Ladybug and Heating Pipes
Knitters, always remember that duplicate stitch is an alternative for adding small areas of color to your projects! Also, you can use duplicate stitch to customize store-bought sweaters.
Essentially, you thread a needle with your yarn and embroider over the knit stitches that are already there, duplicating their shape as you go.
I designed and embroidered this ladybug on a purchased cardigan many years ago. Both my girls have outgrown it now. Before putting it away, I wanted to show it off. I used embroidery floss to do the duplicate stitch. It thickens the fabric a little, so I prefer to use it fairly sparingly.
This pattern was published under the title “Ladybug, Fly Away Home!” in Wearable Crafts (Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 31, August 1993).
Here’s looping of a different kind. These are pipes for our under-floor heating system. The pipes run into and out of a manifold that is attached to a pump and eventually to its own water heater. So we’ll have warm feet in winter. Yay!
First my Dad, Eva, and I laid in the insulation boards and duct-taped them all. Then my brother Van and I installed the pipes. He studied the instructions very carefully so our installation went smoothly. The people at Radiantec (where we bought the system) are very helpful and patient with their do-it-yourself customers.
In a few days all this will be covered by concrete, and we’ll be ready for the roof.
Palm Leaf CAL and Tutorial
School is nearly over for the two daughters in my house, and they’ve already asked if we can spend some time at the beach this summer. This reminded me of palm trees, and that reminded me of the crocheted Palm Leaf on pages 112-113 of Crochet Bouquet.
Please join me in crocheting the Palm Leaf for our June 2010 Crochet Along. To help you figure it out, here is a tutorial.
Row 1 is easy enough, and you can see Row 1 completed in Photo 1.
Originally, I wrote this pattern with three rows, but my technical editor, kjhay, felt it would be easier to understand if we combined my rows 2 and 3 into a single instruction, which is Row 2 in Crochet Bouquet.
Row 2 of the Palm Leaf pattern begins at the center of the leaf, goes out to the tip of a spike, and back to the center.
Photo 2 shows the Palm Leaf after “ch 11…” on the very last line of page 112. The ch 11 is a long, long turning chain.
Now turn and work back along the chain. Photo 3 shows what the piece should look like after the “3 times;” on the second line of page 113.
The next few stitches are actually worked into the first few stitches of Row 2, bringing us back to the center of the leaf (Photo 4).
The instructions tell you to make the stitches into the back loop only. Most of the time, we catch the top two loops of any crochet stitch as we work. The front loop is the one that is closest to you as you work. The back loop is the one that is away from you as you work.
Working into the back loop each row, as we’re doing in the Palm Leaf gives a corrugated look, and it helps us gather the leaf when we’re finished crocheting the points of the palm.
Repeat Row 2 seven more times, and end with a piece that looks like the one in Photo 5.
To gather the leaf, pull up a loop in the base of each spike, except the one you just finished. It doesn’t matter where you put your hook, as long as there’s one loop for each spike. (Photo 6)
Yarn over hook and draw through all the loops on the hook. Pull the loop tight to close the gathered edge as much as possible. (Photo 7). Ch 1 to anchor the gather. Then make the stem.
Now that you can make the Palm Leaf, check out Topsy Turvy #1 (pages 40-41 of Crochet Bouquet). It works exactly the same way.
Powerful Pearls
Like most blog writers, I’m eager to know when others link to my site. Recently I found a link coming from a foreign language site. I peered closer at the link. It was Turkish, and, and, AND…I could read it!
How does a gal from Texas decide to study Turkish? And what in the world does this have to do with Crochet Bouquet?
Well, I’ll tell you.
We must go back twenty five years or so, to the Austin Public Library, where I found this book: Tulips, Arabesques, and Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire (by various authors, Abbeville Press, New York, 1982). This book introduced me to the wonderful ceramics, metal work, textiles, and calligraphy of Turkey.
A motif you’ll see frequently in Turkish tiles and textiles is chintamani, or the three dots. They’re often used together with wavy lines. The three dots probably represented three legendary pearls floating on the waves of the sea. The pearls symbolized good luck and power.
The three dots motif was the inspiration for the Pearl Trillium, on pages 87-88 of Crochet Bouquet. The sea waves became the wavy leaves behind the flower. You probably noticed that the colors I chose for the flower are from the cover of the book.
As I pored over the gorgeous images in Tulips, Arabesques, and Turbans, I vowed I would go to Turkey someday and see those wonders for myself. That’s why I’m learning Turkish.
