Buttons at the Knit & Crochet Show
The fall Knit & Crochet Show in Greensboro was SO MUCH FUN! If you’ve never been to a knitting and crochet convention, you should go at least once to experience the amazing feeling of being around so many fellow yarn lovers. It will make your day, your week, your year!
Thursday morning at nine, we started our Polymer Clay Button Boutique class by making fake lapis buttons, courtesy of Sue Heaser’s recipe. Her book, The Polymer Clay Techniques Book, is the best. I recommend it.
By the end of the day, we were exhausted but happy. Everyone had piles of buttons, and we had a backlog next to the oven, waiting to be baked. Next time I’m bringing two toaster ovens.
Many, many of the buttons we made in class are on Flickr. I hope you’ll go and see them. They’re gorgeous!
Bullion Class at Knit & Crochet Show
I’m really looking forward to teaching the “Full of Bullion (Stitch, That Is)” class at the Knit & Crochet Show in Greensboro, North Carolina!
We’re going to cover the bullion stitch which is especially beloved by free-form crocheters. Then we will learn the fabulous double bullion stitch. We’ll use both bullion stitches in edging and motif patterns that I designed especially for this class. Here are a couple of them.
For information on the Knit & Crochet Show, visit http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com.
Bullion Stitch Class at Knit & Crochet Show
I’m looking forward to teaching the “Full of Bullion (Stitch, That Is)” class at the Knit & Crochet Show in Greensboro, North Carolina next week!
We’re going to cover the traditional bullion stitch, which is especially beloved among free-form crocheters. Then we will learn the fabulous double bullion stitch. We will use both bullion stitches in edging and motif patterns that I designed especially for this class. Here are a couple of them.
For information on the Knit & Crochet Show, visit http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com.
Brown Cardigan On the Move
Early this year, a fellow band mom, who is also a quilter, invited me to join a quilting group that meets once a week. “Just work on whatever you’re working on,” she said.
Now, one day a week, I get several hours of uninterrupted time to work and visit with other textile folks. It has been so much fun!
Seeing this as an opportunity to get some UFOs done, I brought the Brown Seveness Sweater to our weekly get-together. Look at it now! One more sleeve and the knitting is done. Then I have to weave in about a bajillion yarn ends, sew on these gorgeous buttons by Gail Hughes, and I’ll be set for the cold weather.
We had our doubts about ever experiencing cold weather again, after a summer of record-breaking heat. A cold front blew in yesterday and restored our hope. It’s cool and windy. Ahhhhhh.
Maybe I’ll be able to wear my sweater someday, after all—if I can get it away from our dog. His name is Firewheel.
Organize Earrings with Crocheted Flowers and Plastic Canvas
Here’s a pretty way to organize your pierced-earrings! Embellish a sheet of plastic canvas with crochet trim and crocheted flowers. Sew on a crocheted cord for hanging. Reinforce the top edge of the plastic canvas, so it won’t buckle when you hang it up. Finally, add earrings.
You will need:
- A sheet of plastic canvas, available in the needlework section of craft stores
- No. 10 crochet cotton in matching and contrasting colors (I used Aunt Lydia’s Classic No. 10 Crochet Cotton in lavender, violet, and shaded yellows for the trim, wasabi for the leaf, lavender, violet, yellow, shaded violets for the pansies)
- Crochet hook, 2.00mm (size 4 steel U.S.) or size needed to achieve a firm gauge
- Sewing thread and sewing needle
- Tapestry needle
- A crocheted flower or flowers and leaves from Crochet Bouquet, using No. 10 crochet cotton (I made two Plain Pansies and one Spiky Leaf, pages 63-64, 121-122)
Crochet around the edge of the plastic canvas:
Rnd 1: Begin anywhere along the edge of the plastic canvas. Place 1 sc in each mesh square along the sides. In each corner square, (1 sc, 3 ch, 1 sc). Needle join last sc to first sc (find step-by-step photos of needle joining here in photos E, F, and G.)
Rnd 2: Begin a new color in the ch-3 sp at any corner of rnd 1 with ** (sc, ch 3, sc), * sk 1 sc, ch 2, sc in next st; rep from * to within one st of next corner, sk 1 st, rep from ** around, ch 1, needle join to first sc of rnd.
