Step-by-Step Byzantine Beauty
Thank you to Johanna from Bavaria, who asked for help with the Byzantine Beauty, pages 66-67 of Crochet Garden. I hope these step-by-step photos will help.
The Byzantine Beauty begins with a ring of chain stitches, worked with a waste yarn This piece helps keep the petals in place. You will remove the waste yarn when the flower is almost finished.
When Petal Round 1, Row 1 is complete, it looks like this. It is attached to the ring in three places.
Here, Petal Round 1, Row 2 is finished.
Petal Round 1, Row 3 includes decreases and increases to shape the petals.
This shows the beginning of Petal Round 2, Row 2. You begin the row by single-crocheting in the first 6 sts. To begin a row with sc, start with a slip-knot on your hook, insert hook into first stitch, and draw up a loop. Yarn-over and finish the sc as usual.
When you are finished with Petal Round 1, Petal Round 2, the Inner Ring, and the optional Outer Ring, you are ready to put the flower together.
Weave Petal Round 2 under and over the petals of Petal Round 1. In this photo, I have just started weaving under and over the first petal.
Notice how Petal Round 2 goes under and over the sides of each petal of Petal Round 1. When you finish weaving, sew the ends of Petal Round 2 together.
Adjust the petals so they are evenly spaced.
Do you see where the Petal Rounds cross each other? They cross at the center of the flower. Weave the Inner Ring outside of the crossed strands. Pay attention to how the strands cross.
The Inner Round is finished, and now it’s time to…
Cut away the waste yarn! Make sure you only snip the waste yarn.
That looks better! You can stop here or add another ring.
Weave Outer Ring, so that if the Inner Ring goes under the petal, the Outer Ring will go over the petal.
Sew the ends of the Outer Ring together, adjust the petals, and you’re finished!
Crochet Charm Lace in Noro Knitting Magazine!
Look for this lovely scarf pattern in the Spring/Summer 2014 issue of Noro Knitting Magazine! Crocheting flowers is even more fun as you watch the color change. Whenever you get to a green section, crochet leaves.
Credit: Noro Knitting Magazine Spring/Summer 2014, photo by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com
Here are the Center Or Not flowers from Crochet Bouquet and leaves drying after blocking, and the flowers and leaves arranged on the scarf template.
Guest Hand Towel Foreshadow Future Books
How 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 still 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 crochet books, which are full of motifs for customizing and decorating fashions, home décor, and gifts.
The basket starfish seemed like a great motif to crochet. I eventually published a basket star design in an English magazine: “Star Bright” (crocheted starfish on towels), Popular Crafts, p. 62, July 2002.
Rog and Pam Search for a Place to Settle Down
Cute crochet Martians, Rog and Pam Regnar, want to retire from leading top-secret intergalactic missions. If only they could find the perfect planet to settle down on…
With lots of solar systems to choose from, Rog and Pam are looking for one whose star is not too large. Large stars tend to burn out too fast for life to develop on their planets.
Rog and Pam’s new solar system mustn’t have too small of a star, either. Small stars are too stormy and they often scorch the planets nearby.
The size of Rog and Pam’s new star has to be just right!
Find instructions for all these motifs in Cute Crochet World: A Little Dictionary of Crochet Critters, Folks, Food and More. Follow Rog and Pam on Instagram @cutecrochetworld for more frequent updates.*
* Instagram’s @cutecrochetworld is now @suzannthompson.
The Adventure Continues in New York City
The alarm went off at 3:26 a.m. on Monday the 5th. I was on my way to New York City.
First stop was Lion Brand Yarn Studio, to drop off one of my wall hangings called Passionate Heart. The Yarn Studio will be its home through July 2014. Now I can say that my artwork has been exhibited in New York. Yippeeeeee!
New York is a town for walking, and I did. The Martians of Cute Crochet World hung around with the southern lion at the New York Public Library. He was a little stony faced, but otherwise imposing and friendly toward little crocheted persons.
Another day brought me to Sterling Publishing, new home to Lark Books and their authors. I met with Josh, the publicist for Cute Crochet World, and dropped off three new book proposals. Fingers crossed.
I found a Barnes & Noble Bookseller on East 17th Street. Crochet Garden was among the crochet books on the fourth floor. I turned both copies face-forward on the shelf. It’s what authors do.