Many thanks to farfin for linking to Curious and Crafty Readers.* To return the favor, here’s her site, 10marifet.org, which has lots of cute craft ideas and great examples of needlework. You don’t have to read Turkish to enjoy. Çok güzel! Teşekkür ederım, farfın!
* Curious and Crafty Readers was originally meant for blogging about my books, but now all those posts have been folded into textilefusion.com/blog.
Dotty House and Weld Plates
Here’s a little coaster knitted in the mosaic technique, which I prefer to call Dotty Knitting. The whole thing is about 4 x 4.5 inches. It needs blocking, but I couldn’t wait to share it, because it’s so cute!
Once you know how, it’s pretty easy to chart a picture or fancy motif in the mosaic knitting style. And then away you go, knitting a house. If only building a house were as easy, I’m sure I could have knitted several good-sized houses by now.
Speaking of houses, here is a weld plate. My foot is in the picture to give you an idea of scale. It is a big, burly weld plate. Weld plates are embedded in the foundation of a building. Our house will have a metal roof, supported by pipes which will be welded to these weld plates.
The original weld plates were too wimpy, according to my cousin Jerry, who is advising us as we build the house. The mere sight of my foot would have sent them scuttling away in fright, on their too-short and skinny little hooks. Only they didn’t even have real hooks, but l-shaped rods instead. Pah. We showed them.
While heavy machinery and beefy weld plates dominate one part of our lot, this interesting flower is growing on another. It’s a milkweed called Antelope Horns.
Who loves to eat milkweed? Monarch butterflies! I hope some monarch momma will lay her eggs on our Antelope Horns someday.
Happy Mother’s Day from Crochet Bouquet!
Here’s a bouquet of one of our lovely Texas wildflowers, the Firewheel, for all Mothers! Especially mine!
The Firewheel is also known as Indian Blanket and Gaillardia. We love Firewheels at our house.
I considered naming one of our children after this flower. But that wasn’t to be, so we named our dog Firewheel. It suits him!
Find instructions for a crocheted Firewheel on pages 83-84 of Crochet Bouquet. Here is a correction for that pattern:
Fire Wheel, page 84, add a “(” (shown in bold below) before the word “insert”
Rnd 2: *Ch 7, (sl st-picot) 4 times; yarn over (2 loops on hook), skip next picot, (insert…
Bu örgü Teksas’ta çiçek var, adı “Fırewheel.” Türkçe’de “ateş tekerlekin.”
Eine gehäkelte texanische Blume, “Firewheel” genannt; auf Deutsch, “Feuer Rad.” (Ist das richtig, meine liebe Mutti?)
Crochet a Mother’s Day Card
You still have time to give your mother a hand-made card for Mother’s Day!
Page 129 of Crochet Bouquet gives general directions for making greeting cards with crocheted flowers.
Mostly you need to choose a flat flower or leaf, and use a fine thread to make it. Find blank cards and matching envelopes at craft stores.
For the card shown here, I used
- Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 crochet cotton in violet, golden yellow, shaded violets, wasabi green
- size 4 (US) steel crochet hook
- blank card and envelope (I bought extra in case of mistakes)
- rubber stamp with “Thank You” or other message that you like
-
stamp pad with gold ink
- Practice stamping on some scratch paper until you get the feel of the stamp and ink. When you’re confident, stamp the blank card.
- Crochet the Plain Pansy (pp. 63-64 of Crochet Bouquet) and the Spiky Leaf (pp. 121-122). Make a chain the desired length for a stem, turn, skip one ch st, slip stitch in each stitch of the chain.
- Weave in the thread ends and press flower and leaf if necessary.
- Arrange flower, stem, and leaf on card. When you are pleased with the arrangement, glue them to the card, following the directions on page 129.
Doily Woes and Doily Wonderfulness
I hit a snag with the doily I was making for our Ravelry Irish Crochet Lovers crochet along. The last round of the doily pulled it up into a shallow bowl shape.
A simple truth of crocheting is that if it doesn’t lie flat as you’re making it, it will give you trouble for ever after. You can starch, you can press, you can think pure thoughts, you can hope that the next round will compensate and pull it flat, but the bowl-shaped doily will be true to its nature. In other words, not flat.
So I’m going to pull out that last round and redo it. Then it will be time to start adding the motifs.
And now, on to doily wonderfulness, as promised in the title of this post!
Irish Crochet Lovers of North America, listen up!
Maire Treanor, the author of Clones Lace: The Story and Patterns of an Irish Crochet, will be teaching two Irish Crochet classes at the annual Knit and Crochet Show and educational event in Manchester, New Hampshire, July 7-10, 2010.
