A Fabulous Fake
We were at an antique mall at Hillsborough, Texas, when I saw the corner of a collar, peeking from a stack of doilies and other pretty pieces of needlework.
My heart beat faster. It looked like Irish Crochet lace! What a find! Had anyone else noticed this treasure? I glanced around furtively. Thank goodness, no one was else near enough to see. With trembling hands, I reached for the collar. I closed my eyes as I picked it up, afraid to look at the price tag.
Then the truth was revealed. It wasn’t Irish Crochet lace. It was machine made lace, sometimes called “chemical lace.” But wow, it was a really good copy of Irish Crochet lace, even down to the three-dimensional flowers, and the different mesh backgrounds.
I bought the collar, because it was very pretty and I can use it in workshops and I might write about it and another fabulous crochet fake that I know about. That one is in a museum.
Next time: a real Irish Crochet technique collar. How do I know? I made it!
Daffodil Crochet-Along for April
Here in north-central Texas, our daffodils bloomed in late February. They were beautiful while they lasted a bright splash of yellow in the brown winter landscape.
Even though our daffodils bloom early, they are always associated with Easter in my mind. Maybe it’s because of my German heritage. In my mom’s Frankenwaeldlerisch dialect, daffodils are called Osterglocken = Easter bells. In the pretty Easter books and cards from my German grandmother, the Easter eggs always had daffodils around them.
Let’s crochet daffodils and narcissi in April. They’re on pages 51-52 of Crochet Bouquet. Check the corrections page (see sidebar). The frill around the top of the daffodil’s trumpet should be crocheted into the BACK loops only (rnd 5).
The photo shows the Daffodils and Narcissi from Crochet Bouquet, against a background of long, thin leaves. They’re very easy to figure out on your own, but in case you would rather have a pattern, here you go:
Long, Solid Crocheted Leaf
Crochet a chain the desired length of the leaf plus 2 ch. Working in the back bump of the chain, sl st in third ch from hook. For best-looking results, work into the back bump of the chain for any of the following leaves.
Narrow Leaf: sc 1 in each remaining ch st. End off.
Medium Leaf: sc 2, then hdc 1 in each remaining ch st. End off.
Wide Leaf: sc 2, hdc 2, then dc 1 in each remaining ch st. End off.
Long, Open Leaf
Open meshes make this leaf more delicate than its close relative, the Long, Solid Leaf. Use both styles in a grouping to give it depth. Twist the leaves or fold down the tips of the leaves to make them look natural.
Chain an odd number of sts to the desired length of the leaf, plus 2 ch. Working in the back bump of the chain, sl st in third ch from hook. For best-looking results, work into the back bump of the chain for any of the following leaves.
Narrow Leaf: * ch 1, sk 1 st, sc in next st * Rep bet *s to end of chain. End off.
Medium Leaf: ch 1, sk 1 st, sc in next st. * ch 1, sk 1 st, hdc in next st * Rep bet *s to end of chain. End off.
Wide Leaf: ch 1, sk 1 st, sc in next st, ch 1, sk 1 st, hdc in next st. * ch 1, sk 1 st, dc in next st * Rep bet *s to end of chain. End off.
Tip: when you use fuzzy, loopy, or very bumpy yarns, don’t bother to crochet into the back bump of the chain. Novelty yarn obscures the stitches, so it isn’t worth the extra trouble.
Workshop Socks Done
Eva’s crocheted socks are finished! She likes them, but we’re not sure about our dear cat, Izzy. Izzy contemplated the socks for less than a minute and then ran off. We mustn’t assume this has anything to do with her opinion of the socks, or of Eva’s feet, for that matter.
I’m glad Eva likes her crocheted socks, but in the future, I will knit socks. The gauge was small (as it needs to be for socks). My poor, aging eyes found the stitches difficult to see. Yes, I wore my reading glasses. Please don’t remind me again.
It was way too laborious for me insert the hook into the small stitches. Also, the socks don’t stretch like I want them to.
With knitting, I don’t have to see the stitches so well. They’re just there on the needle and I can see without glasses where to place my needle in order to knit them. I had started Ella’s socks in crochet, but switched to knitting. Believe it or not, they are growing quicker than the crocheted version.
Thank you to Karen Whooley for her patient and friendly instruction in our online sock class on Crochetville! She got me thinking about socks again. Yay!
Roses Poncho Inspiration
The Roses Poncho is done! I wore it at Stitches West, and many people gave me compliments on it. Thank you! It is made with Oval Center Roses, Rose Leaves, and Simple Fives, all of which are in Crochet Bouquet.
