.
Thanks to the exhibit’s sponsor, Lion Brand Yarns, knitters and crocheters felt they had found a home at the Festival.
I was able to be with my exhibit and talk to people all through the show (with a couple of breaks for shopping). As we talked, I worked on a new wall hanging, which was a great example to illustrate my spiel about knitted quilts. It was undoubtedly the only quilt in the enormous exhibit hall that people were allowed to touch.
To help me visualize the flower arrangement on the new wall hanging, I photographed it with my phone. The only way to get an adequate photo was to put the quilt on the floor.
A quilter walked by, and I’m afraid she may have suffered heart palpitations when she saw me place a quilt on the floor. Clueless at first, I just told her what I was doing, explaining that I can get a much better perspective on the wall hanging from a photo than I can by looking at it straight-on with my own eyeballs.
When she realized it was my own quilt, the relief on her face was obvious. Oh, I get it! I’m sorry, dear concerned lady.
In another exciting development at the Festival, I sold a wall hanging! Mama Lion will be going home with a family that is active in the effort of conserving our world heritage of lions and other wild animals. I am extremely happy about the situation.
Here’s a detail of Mama Lion. See the whole wall hanging at TextileFusion Works. Scroll down to 2015.
It’s great to be finally on the map! Literally.