Pretty Knots

Next Set of Wings

2012-01-26T14:39:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I'm starting a new chibi. It's going to be a smiling frog with wings. Today I'm making his wings. This is the pattern I've made for this little frog. :o) xo Maddy

The wings are Finished....

2012-01-17T18:28:00.000-05:00

maybe....lol Boy these were a lot of work! I've been working on them since this morning. I know I won't make enough on this dragonfly (if it even sells) to pay for the time that went into these wings, but it makes me feel good that I've pushed myself through something new and hard and completed it.

I've got to pack Gomez and Morticia for their journey to their new home, and then if I'm not too exhausted, I'll start my little dragonfly.

oxox

New Project Started Wings

2012-01-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

This next project is a crossover project. I'm making a new polymer clay dragonfly, but making the wings out of thread. Here you can see a picture of them as they are crocheted as well as the graphical chart to make them. They are crocheted out of Sulky sewing thread. This was accomplished by wrapping a fair amount of thread over a clothes pin, and then crocheting with a double strand (one coming from the spool and the other from the clothes pin). The Sulky thread is so beautiful and soft and shiny, and hard to crochet with. 10 needle or 0.75mm. View this type of thread on Amazon: Sulky Rayon Thread 40 Weight 250 Yards Hot Pink 942-1109; 3 Items/Order It's so pretty.

Currently the wings are being starched/stiffened so that I can use them for wings. I've yet to decide if I'll embellish them more, or keep them simple. I'll post updates as I move along. The updates for the Dragonfly will appear on the Chibitude Blog. Chart is below.

xoxo

Chibitude - Pretty Knots

2012-01-13T21:06:00.000-05:00

Handmade Lace Crocheted Adjustable Cuff Bracelet - Unique
Buy Now for $10 on Etsy

This is my first offering from my new venture "Pretty Knots" my explorations in crochet tatting and other knotty stuff. :O)

-The bracelet that I am offering is crocheted out of cotton thread and embroidery floss.
-It measures about 2 inches wide and 7 inches around.
-The clasp works by taking the flower that is dangling from the cord and wrapping it around the flower on the other side of the cuff. This allows it to be opened easily and adjusts as needed for a larger wrist.
-The cuff has been hardened with fabric stiffener so the shape is permanent.
-This item is made to order and will take about 5 days to complete.

Thanks for looking!!! xoxox

Pretty Cuff

2012-01-12T00:40:00.000-05:00

Here's one of the projects I've been working on in between all my other projects. It's to be a pretty cuff style bracelet when I finish. The crocheted work is complete and tomorrow I will use fabric stiffener to put it into the shape that I'm hoping for. This is an experiment. I'm leaving the ends loose and will cut them after the fabric is stiff. I'm hoping that the consistency once it's finished is nice and firm. Can't wait to see, but I'm too tired to get it dipped and stretched now. I did plan ahead a little today and saved a Diet Rite can to use as a form.

Good night! xox

Motifs and Hooks

2012-01-07T13:23:00.000-05:00

While I've been away from the blog, I've been working on more motifs. Learning a new skill is fun and challenging, but I need to keep moving forward to feel like I have a purpose. I'm still nervous about trying to join these motifs together with the background stitches. I'm also trying to figure out how I'll pin them down etc. But until I'm ready I'll just keep practicing.

xox

Pretty Cellphone Bag Finished

2012-01-07T10:54:00.000-05:00

In this previous post you can see where I started by working the background and the flower for this bag: Pretty Cellphone Bag
I finished it quite a few days ago but forgot to post the updated pictures. I still want to add a pretty drawstring around the top where you see the double crochets. I'm thinking maybe a ribbon, or I could maybe use some elastic thread instead and have the opening close just enough to keep the phone in.

You can see, I have an old phone. It's small, and an iPhone or Android wouldn't fit in here, but if that's what I had it would be easy enough to increase the size...right? :o)

xo

I'm no Purist

2012-01-07T10:31:00.000-05:00

I'm no purist, at least not right now. These are the materials that I've been using to work my crochet lace. The big "new" item is the Fabri-tac . In the early instructions that I'm working from, motifs are tied off and woven in ends etc. But I think if these creative and inventive women of the time had a product like Fabri-tac they too wouldn't hesitate to use it.

So that's what I'm doing. I tie off my ends as usual, but instead of tucking and weaving in tails, I glue them to a place on the back that will not show on the front or inhibit new stitches being added.

A few posts ago I said that I didn't like working on the padding cord. Well, I'm getting better, and now am starting to like it. In the baggie, I have a small ball of cotton yarn that I wound. I bought a nice big cone of peaches-n-cream yarn, and this is where I pulled this from. The baggie has a hole in it and the yarn end comes out of there. I'm starting to also find a comfortable way to hold all three items as I work i.e. the padding cord, the completed work, and the crochet thread.

