Monday, April 4, 2011

Embelish the Story



Bonus post! Knitting and Crochet Blog Week may be over, but I was having so much fun I decided to do an extra day with the Wildcard topic!

This might sound odd, but my favorite embellishment I've ever included in a project, is one I haven't made yet. It is a crochet flower with a purple center and blue petals, and little green tassels sort of like vines. I've made the green tassels, and I've started three different times on the flower but had to stop and rip it out because I'd made a mistake or wanted to try it a little differently.

The reason it's my favorite is because once it is finished, it'll be the first "real" thing I've made with crochet. And it's going to go on a little purse that is a present for my friend Kay, and I'm so excited to give this present to her because I love to do nice things for my friends. So already, even though I haven't even made this flower, it has a lot of happy associations for me.

It also carries the excitement of being a totally freeform flower, hence the reason I have to keep trying different things. I started with a basic pattern (Ch 3, join with slip stitch, work too many dc's around and around to make ruffly edges, stop when flower is big enough) but strictly following those instructions didn't seem to be working. So I've been adding in more chain stitches and experimenting with the double crochets trying to get the shape I'm after. I have a feeling the reason I need to experiment is because instead of using the recommend yarn weight and hook size, I just picked a yarn that was pretty and I believe a lighter weight, and I only own one hook which is two sizes bigger. Gauge comes back to bite me in the butt! But I have been learning a lot about crochet by experimenting and messing up and figuring out why what I did didn't give me what I wanted.

Now back to work, so I can actually make this special flower a reality!

3 comments:

  1. you might try doing sliding loop to start instead of ch3, it makes it easier to pull the center tight with the smaller yarn and get rufflys.

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  2. I always seem to learn way more by trying something out and then seeing where it went wrong, than by following the exact instructions. And when you've finished your flower it'll be way more special ;)

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  3. Good luck with the flower! It will be the worth the time it is taking.

    PS... I love the description you have at the top of the blog.

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