Mumsy Crochet Along
Please join our September Crochet Bouquet Along! This month’s flower is the Mumsy, on pages 58-60 of Crochet Bouquet. It’s shown here with a Corrugated Leaf. Make whichever size you like or whichever size you have the patience for.
In the Japanese flower calendar, the Chrysanthemum is September’s flower, symbolizing long life and happiness. For the Chinese, the Chrysanthemum, a symbol of the Harvest, Rest, and Ease, is the flower for November.
Mumsy is our September flower for an entirely different type of calendar–the American football season!
Football is huge in my home state of Texas. High schools designate one game of the season as a Homecoming Game, where alumni reunite and go to the ballgame.
The big thing is to wear a Homecoming Mum on the day of the game. Homecoming Mums are decorated with ribbon streamers, glitter, football-related charms, and anything else you can think of. They can be very, very fancy and expensive.
My cousin showed me how to make homecoming mums. I’m planning to use Mumsy to make one for my daughter Eva tonight, because homecoming is this week! Thank goodness for the local newspaper, or I wouldn’t have known.
Watch for homecoming mum instructions in the next post. Meanwhile, here’s a photo of the pieces I made for a four-tier Mumsy:
First tier (a double round of petals)
First tier padding
Second tier petals
Second tier padding
Third tier petals
Third tier padding
Fourth tier petals
You can go all the way up to six tiers of petals—about 10 inches in diameter, if you work it in worsted weight yarn!
You’re welcome to save a Mumsy Crochet Along button to your own server and use it on your blog or web site.
Have fun crocheting, and let us hear your mum stories!
Book Signings in Austin, September 6 and 7
Come and visit with me in Austin, Texas, this weekend! I’ll be signing copies of Crochet Bouquet at:
The Knitter’s and Crocheter’s Guild of Austin
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 2-4 p.m.
Howson Branch Library
2500 Exposition
Austin, Texas
and
The Knitting Nest
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 2-4 p.m.
108 W. Slaughter Lane
Austin, Texas
You’ll see the Sweetheart Rose Slippers (at top), a lovely gift idea. You’ll marvel at the Roses Cape (at right), the crocheting all done, but much assembly required! You’ll smile at the pretty Pansy Poncho in progress (below)! And much, much more!
See you there.
Fame through Flickr
Like my fellow knitters and crocheters on Ravelry, I have a Flickr account to host the photos that I post to Ravelry. The following story probably wouldn’t have happened without Ravelry and Flickr. Thank you to them!
The Cafe Rouge is a nice place to eat on Eccleshall Road in Sheffield, England. I used to meet my US-American friends there. I always ordered iced water to drink, and loved how they served the water in a faceted glass with a slice of lemon and black straw.
In fact, I loved it so much I made a wall hanging about it, called Iced Water at the Cafe Rouge.
Well, imagine how happy I was when Schmap, a collection of illustrated online maps that shows stuff to do and places to go in Sheffield and many other cities in the world, asked to feature my wall hanging with the Cafe Rouge entry! Naturally, I said yes.
You can see the Schmap web page here.
Update 2023: The schmap link isn’t good anymore, but the Wayback Machine has an abbreviated version of it. The flickr link is still good, though. The Wayback Machine, at internetarchive.org has been such a help in reconstituting my blogs—especially for the original dates.
In the earliest days of my blog, I posted some step-by-step photos of Iced Water at the Cafe Rouge. If you would like to see them, search “iced water”, and read the posts from March 6, 2005 (two of them on that day), March 11, and March 16, 2005.
Yarn Stretching
I’m re-crocheting a poncho with a border of pansies, using Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool Company’s yarn. It stretched a lot when I blocked it the first time. I didn’t like the finished garment. I redesigned it. The second time around, it required more yarn. The unraveled yarn was already blocked, so I figured I would have to stretch the new yarn before using it.
Wool Winder commented on an earlier post about the poncho, “I have no idea how you are going to stretch the yarn before you crochet with it. This should be interesting, indeed.”