The titles are: “Beginners Clones Lace” and “Be Creative with Clones Lace.” Find them under 6-hour classes at the link above. The class sample of the first class is a small doily.
If you want to learn about Irish Crochet Lace from a modern-day Irish Crochet master, this is your chance. She will also be teaching at Lacis in California, and in Minnesota. I’ll try to find details of these other workshops and share them.
Maire’s book is available from Country Yarns (once you get there, scroll down a little).
Suzann at the Knit and Crochet Show
I’ll be teaching at the Crochet Guild of America’s Professional Development Day, Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM It is part of the Knit and Crochet Show held every year in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Professional Development Day includes panels of experts who talk about how to make money with crochet, lectures by successful crochet designers, and lots of information on how to profit by your passion for crochet.
I’m part of the afternoon program, where participants have a choice of three different, hour-long, round-table sessions.
My session is entitled “A Book’s Journey – from Idea to Book Signings.” Here’s the description:
You have a great crochet book idea, but where do you start–and end? How do you identify potential publishers? How do you pitch your idea? What basic points should you look for in a contract? How do royalties work? How can you organize your time to meet deadlines? What happens after you submit the final manuscript and projects? What should you do while you wait for your book to appear on the market? Once your book is out, how can you increase your book sales? Learn the answers to these questions and more in this whirlwind lecture.
When Crochet Bouquet was finally finished, I gathered most of my notes, sketches, inspirational materials, and some correspondence between me and my editor, and put them into a big ring binder. I bring it along to talks like the one I’m giving at Professional Development Day.
Here are some sneak peeks into the notebook: some leaves from the original proposal; a draft of the Thistle pattern; a couple of party invitations that inspired me.
It’s a wonder how much writing, how many corrections, how many random bits of inspiration, and how much communication goes into a slim volume like Crochet Bouquet.
For more information about the CGOA Professional Development Day and registration information, please visit the Knit and Crochet Show site. Hope to see you there!
Power, Flower
It’s been a long time since I used the “Earthen House” (formerly “House Building”) category on a post. Our new house was delayed for one reason and then another since about 2006. But now we are back on track. Hurray!
The power company came out a couple of weeks ago and installed poles and power lines to our place. The poles make our driveway look more real, somehow–like an actual road. It’s an amazing shift in perspective, and a tangible indication of progress.
“Look at the copper ground wires glistening in the setting sun,” I said dreamily, as we walk down the driveway one evening.
My daughter laughed. “Mom, you’re the only person I know who would get so excited about electrical poles.”
Power to us!
And now the flower. Unbeknownst to me, after enlarging a roadside trench to keep rainwater from overflowing into our yard and under our house, Charles planted “North Texas Wildflower Mix” in the disturbed earth.
What a surprise it was this spring to find poppies, cornflowers, scarlet flax, baby blue eyes, and sandwort growing along the ditch. We love the red poppies, but this pink and white poppy was our favorite. It makes me want to copy it in crochet!
Shawl? Or Not?
I was excited to see monk’s cloth in Walmart! It’s like the cloth that cross-stitchers use, with a very regular, square weave that is easy to see and easy to stitch into. “I can crochet right into the edge!” I said.
So I planned a square cloth shawl with a crocheted floral trim. I made the flowery bits, which would be joined as I crocheted along.
Luckily I thought to wash the cloth first. It shrank quite a bit. It also fluffed up a little, and a flaw that I found after getting the fabric home resolved itself and I can’t even see it now.
The decorative stitching added some interest to the stark whiteness of the cloth. And also, it was fun! I love decorative stitches, and it’s a good thing, because it took a long time to stitch across each side.
After zig-zag stitching around the cut edges, I folded the edges under and crocheted (*sc, sk 1 space in the fabric, ch 1*, repeat bet *s) all around the square.
Before starting the floral trim, I tried it on.
Oh no.
It looked like I was wearing a tablecloth.
I folded it this way. No joy. I folded it another way. Still no good. I squinted my eyes just so. Nope. I put it away for a day or two.
That did not help. It still looked like a tablecloth, and there’s nothing sillier than a plump, stern-looking, middle-aged lady wearing a tablecloth. Even if it has a pretty crocheted trim.
Well, now we have a new tablecloth.
But what about my shawl? I found some pretty fabric to match the flowery pieces I already crocheted. It’s not the kind of fabric you can easily crochet into, but I figured out a solution to that problem, and will report on it later.
