Guest Hand Towels Foreshadow Future Books
Can you make something prettier by adding a little crochet or knitting here and there? With little time to knit or crochet a large project, how can you customize a gift or put your individual stamp on a purchased item?
These applique towels were my answer to that question early in the 2000s. They foreshadowed my books, Crochet Bouquet, Crochet Garden, and Cute Crochet World, which are full of motifs for customizing and decorating fashions, home decor, and gifts.
I machine-stitched the felt sand and seaweed onto the towels. The fish are knitted, a pattern I borrowed from one of my early designs in print: “Tropical Fish Cardigan,” Christmas Year-Round Needlework and Craft Ideas, p. 14 ff., March 1994.
Eventually an English magazine published my crocheted basket starfish towel design: “Star Bright” (crocheted starfish on towels), Popular Crafts, p. 62, July 2002.
Firewheels and Buttons
Oh, those challenging firewheel centers! The dark, bloomed-out flowerets are around the outside of the center, while the yellow, currently-blooming flowerets are toward the center. Clearly this called for homemade buttons.
“I’m going to put them in the button jar until I find a good project to use them for,” she said. Like mother, like daughter!
My buttons were a little different. I made a Skinner Blend, a very clever technique which shades two or more colors into each other.
You start with two colors of clay fitted together diagonally like this:
*Fold the piece in half as shown in the picture, and run it through the pasta machine.*
Repeat between *s until the blend is even.
I rolled the resulting blend starting at the yellow end. This made a roll or a cane that shaded from yellow on the inside to burgundy on the outside. Thinking the buttons needed an even darker border, I blended some burgundy with black and made a dark burgundy border around the cane.
They look good! The best part: I cut buttons for the large flowers, then reduced the cane and cut button slices for the medium-sized flowers, then reduced it some more and cut button slices for the small flowers!
Ella and I used the scraps to make miracle beads and scrappy buttons.
“What are you going to do with all those scrappy buttons, Mom?”
“I’m going to put them in the button jar until I find a good project to use them for,” I said. Like daughter, like mother!
The History of Dream Home
Originally, Dream Home was going to be mounted onto a piece of felted wool and then made into a quilted wall hanging. The blue felt looked so good with the motifs of the picture. I was prearranging the pieces in this photo. That was when I realized just how many motifs still left to crochet—lots and lots of blue circles for the sky, lots and lots of green petals and pink flowers for the lawn.
Finally the crochet charm lace was all done, meaning the motifs were sewn together to form the picture. I couldn’t quite visualize the finished piece, so I rolled the picture inside the felt and thought about it for months.
With the deadline coming nearer, I bought a small quilting hoop to hold the piece while I hand-quilted it. Still, I couldn’t see it finished.
One day Ella and I were wandering around Michaels. In the painting section, I saw canvasses and thought, “What about sewing the picture to a canvas?” Artist’s canvas comes stretched and stapled to a wooden frame. It’s easy to hang. Right or wrong, a picture on canvas looks more like art than the same picture on a quilt. Now that, I could see.
I bought a canvas and prepared it by spraying it with a clear acrylic coating.
Should I use the pretty, blue, felted wool in the background, or not? After canvassing family members for their opinions, I chose to put the picture on the canvas without blue wool.
The sewing began. To keep the picture from sagging, I sewed around every single motif, attaching it to the canvas. Ignoring the large number of motifs, I just sewed one at a time. Eventually they were all sewn down.
The picture looked lonely, floating around on that big, white canvas. It needed the button frame, which didn’t take very long to sew in place. I love button frames.
Here’s the scoop on the motifs:
From Crochet Garden:
Butterflies (left, in the sky), “Sulfur Butterfly & Friends,” pp. 31-33
Curlicues that form the water (lower left), “Curlicue Sprays,” pp. 62-63
Purple anemone with white and black center (right, under owl’s wing), “Anemone & Friend,” pp. 120-121
From Crochet Bouquet:
Big green leaf (lower right, between toadstools and red rose), “Small One-Row Leaf,” pp. 120-121
Pink flowers in lawn, “Millefiori,” Tiny Petals, p. 26
Grass tufts in lawn, “Millefiori,” Rounded Petals, p. 25
Smallest trees in background, “Veined Leaf,” Plain Vein, pp. 123-124
From Cute Crochet World:
Mushrooms, “Storybook Mushroom,” pp. 59-61
Bullion rose, “Valentine Roses,” pp. 92-93
Ladybug, “Ladybug, Ladybug,” pp. 20-21
Rabbit, “Bunny,” pp. 38-39
“Turtle,” pp. 27-29
House, “Cozy Home,” pp. 133-136
Medium sized trees to the right of the house, “Cherry Blossom,” pp. 76-77
Owl, “Oval Owl,” pp. 36-37
Stars, “Starry Night,” pp. 98-99
Moon, “Winter Moon,” pp. 96-97
Rocket ship, “Vacation Transportation,” pp. 116-119
Clouds, “Cutely Cloudy,” pp. 86-87
Airplane, “Vacation Transportation,” pp. 116-119
“Bluebird of Happiness,” pp. 24-26
Sun, “Summer Sun,” pp. 94-95
Next year’s entry into the CGOA Design Competition is already underway. It’s a. . .oops, can’t talk about it yet.