I learned about Irish Crochet lace in the early 1980s. I gathered as many books on the subject as I could find. Almost all of them were reprints of much older books. These were the original inspiration to me for the flowers and leaves of Crochet Bouquet.
One of my favorites was and still is The Irish Crochet Book No. 2, reprinted by The House of White Birches in 1981. The original source was not mentioned in this reprint, but it is probably available for download at www.antiquepatternlibrary.org or as a reprint from Lacis.
One of the projects in the book was a “Collar in Wheels, Roses, and Leaves.” I crocheted it from a linen thread, much heavier than the thread used in the book. Instead of using it as a collar, I sewed around the dropped waist of my wedding dress, as you can see in the photo.
Most Irish Crochet Lace is made from motifs joined by a crocheted mesh. The collar was unusual, because its motifs were simply sewn together. And that is how the Roses Poncho is made, too.
A Crocheted Sock
This is my first crocheted sock ever! The pattern is from Karen Ratto-Whooley, who is teaching an online Toe-Up Crocheted Sock workshop on Crochetville. The yarn is Opal.
Our two-week class started on March 13, with a lesson that took us from the toe to the ankle. Karen encouraged us to work both socks to the ankle before she gave us the heel-turning directions last Friday. She hoped to help us avoid single sock syndrome.
I’m only lacking a few rounds on this sock, because Eva likes her socks to be fairly short. The second sock is already to the ankle.
When Ella found out that I was making socks for Eva, she said, “But what about me?!” She chose between two colorways of Socka from my stash. Her most important question was, “Does this look good with my hair?” (Like mother, like daughter.) Her pair is already underway.
The Cover of Crochet Bouquet
The bright, happy, flowery cover of Crochet Bouquet was designed by Cindy LaBreacht. People love the strands of flowers at the top and bottom. More than one reader has asked me how to crochet them, including my fellow Texan, Rene. She writes:
Your book’s cover design inspired me to make a really fun spring scarf. I was wondering if you might tell me how to make the leaf chain that’s behind the flowers?
Another reader wanted to make a swag, just like the one on the book cover, to hang above her daughter’s bedroom door.
I took a photo of some of the actual cover flowers (at the top of this post), so you could see how they really are. Cover designer Cindy LaBreacht probably used Photoshop or a similar program, to make all the flower images the same size, which they aren’t in real life. She cut and pasted those little leaves together, and added the resized flowers.
However, you can still make a pretty scarf or swag. To make the flowers all the same size, you’ll have to experiment with different yarn weights. Make the larger flowers in finer yarns, and the smaller flowers in heavier yarns, in order to equalize their size. This might take you a while, but it’s worth it if that’s what you want.
For Rene’s scarf, I suggested making some compound leaves and sewing them together, then sewing the flowers on top of the leaves. Or one could make a very long compound leaf (just keep repeating the instructions for the side leaves), and sew the flowers on top of it. The flowers could be different sizes–in fact, I think that would look more natural.
For a swag, how about buying a swag or garland of greenery from a craft store, and sewing or gluing crocheted flowers on top of that? It would be sturdier than a swag made completely of crochet.
Brown Cardigan Progress
It’s amazing how quickly the project grows, when the gauge is 3.5 sts per inch! That’s the gauge of my brown Circumnavigated Cardigan, by Medrith Glover. The pockets have been joined up, as shown here, by my lovely assistant Ella. The ribbing at the bottom is finished.
The sleeves are cast on at the level of the underarm with a provisional crochet cast on (pink yarn), as Ella demonstrates in the next photo.
I had knitted well beyond this point, when I found a mistake that no amount of fudging could correct. Okay, two mistakes: 1) a counting error–can you believe it??? And 2) an alteration I made to the pattern, which totally messed up the stitch count for the back of the neck.
Sometimes you really do need to follow the pattern as written.
Shamrock Crochet Along for March
Please join our March 2009 Crochet Bouquet Along, when we will be crocheting the Shamrock from pp. 118-119 of Crochet Bouquet.
Lots of U. S. Americans boast Irish ancestry, but everyone is welcome to celebrate St. Patrick”s Day on March 17. The Shamrock is the symbol of the day.
Some use St. Patrick”s Day as a pretext for drinking green-tinted beer. School kids are eager to pinch people who forget to wear green on the day. If you’re in danger of being pinched, just say that you’re wearing green underwear. An honorable kid will refrain from pinching.