Rnd 3: Begin a new color in the ch-3 sp at any corner of rnd 2 with * (2 hdc, ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch from hook) twice; working along the side, (2 hdc, ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch from hook) in each ch sp to next corner; rep from * around, needle join to first hdc of rnd.
Flowers and Leaves
Crochet desired flowers and leaves for embellishment.
Hanging Cord
Leaving a long tail for sewing, ch 2, sc in 2nd ch from hook, * insert hook into side of sc you just completed, draw up a lp, yo and draw through both lps on hook; rep from * until cord is about 1″(2.5cm) longer than the top edge of the plastic canvas. Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.
Finishing
Weave in ends. Arrange flowers and leaves on plastic canvas. Sew in place with sewing thread, making stitches around the inner rounds of the flower, leaving the outer edges of the flowers free for a more natural look. Make sure you catch the meshes of the plastic canvas as you sew. This sounds silly, but I found this part to be challenging!
Use No. 10 cotton to sew the dowel rod to the top back of the plastic canvas. This keeps it from bowing out when you hang it up.
Sew the Hanging Cord to the top corners of the plastic canvas.
Hang fish-hook style earring from the meshes in the canvas. You can also store stud earrings on the plastic canvas, as long as the earrings don’t fall through the mesh.
Oval Center Rose Tutorial
(This was originally published at Suzann’s TextileFusion, back when Curious and Crafty Readers was having technical difficulties. It really belongs here, so here it is!)*
My cousin Phyllis was paging through Crochet Bouquet, when she saw the Oval Center Rose on pages 28-29. “Is this photographed at an angle, or does it really look like that?” she asked.
Yes, it does! It is photographed straight-on, and it really is oval, like so many of the stylized roses I see on china, tin boxes, and other decorative objects.
The Oval Center Rose is our crochet along project for May. It starts with a round of single crochet (Photo 1). The lovely pink yarn is Universal Yarns Cotton Supreme.
The Rose starts going oval in Round 2 (Photo 2), with graduated stitch heights. To give the flower a lighter appearance, this round has ch-spaces between the stitches.
Photo 3 shows the last round of the oval center. The graduated stitch heights make the oval even longer.
Round 4 (Photo 4) sets up the petals of Round 5. The sc-sts between the ch-loops serve as anchor sts for Round 6.
In Photo 5, you see Round 5 finished, except for the final joining ch-st. It is worked around the first sc of Rnd 4 (an anchor st). To do this, take the hook behind your work, insert it under the petal you just finished. Now take the hook in front of the anchor sc, and back to the back under the next petal. Yarn over and draw the loop around the stitch and through the original loop on your hook.
Round 6 is where you add the final ruffly finish, worked in the back loops only. That’s what creates the subtle outline around the stitches of Rnd 5. The first petal is different than the others, so check the instructions.
To keep the petals from melding together on this last round, you ch 2, sl st around the anchor stitch, ch 2, between the petals. Sometimes it’s easier to fold the flower at the anchor stitch, and sl st around it from the back, as in Photo 6. The plum circle surrounds the 2nd petal, and the hook is under the anchor stitch, to which the yellow arrow points.
At the end of Rnd 6, turn the flower to the back. Find the very first anchor stitch with the sl st around it. Insert your hook under the loops of this sl st, yoh, and complete another sl st. In Photo 7, you’re looking at the back of the rose, and the hook is under the loops of the sl st around the first anchor st. All that’s left to do is finish the final sl st, end off, and weave in the ends.
* Originally, textilefusion.com had two blogs: one for book-related posts and one for all other posts. The book blog was titled “Curious and Crafty Readers,” and the other blog was “Suzann’s TextileFusion.”
Lentils vs. Lintels
These are lentils. Make the recipe at the end of this post, but only if you approve of eating pork.
You can buy these lentils, inexpensively, at the grocery store. Unfortunately, they won’t hold up a wall over windows and doors. For that, you need lintels.
Our lintels are heavy and strong enough to hold up a two-foot wide earthen wall over the window openings. They are so heavy that my Dad lifted them over our windows with the tractor. He had to do some pretty fancy maneuvering to put the last one in place, over the window on the back-porch side of the house. He managed.
Eva and Jerry lifted the lintels off the tractor forks and rested them on blocks above the windows. There were seven of them, so you can imagine how happy they were when they unloaded the last one.