Makeover Monday, Embellished Jacket
Makeover Monday, Embellished Jacket
My website is getting a makeover! My cousin-once-removed, Stephanie-k, is working with me to update colors and structure. We’re streamlining the site to reflect the changes my designing business has undergone in the last ten years. Yay!
This green jacket is one of the projects we’re dropping from the original site. That’s my daughter, when she was eight years old. Now she’s almost nineteen.
It’s easy to dress up a jacket with a furry collar and cuffs. You will need:
Lion Brand Fun Fur or Festive Fur, 1 skein.
Size 10-1/2 US knitting needles or size needed to obtain gauge of about 5 1/2 sts per inch/2.5cm in garter stitch (knit every row).
Sewing thread to match yarn
Sewing needle and tapestry needle
Knit collar:
Cast on 8 sts. Knit every row until piece is long enough to reach around the jacket neck. Bind off. Weave in yarn ends with tapestry needle.
Knit cuffs:
Cast on 8 sts. Knit every row until piece is long enough to reach the bottom edge of the sleeve. Bind off and cut yarn, leaving 6″/15cm end of yarn for sewing. Repeat for the second sleeve. Use the end to sew the cuff ends together. Weave in the yarn ends.
Pin collar and cuffs in place. Hand sew collar along neck edge. Hand sew cuffs along the bottom edge of the sleeve. Hand sew cuff to sleeve the upper edge of the cuff, about 1-1/2″/4cm from the bottom edge of the sleeve.
Cute Crochet World Debuts in Indianapolis
The timing was perfect for Cute Crochet World to be introduced to the world at The National NeedleArts Association summer trade show in Indianapolis. Unicorn Books sponsored a book-signing for me—yay! I met lots of yarn store owners and fellow designers who came by for an autographed copy.
Meanwhile the denizens of Cute Crochet World were out enjoying the sights of beautiful downtown Indianapolis. Rog (rhymes with nog, as in eggnog) and Pam, the Martian couple, visited the Indiana Statehouse, an imposing building with lovely, carved wooden doors.
A green cute crocheted car chatted up the famous Pink Zink, winner of the 1955 Indianapolis 500. The story goes that the racecar is really ‘tropical rose,” but this is a minor technicality, because the car is quite obviously pink. We love pink!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day on this Flashback Friday. The big polymer clay heart is from my very first book Polymer Clay for Everyone. For a glimpse into the future, the stars, people, sun, house, and trees are motifs from my new book, Cute Crochet World. It will be out soon!
I love family.
I love home.
I love pink.
I love getting together with my quilting friends once a week.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
As Seen on TV!
Stranded checks on the knitting machine. Sounds good. Are they payable to me? Are they written for large amounts?
What? Oh. It seems the checks on the knitting machine are knitted checks with the unused yarn going across the wrong side of the work, i.e., stranded. It has been a really long time since I knitted on my Ultimate Sweater Machine, so maybe you can forgive me for the “stranded checks” mistake?
It really is fun to knit on the Ultimate Sweater Machine. Plain rows add up very fast. Stranded rows take longer, because they’re hand-manipulated. It helps to have a handy tool, like the one in the picture. It helps you push out every other pair of needles to make stranded checks.
I bought this tool years ago from Catherine Goodwin, who still sells handy knitting machine tools at her website: http://www.knittinganyhow.com.
Hot Pad for Flashback Friday
My parents’ 56th wedding anniversary on January 19th was also our one-month-versary of living in our new house. We love it!
We are unpacking stuff that has been in storage for years. Sometimes unpacking is like finding old friends and sometimes…well, I wonder why I kept some of it. It must have seemed important at the time.
This hot pad qualified as an old friend. It takes me back to the time before we ever dreamed of building a house, before kids, back to when my design career was just starting, in the early 1990s. Three double-sided knit hotpad designs were among the first I ever got into print. The house design may have been the sample I sent to the editor in my proposal. I gave it to my mother-in-law, Gene Frederick.
It hung in her kitchen for years. After she died, the hot pad returned to us and now we are using it in our new house. Things come around and go around and gather memories.
Instructions for this hot pad are in “House Warmings” (three potholder designs and patterns), Country Handcrafts, pp. 4–5, Bazaar 1992.