Dream Home, A Crochet Picture
Keeping a crochet secret is very difficult! I wanted to blog about the Dream Home project many times. But I also wanted to enter it into the Crochet Guild of America Design Competition. One of the rules is that an entry cannot have been published in print or online prior to the competition.
Now that the CGOA Design Competition is over for the year, I’m free, freeeeeeeeeeee! I’m free to tell the story of Dream Home. Finally!
I love fairy tales and similar stories. The illustrations I remember from childhood were rich in color and imagery from nature. Fairy tale homes had no modern machinery or complex technology.
In a dream, a rabbit can fit under a toadstool, day and night can share the sky over your house.
Dream Home combines my childhood and dream images. The subject is pretty simple—a house, trees, some animals. As you come closer, you see more complexity—images in the sky, and the many small pieces that make up the whole.
I keep peeking around the doorway to look at Dream Home hanging in my livingroom. Seeing it makes me happy.
Sign Up Soon for Taos Wool Festival Workshops in October
The Taos Wool Festival is always the first full weekend of October, with workshops starting a couple of days ahead. This is a great time to be in the mountains of New Mexico. The autumn colors and crisp weather are just wonderful.
This year I’m offering three classes at Taos:
Polymer Clay Button Boutique, all day Friday, October 3. You’ll go home with lots of colorful, pretty buttons, ready to use. They’re machine washable and dryable.
See the blue and orange buttons in the lower right corner of the photo above? We’ll make those as a group project. So fun!
How to Knit Mosaic Patterns and Design Your Own, Saturday afternoon, October 4. After this class, you’ll be able to knit any of Barbara Walker’s many mosaic patterns, and you can design your own!
This mosaic cactus motif is one of my earliest original mosaic designs. I still like it a lot!
Cables, Bobbles, and Braids, Sunday morning, October 5. You’ll learn how to do these stunning knitting techniques, but more importantly, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of these textural wonders. You’ll go away ready to twist and shout!
Please sign up for classes before September 1, 2014, at www.taoswoolfestival.org/workshops.
Rog and Pam Build a House
“We’re moving to Cute Crochet World!” said Rog and Pam, happily. “Now we need a house.” Their real estate agent showed them this one. It was nice, but too plain. They wanted something fancier.
“This house is so cute!” said Pam and Rog, but they wanted different colors. “We’ll have to build our own house,” they agreed.
Meet Lio and Irene, construction experts on Cute Crochet World. Hi y’all!
Irene and Lio showed Rog and Pam lots of ideas for making a new house, including alternative building methods, like this knitted house. People of Earth, you can learn to knit a house like this in Suzann Thompson’s workshop “How to Knit Mosaic Patterns and Design Your Own,” at the Taos Wool Festival, in New Mexico, in October 2014. You can register for the workshop until September 1, 2014, at http://www.taoswoolfestival.org/workshops.
Rog and Pam decided to crochet a house. With Irene and Lio’s help, they chose materials and started building at the front corner of the house. The People of Earth apparently start their houses at the bottom and build up. How funny!
On Cute Crochet World, you begin building a house the front corner and work sideways toward the back, incorporating door and windows as you go.
To make a corner on a two-dimensional house, Irene and Lio used front-post hdc sts. You can tell it’s a corner, even though it doesn’t actually turn the corner. Find step-by-step photos to supplement the written Cozy Home instructions in the book, Cute Crochet World, here and here.
“On Earth, people put lentils over their windows and doors,” said Pam and Rog. “Let’s try it!” The lentils looked cute, but they kept falling off and sprouting.
This is Rog and Pam’s neighbor, Hugh. He’s a teacher. Hi, Hugh! He studied the lentils over their windows, and consulted a book. “I think this is a spelling problem,” he said.