In the future once I really am comfortable I'll post information about what works for me.

xo

Pretty Cellphone Bag

2012-01-01T11:37:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to make my learning useful by making things out of my samplers. I thought I'd make a pretty little cellphone pouch using some new stitches. My hubby is helping me to modify my crochet hooks so that I will be able to create even more interesting stitches in the future. :o)

I want to take this pretty swatch of pink lace, and fold it in half leaving the scalloped flowers on the bottom. Then the white flower will be placed on the center scallop for the front. I'm crocheting some pretty white leaves as well to go to the right and left of the flower.

What kind of flower do you think this looks like? This is another "made-up" motif. Maybe you can help me to name it!!

Visit the following link to see the progress:
http://prettyknots.blogspot.com/2012/01/pretty-cellphone-bag-finished.html

Triangle Motif

2011-12-30T23:20:00.000-05:00

This is a pattern from the vintage book that I'm working from. It uses a padding cord. The motif is started in the center around the padding cord.

Once it reaches a third round the padding cord is dropped as the points of the triangle are crocheted.

Once they're finished the padding cord is picked up again and used to wrap around the whole motif.

I'm still not very good at using the padding cords, and I find these old instructions difficult to read.

But practice makes perfect :o)

Roll Stitch and Clones Knot Combo

2011-12-30T23:19:00.000-05:00

In this little swatch I've done tried something. The top thick rows are created by using first a treble crochet, and then wrapping the crochet, right and left as with the clones knot. Then the thread is pulled through as with the roll stitch. It's really pretty! And it's easy to keep even. Each stitch is as wide as 2 regular stitches. I've also made a little video of making this stitch so that I won't forget how I did it. Once I get it edited I'll add it to this post.

The roll stitches in the third row were easier to make when I let the tension go loose as I pulled the thread through all the loops. I found that when I closed my eyes and did it by touch that it was easier to pull through without catching.

The clones knots along the bottom are also a slight modification as you see they're not closed into a loop but left more as a shell look, and also I find it easier to leave the thread in the center loose instead of chaining.

The Clones Knot

2011-12-30T12:08:00.000-05:00

The Clones Knot
Wow....now this one was a real struggle. Not because it was super hard to do but because the instructions were so hard for me to understand.

I'm working from an old vintage book about Irish lace and the instructions are completely in text.

But I now understand and this is a gorgeous stitch! I can see a lot of potential use for it.

In the picture above, a. is a cluster of clones knots. I wanted to see how lovely they'd be for the center of a flower. I can't wait to use them for that technique. And in b. I made them around a wheel so that I could get a look at them and see if my uniformity was ok, and if they were laying correctly.

The Roll Stitch

2011-12-30T09:05:00.001-05:00

This stitch is called the roll stitch. And it sucks! To do that is. As you can see I am having a great deal of trouble making this work the way it is supposed to.

The roll should be tight, and a whole row of them should not be thicker than a whole row of any other stitch.

I'm not sure if part of my problem is from my hook. Since this is an antique stitch, I'm sure an antique hook is used, and I'm not sure how the taper was on these hooks.

The stitch asks for me to wrap the thread 20 times around the hook. If I go over 5 wraps, the thread moves up the hook to the next thicker part, and if I go over 10 it moves even higher.

I am also wondering if maybe I'm not using the right size hook for this thread. Maybe it's too small, or too large.

Oh so many things to figure out...lol

Follow this link to see how the stitch as it's supposed to look.
http://cajuncrochet.blogspot.com/2009/05/hot-pad.html

Background Stitching

2011-12-30T07:13:00.001-05:00

The motifs are really fun to make and although some are quite complex, they're relatively easy to make.

And I've been working on them on and off for a few months, but the part that I've been dreading, confused, overwhelmed with is the backgrounds.

I've been afraid to try to attach my motifs to a background so I thought that I should practice making some of the background stitches without the pressure of crocheting in the motifs.

Here is my first sampler of some stitches. I need to work on these for a few days before I move to the next step of tryting to crochet this background around a motif.

And I will just start with one motif. Maybe make a sweet little bag for my cellphone or something similar so I'm not wasting this beautiful cotton.

More Motifs

2011-12-30T07:07:00.001-05:00

Here is another set of motifs. All of these are original except for d.

d. is using a padding cord to travel through the stem and leaves. This didn't come out very well in my opinion, but it's because I'm not used to working this way. It's certainly no flaw in the pattern....it's a flaw in my experience. :o)

I am really crazy about this butterfly. I haven't written the pattern out but feel that I should so I don't forget how to make it.

Motifs

2011-12-30T06:40:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of some of the motifs that I've been working on. Some came from patterns, and others I fiddled with myself.

a. and b. look very similar, but a. was done with a padding cord and b. was crochetted with just chains.

a. has two layers for petals, b. has the illusion of two layers.

c. was also done with a padding cord as well as g.

Personally, I'm not fond (at this time) of working with the padding cord. I know that it will open all kinds of possibilities for free-form shapes in the future, but for now, I like the ease of using chains, although it does take more planning.

e. is one of my favorites. I came up with this motif on my own. To me it's a rose that looks like a rose.

h. is another group of motifs that are my own.

d. is a combination of a pattern motif with a little tweaking from me.

I've made more motifs and will post pictures of them soon.

If an interest develops I may create instructions in the future.