When I was a school kid, someone in my grade disdainfully commented that the true color of St. Patrick’s Day, the color that people in Ireland wear on March 17, is orange. My family lived in the UK for several years, and I saw no evidence to support this claim. Orange certainly never replaced green as the St. Patrick’s Day color in my school.
Judith, a Crochet Bouquet Along participant who has made many of the flowers and leaves from Crochet Bouquet, had some difficulty figuring out how to join the pieces of the Shamrock. If she had trouble, others might have trouble, too. So here are some photos, which I hope will help.
Start by crocheting the heart-shape leaflets. Weave in the ends before joining.
Chain the stem. Pick up one leaflet and hold it so you’re looking at the wrong side.
* Find the ch-4 at the pointy tip of the leaflet—it is the first ch-4 at the beginning of Round 2 of the Heart-Shape Leaflet. Insert the hook behind the ch and bring it back to the front on the other side of the ch. (The photo at left shows the hook at this point.) Now sl st around the ch-4. This is called slip stitching around the post.
Ch 1 and sl st into the chain that was just before the sl st around the post. Ch 1.
Pick up the next leaflet and join as you did the first, repeating the instructions from the *. The photo at right shows the hook in position to sl st around the second leaflet.
Repeat from the * once more, and then finish the stem as described in the book. Use sewing thread to sew the points of the leaflets together.
The Shamrock is meant to be sewn or glued to something else as embellishment. It won’t support its own weight. For the sample in this post, I used Crystal Palace Yarns’ Cotton Chenille.
Stitches West
In spite of tough economic times, hundreds of shoppers crowded the aisles at the Stitches West Knitters Market. People came in droves. They stood in long lines to get into the market. (If you go next year, buy a pass online before you leave home–it’ll give you lots more shopping time.)
My friend Suzanne Correira of Fire Ant Ranch) said, “…there seem to be a lot of people nesting with new fiber and stuff in this economy.” By the way, she’s going to be selling spinning supplies and teaching at the DFW Fiber Fest. It’s at the end of April in Addison, TX, just north of Dallas.
I had a chance to shop at Stitches on Saturday morning, during a break from teaching. My quest was to find lime green and bright yellow yarn to knit a pair of argyle socks for Eva. This is easier said than done! After all, at Stitches East last fall, no one had a limey enough green or a bright enough yellow.
This time we were in luck. Cherry Tree Hill had the perfect colors. The purple is for the argyle cross-hatches. Only one thing bothers me. The washing instructions are “Hand wash and lay flat to dry.” I guess Eva will have to learn how to wash her own socks.
Another booth had a wonderland of tiny flowers and insects, bouquets, dogs and kitties. These were the fabulous polymer clay jewelry of Kim Korringa. Everything was colorful, happy, pretty, beautifully-detailed, and well-made. I’ve done a bit of polymer clay myself, and I was most, most impressed.
These are the pieces I bought for myself: a pin and a hair clip. See this detail on the back of the pin? Perfect! I hope she’s there again next year, because I may need one of her necklaces.
I hope you’ll visit Kim’s web site. Go to the earring page and find the bumblebee earrings. Look at the shine on their little bodies. They are exquisite.
Back at home, Ella baked some rock cakes for a party in our tree house. She decorated them with daffodils that match Eva’s yellow sock yarn. It’s good to be back.
A Brown Project
Several members of the Dallas Hand Knitters Guild showed off finished Circumnavigated Cardigans at their September 2007 meeting. The cardigans fit beautifully. I wanted one!
The Circumnavigated Cardigan, by Medrith Glover, was published many years ago in Knitter’s magazine. She now sells the pattern through the mail. The pattern fits well, because Medrith explains how to figure the pattern based on the knitter’s own measurements.
It has sweatshirt-style pockets in front that are knitted and joined up as you go. The pattern is written so that you don’t have to sew any seams. That’s my kind of pattern!
My Circumnavigated Cardigan is going to be Seveness Brown. Seveness stands for “Suzann’s Sensational Similar Shade Scrap Stripe System.” Seven Ss. Seveness! It’s a way use up lots of leftover yarns, and the resulting knitted fabric is softly striated to look kind of agate-like.
Here it is so far. The pink is a removable cast-on. It seems like a lot of stitches, doesn’t it?! They include all the body stitches and the stitches for the pockets at the front. When the pockets are long enough, you fold them back and knit the pocket stitches together with the body stitches. At some point, you remove the provisional cast on and knit the pockets and body together at the bottom, too. It’s very clever!