Hugh offers this spelling advice: “‘I’ before ‘E,’ for windows, you see.” “Ah,” Rog and Pam said. “LINTELS.” Not lentils. They slip-stitched their lintels, but embroidery would have worked well, too.
On Mars, a yellow front door means ‘Welcome!’ Rog and Pam continue the tradition on Cute Crochet World.
Find instructions for the house, people, book, and much, much more in Cute Crochet World: A Little Dictionary of Crochet Critters, Folks, and Food.
Step-by-Step Crocheted Dogwood Flower
Blooming dogwood is beautiful sign of spring!
I really wanted to include a dogwood flower in Crochet Garden: Bunches of Flowers, Leaves, and Other Delights. Shaping the petal correctly was a challenge, but adding the dark notch at the petal end stumped me…for a while.
Crochet your own dogwood blossoms with the instructions found on pag=es 40-41 Crochet Garden or in the Dogwood Scarf Pattern from Interweave Crochet. I hope you enjoy making a tree-full! These step-by-step photos should help.
Each petal is made with three rows of crochet. To make the curved end at Row 1, you will “hdc-dc-htr-tog across the 3rd, 4th, and 5th ch from hook.” Let’s break that down:
Yo, draw up a loop in the 3rd ch from hook (3 lps on hook).
Yo, draw up a loop in the next ch, yo, draw through 2 loops (4 lps on hook).
Yo twice, draw up a loop in the next ch, yo, draw through 2 loops (6 lps on hook).
The photo shows how the decrease looks at this point. Now you’re ready to finish off this decrease: yo and pull through all lps on hook.
Finish Row 1, using decreases and different heights of stitches as instructed. This photo shows Row 1 finished, just before turning.
Here’s where we introduce the accent color, which will comprise the dark notch at the end of the petal. For the first petal, leave a reasonable-length yarn end, and begin crocheting over the accent color with the original yarn. As you crochet Row 2, you are looking at the wrong side of the petal.
When the final dc of Row 2 is done, drop the main petal yarn, remove the hook from the loop and enlarge the loop, so it won’t come unraveled as you do the next few steps. Turn back to the right side of the petal. Find the stitch in which you made the dc. Then go to the next st of Row 1, and insert the hook in that stitch, as in the photo.
To make the dark notch in the petal, yo with the accent color and draw through the stitch. With the accent color, make 2 slip sts in the side of the dc of Row 2. It’s right there, where you need it. You’ll easily be able to find 2 loops on the side of this stitch. Drop the accent color.
Insert your hook into the enlarged loop that you dropped earlier. Tighten the loop. You’ll have 2 loops on the hook, as you see in the photo above.
With the main color, chain 1, drawing the loop through both loops on the hook. Then chain as instructed for Row 3.
Remember how you decreased three stitches to make the curve on Row 1 of the petal? To make the mirror-image curve on this side of the petal, you do the opposite: increase by placing 3 stitches into the 3rd chain from the hook.
As you crochet Row 3, watch for the instruction to begin crocheting over the accent color again. That will bring it back down to the center of the flower, where it will be ready for the next petal.
Cut a 1/2″/1.3cm strip of stiff card to make the loopy center of the flower. I cut mine from a cereal box. Wrap the accent yarn carefully around the paper strip. Placing the wraps next to each other will make them all the same size. Insert your threaded tapestry needle under the wraps.
Pull the thread under the wraps, remove the needle, tie the ends of the thread as tightly as you can to hold the wraps. Remove the cardboard and tighten the knot.
Tie the yarn ends again to lock the knot in place. Use the ends to sew this piece onto the flower. For the wrap ends, you can trim them and hide them among the loops, or you can bring them to the wrong side of the flower and weave them in.
Firewheel Meadow Wall Hanging
Whatever you call them—Indian Blanket, Gaillardia, or Firewheel—these colorful, happy flowers are a joy to behold. We had them in our front yard for years, and oh, how I loved to come home to their bright greeting.
Figuring it was time to make a firewheel wall hanging, I crocheted dozens of them using the pattern on pp. 83-84 of Crochet Bouquet: Easy Designs for Dozens of Flowers. The flowers are made in two layers and then sewn together.
The project stalled for a while, and during that time, I had occasion to drive around Texas. I noticed the roadside Firewheels had very dark centers. My memory said that the tiny yellow flowerlets of Firewheels bloom around the edge of the flower center. But not quite! They bloom from the edge of the center toward the center of the center, darkening to a rusty red as they bloom out.