Later, Jerry and I leveled the walls on either side of the window by scraping them with trowels. Then we poured lots of mud slurry onto the walls and replaced the lintels. I think next time we’ll have the walls all leveled first. Then we’ll pour slurry and permanently place the lintel straight from the tractor. Live and learn!
SAVORY LENTILS WITH SAUSAGE
from a British newspaper or magazine, with changes
This recipe may have been developed originally by Carola Weymouth.
1 lb brown lentils
5 oz bacon, chopped
1 large or 2 medium onions, chopped
4 sticks celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (or to taste)
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 sweet Italian, Cumberland, or other good sausages
- Rinse and pick over the lentils. Put them in a saucepan with enough water to cover them by about 1”. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer the lentils until the instructions call for them.
- Fry bacon in a large skillet for about 3 minutes, then add onions, celery, and carrots. Cook together over medium heat until bacon is done, onions are translucent, and other vegetables are tender. Add garlic and mushrooms, cover, and cook for a few minutes.
- Add the simmering lentils and water to the bacon and vegetables. If necessary, add enough water to cover the lentils by about 1/2 inch. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes.
- While the lentil mixture is cooking, in another skillet, heat oil and brown and cook the sausages.
- Season the lentil mixture and stir in vinegar and parsley.
- Serve the sausages with the lentils. Keep leftover lentils in the refrigerator. They are great cold for lunch or a snack.
Polymer Clay Button Class in Greensboro
It’s going to be polymer clay paradise at the Knit & Crochet Show in Greensboro, NC, in September!
I’m teaching two six-hour classes of polymer clay button-making techniques:
In Polymer Clay Button Boutique 1, we’ll make colorful and easy swirl buttons, lapis-lazuli-like buttons. We’ll go into groups of two or three to work on an easy millefiori technique, resulting in buttons like the ones pictured above. (You’ll have a choice of several different shapes for your buttons.) Then, after lunch we will make Crazy Polymer Patchwork Buttons like the ones in the photo to the right. We will end by making flower appliqué buttons.
Ella was about five years old when I made the buttons you see here. She used up my scraps to make this Polymer Clay Guy. Kids + polymer clay = Creativity Squared!
To find out more about the Knit & Crochet Show in Greensboro, NC, September 23-25, 2011, visit http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com, and look for details about the Fall Show. You can register online.
An Exciting Week
Yes, it has been an exciting week here at Curious and Crafty Readers..*
Rachel at Crochet Spot published an article about the htr (half treble crochet) stitch, which is used in several flower and leaf patterns in Crochet Bouquet.
Thank you to Rachel for her wonderful guest writer program!
Last year I found out that the Spanish language rights to Crochet Bouquet had been bought, but I knew nothing more about it until this week. Marta, a friend on Ravelry, told me that she bought the Spanish edition of Crochet Bouquet. She embellished a lovely scarf with one of the flowers from the book.
Luckily the Spanish title had two Os, which were represented by flowers, just like in the American edition. Muy bien!
* Originally, textilefusion.com had two blogs: one for book-related posts and one for all other posts. The book blog was titled “Curious and Crafty Readers,” and the other blog was “Suzann’s TextileFusion.”
Sweetness and Foolishness
Eva’s friend Vanesa turned 15 this summer. Eva went to her Quinceañera and had a wonderful time. This totally sweet little crocheted dress pin was a party favor. Eva said there were also crocheted hat and fan party favors. I’ll bet a lot of Vanesa’s lady relatives got together and had a crochet party-favor party! Sweetness!
Ella is making a quilt from 5-inch wide patches cut from our large collection of scraps. She sewed pairs of patches into a long garland. Look at her at the sewing machine—sweetness!
Naturally, she had to wear the patch garland. That’s foolishness.
And now for complete and utter foolishness. I bought a cookie press in hopes of squeezing mud mortar into narrow openings between bricks that somehow didn’t quite get enough mud between them.
Eva was going to take care of that job for me. She felt that the star-shaped cookie press would work well for remedial mortar work.
Eva practiced first, making sure she had the correct consistency of mud slurry to do the job. Wait a minute?! What job are we talking about here?
Well, I was talking about filling in between bricks with mud mortar. The job Eva had in mind was making large families of cute little star-shaped mud cookies. Foolishness!