Yes, interesting indeed, because I had now idea how I was going to stretch the yarn, either.
After much procrastination, I decided to get on with it. Today was the day. I thought, ‘Okay, since the original yarn was steam-blocked while it was still crocheted, I should probably steam block the new yarn.’ I dampened the hanks and steamed them with my iron. So far so good.
But how would I stretch it out and keep it stretched long enough to dry? I put away the iron and collapsed the ironing board. Then I blinked. I pulled the ironing board back up. And collapsed it again. Hmmm!
I up-ended the ironing board, looped the yarn around the foot and the ironing surface. The moment of reckoning was upon us (me and the yarn, you know). Would the yarn stretch far enough to allow the ironing board to “catch” and hold?
It did! You can see the yarn stretching contraption in the photo above.
Progress so far: pansy trim finished except for darning in some ends; three rounds of poncho complete. It’s a start!
Pansy Chain and Altered Book-Signing Plans
The Plain Pansy is shaping up as one of the most popular flowers in Crochet Bouquet. My cousin Phyllis (whom you hear of again in September—Mumsy Crochet Along month) said, “It looks like the real thing!”
Fellow Ravelers have been crocheting the Plain Pansy, too. Hurray!
I’ve been working on a poncho with a trim of Plain Pansy flowers. They’re joined to each other side-by-side. I added a row across the top of the joined flowers, which will act as a base row for the rest of my poncho. Here’s how I did it.
Notes:
- YO = yarn over hook
- “dc-join to the previous flower” = YO, insert hook into stitch below, YO, and pull up a loop as for a regular dc (3 loops on hook). YO and pull through two loops (2 loops left on hook). Pick up the flower you want to join to, and look at the back of its left side. Insert hook into the top back loop (see the green lines in the photo) of corresponding stitch on the left edge of the previous flower, which will give you 3 loops on your hook. YO and pull through all loops on hook. This attaches the stitches, without messing up their top edge.
Making a Crocheted Trim with Plain Pansies
- Crochet one full Plain Pansy (pages 63-64 of Crochet Bouquet).
-
Crochet the next Pansy through the third lobe of Round 2.
- Complete the third lobe as follows: Sc in first ch, hdc in next ch, (hdc, dc, dc-join to previous flower) in first dc, (dc-join to previous flower, dc, hdc) in next dc, sc in next 2 ch; sc in ring. (The green lines in the photo above show where to join one flower to the other.)
- Crochet Row 3 as printed in the book.
- Row 4: Change the first two double crochet sts of the row to dc-join to previous flower. They join to the corresponding dc stitches on the left edge of the previous flower. Otherwise, crochet the row as printed.
- Join the each successive Pansy to the left edge of the previous one.
The Header Row (the purple row running along the top of the flowers in the photo above):
Work with the right side of the flowers facing you. For all the stitches on this row, insert hook into the loop behind the back loop. (Even more extreme than “working in the back loop only,” this is loop is further back than the back loop.)
Beginning at the top of the rightmost flower in the chain, attach yarn with a sc in the 6th dc of Row 4. (Ch 1, sk 1, sc in next st) twice, ch 1, skip across the fold in the top petals of the Pansy, and sc into the 2nd dc of the next lobe. Ch 1, sk 1, sc in next st, ch 1, sk 1, hdc in next st.
* Skip to next flower, sc in 6th dc of Row 4. (Ch 1, sk 1, sc in next st) twice, ch 1, skip across the fold in the top petals of the Pansy, and sc into the 2nd dc of the next lobe. Ch 1, sk 1, sc in next st, ch 1, sk 1, hdc in next st. * Repeat between *s to end of flower chain.
Now the flower chain is ready to be sewn to the edge of another project. Or you can use the header row as the beginning row of a larger piece with a pretty flower trim!