As you zoom along the highway, you mostly see the yellow on the edges of the outside petals going to a much darker red center. No orange streaks. Not many yellow dots around the center. Luckily I hadn’t embroidered many yellow dots. But all my flowers were sewn with orange yarn. I would have to change them.
For the firewheel meadow, I wanted a strong green for the foreground, bright greens for the middle ground to give the impression of sunlight, and grayed greens for the far distance. Here are my three piles of green. This is why one needs a stash, or as I prefer to call it, a yarn collection.
My trusty Ultimate Sweater Machine knits my wall hanging backgrounds very fast. This is good, because they are often large! In this photo, I’ve already finished the blue sky, and am in the process of making the green meadow. Since I use lots of yarns, I change yarn every one or two rows. This is easy on an Ultimate Sweater Machine.
Since I cut up and sew the knitting to make my wall hangings, I stabilize the knitted fabric with fusible interfacing. This takes a while, but the interfacing stops the cut knitting from unraveling and it keeps it stable for sewing. To much handling will eventually mess up the edges of the cut knitting. I aim to sew before that becomes a problem.
I use a quilting technique called ‘foundation piecing’ to make a quilt top from my knitted fabric. The foundation is a piece of fabric, which will be part of the finished product, but you won’t be able to see it. I use fabrics that I know I will never use for anything else.
On the left side of this photo, you can see the cut pieces of sky pinned to the foundation fabric. To the right, the pieces are already sewn—using a zigzag stitch, I catch the edges of two patches, which sews them together and attaches them to the foundation underneath.
This wall hanging is fairly large, so I pieced and sewed it in four sections.
Yay! I finished piecing and sewing the wall hanging! I love the part where I get to arrange embellishments. Our dog, Finn, kept an eye on me as I placed the largest flowers in the foreground, medium sized flowers in the middle ground, and small flowers in the distance.
This was a pre-arrangement. Before I could finalize the placement of flowers, I still had to quilt and bind the wall hanging. I wanted to get a feel for how it would look. Would I need to add anything to the quilt top before quilting? I took pictures to help me remember this arrangement.
Wait, wait! Let me try out the buttons I had picked out for this piece! Yes, I felt the dark buttons added contrast and made the flowers look more like the real thing. One more photo, and then I gathered up flowers and buttons in preparation for the next steps: quilting and binding.
Decorate Your Crocheted Cozy Home
Time to customize our Cozy Home! Page 136 of Cute Crochet World gives instructions for all kinds of add-ons: gable vent, window boxes, shrubbery, lintels, and chimney. The first three are crocheted separately and sewn on.
Lintels can be embroidered or crocheted. Here’s how I like to crochet them:
The thread is under the work. Insert hook from the right side of the work to the underside.
On the underside of the house, yarn over hook.
Draw the loop to the right side of the work.
When you have enough stitches, cut the yarn, leaving an end of about 10″/30cm.
Draw the loop completely out so the end of the yarn is on the right side.
Insert the hook from the underside to the right side of the work, in the same space as the yarn end comes out, making sure that your last loop will be caught by the yarn.
Yarn over with yarn end, and pull through to the underside of the work, catching the last loop as you go, so that it can’t come unraveled.
Now you can use that long yarn end to crochet the rest of the lintels—fewer yarn ends to weave in! Yay!
Embroider flowers and leaves or use beads to represent them. I like French knots for flowers and straight stitches for leaves.
Welcome to your new Cozy Home!
Taos Wool Festival Workshops in October
The Taos Wool Festival is always the first full weekend of October, with workshops starting a couple of days ahead. This is a great time to be in the mountains of New Mexico. The autumn colors and crisp weather are just wonderful.
This year I’m offering three classes at Taos:
Polymer Clay Button Boutique, all day Friday, October 3. You’ll go home with lots of colorful, pretty buttons, ready to use. They’re machine washable and dryable.
Knit Mosaic Patterns and Design Your Own, Saturday afternoon, October 4. After this class, you will be able to knit any of Barbara Walker’s many mosaic patterns, and you can design your own! This mosaic cactus motif is one of my earliest original mosaic designs. I still like it a lot!
Cables, Bobbles, and Braids, Sunday morning, October 5. You’ll learn how to do these stunning knitting techniques, but more importantly, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of these textural wonders. You’ll go away ready to twist and shout!
Please sign up for classes before September 1, 2014, at taoswoolfestival.org/workshops.