* * *
My book signing at Yarntopia (August 21, Katy, Texas) has been postponed indefinitely. Instead I will be selling and signing Crochet Bouquet at the German Texan Heritage Society Annual Meeting, Saturday, August 23, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the Crowne Plaza Houston West Hotel, at TX 6 and I-10 in Houston, Texas.
For more information about the meeting, please visit http://www.GermanTexans.org
Flower Backpack
From watching my daughter sling her backpack around, I know how much wear and tear a school backpack endures. I would hesitate to put flowers on her backpack. If she really wanted flowers, though, we would put them in an area of the backpack that isn’t likely to be abraded all the time–maybe the top or the straps.
The backpack in the photo is more of a handbag sort of backpack. Worn with care, the flower decoration should last a long time.
I crocheted the flowers for this backpack with Louet’s Euroflax Sport (100% Wet Spun Linen, 3.5oz/100g = 270yd/247m per skein).
Flower Backpack
You Will Need
- Crochet Bouquet
- 3 colors of yarn in fine weight (2)
- 2 flower colors
- 1 leaf color
- 3.5mm crochet hook (US size E/4)
- Purchased backpack
- Button for flower center
- Glue that will bond the flowers to the backpack (check label)
- Paintbrush (to apply glue)
- Sewing needle and matching thread (optional)
Instructions
- Crochet the Medium and Small Primrose Layers (pages 90-91 of Crochet Bouquet). Use the photo as a guide for color choices, or choose colors to match your backpack.
- Crochet a rose leaf as follows: ch 4, crochet Small Rose Leaflet (page 114 of Crochet Bouquet), ch 2, crochet Small Rose Leaflet; pivot to work in free loops of foundation ch down other side of the leaf, sl st in next 2 ch, crochet Small Rose Leaflet, sl st in remaining 4 ch.
- Sew the button to the center of the Small Primrose.
- Glue Small Primrose to the top of the Medium Primrose. Let the glue set. For added durability, sew outer edges of Small Primrose to the flower underneath.
- Glue flower and leaves to backpack. Let dry.
- Test tips of leaves and petals for adhesion. Carefully add more glue if necessary.
* * *
In other news, Stacy at the Knitting Nest in Austin, Texas, invited me to sign copies of Crochet Bouquet at her shop. I’ll be there on September 7, 2008, 2-4 p.m. with lots of flowers and projects from the book. The address is 108 W. Slaughter Lane. For more information visit the Knitting Nest’s web site:
Knitted Willow Pattern Plate
We went out to check on some wild pig bones, which lie in a culvert down the dirt road from our house. We hoped they were bleached and clean enough for us to take home and add to Ella’s collection.
Too bad–they still had fur and other stuff attached to them. Recent rains have partially buried the rib cage and apparently washed the skull away. They are fossils in the making.
Undaunted, Miss Ella spotted the skull of a carnivore, maybe a fox or a small dog. We picked up pieces of armadillo shell, too. Ella wants to study bones someday. Preferably dinosaur bones.
Then Eva spotted a piece of broken china along the roadside. It was a piece of a willow pattern plate, of all things!
It was a little like our life in England. We were always on the lookout for broken china, especially in places that the earth was disturbed, or where old houses were torn down, or even in our own back yard, where previous owners dumped and burned household trash. We collected boxes and boxes of broken china for making mosaics.
I was so inspired by the china we found in England, that I made a wall hanging about them. In addition to actual pieces of broken china, it has a knitted and embellished willow pattern plate on it. Read more about it here
“What is the story behind these broken pieces of china?” I asked myself. It became the theme for my wall hanging. You can see that the knitted plate is “broken” (the dark blue lines). You can look behind the flaps of the plate to find the story.
And all that started with a trip to look for bones! As Eva said, “Well, it was probably bone china.”
Updated 2016 to replace an old link.
August is Poppy Crochet Along Month
The original Poppy Crochet Along Month, inspired by my book Crochet Bouquet, was August 2008, but you’re welcome to crochet poppies any time of year! The offer at the end of this post still stands.
The poppy is the flower for August, according to Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees, by Ernst and Johanna Lehner. It’s probably because in Europe, poppies are seen at harvest time, in August.
Of course those are the simple and pretty field poppies, not the lush Oriental poppies that inspired the poppy in Crochet Bouquet (pp. 65-66).
But we don’t mind–August is Poppy Crochet Along Month!
A crocheter in the Crochet Bouquet Alongs group on Ravelry (in 2021, a very quiet group called Knit and Crochet with Suzann) requested that we have a Beginner’s Corner. Since the poppy is a fairly advanced flower, let’s do the Large Fancy Five (page 24 of Crochet Bouquet) as August’s Crochet Along for beginner and intermediate crocheters. There’s a correction for the Large Fancy Five, which you can find here.
It has picots on the petals, similar to the poppy. In fact, I think if you use black for Round 1 and red for Round 2, it will look very much like a poppy–especially if you add the stamens or Fun Fur center.
Have fun! Let me know if you have questions.
Seveness Workshop at Stitches East
Stitches East will be November 6-9, 2008, in Baltimore—with perfect sweater weather, I hope!
One of the classes I’ll be teaching is called Seveness Knitting. Seveness stands for Suzann’s
Sensational Similar Shade Scrap Stripe System (the letter s, seven times).
We tend, over the years, to gather yarns in many variations of our favorite colors. Seveness is a way to use those yarns together for a lovely effect. It looks sedimentary, agate-like, interesting to the eye.
So you can use scrap yarns, stash, sale yarns, or all three, to make subtly beautiful color combinations, like the pink samples here. They remind me of the lovely stone rhodochrosite.
Best of all, because you go for an overall gauge, you can use Seveness technique with any printed pattern.
In the workshop, I will show you how to plan ‘random’ color changes and add accent colors. You knit a sample, then learn to measure for an overall gauge.
You’ll see how to incorporate Seveness with other techniques, like the brown Seveness and Fair Isle sample here. I’ll suggest some finishing tips to deal with all the ends. And I have a couple of other tricks up my Seveness Sleeve. Hey, that’s eight esses. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
The knitting techniques we will use in the class are simple, so an advanced beginner (can do k, p, stockinette st, seed st) will feel comfortable. The more advanced knitter will enjoy the ideas and the possibilities presented by Seveness Knitting.
Here’s the cardigan I made after the pink swatches at the top of the post. It has faded some, but I’ve worn it a lot since 2001.
Crochet Bob and His Pet
Eva loved Ana Paula Rimoli’s Amigurumi World. She brought it on our Colorado trip in June and spent hours crocheting cute little projects (the pear, which we named Solo, a coffee cup, an octopus). We had to make a special stop so she could buy stuffing for her amigurumi creations.
It wasn’t long before she struck out on her own, creating Bob and his beady friend. Eva agonized for days over Bob’s hairdo, finally settling on a neon orange mohawk. She worked out on her own how to crochet beads into Bob’s pet. Here they are, in the treehouse.
Bob was part of our household for several months before we ever saw him. He’s a bit of a rascal. Charles and I often say, “Eva, did you leave the lid off the pickle jar?”
“No. I haven’t had a pickle in weeks and weeks,” Eva says.
“I’ve never even opened the pickle jar,” Ella chimes in. Must have been Bob, we say.
“Who turned the thermostat up to 84 degrees?” I asked one day last winter.
Eva said, “Not me! I never mess with the thermostat.”
“I can’t even reach it,” chimes in Ella. Must have been Bob.
As you might imagine we were glad to meet him in the flesh. No, that isn’t right. We met him in the wool. Yes, that’s better. Mainly, we wanted to keep an eye on him.
During our photo shoot with Bob, his pet visited our cat Izzy. Bob recognized the danger. He’s sneaking up next to Izzy, hoping to rescue his pet.
Oh no! Too late!
