Curious and Crafty Readers

Please join me for the first Crochet Bouquet Crochet Along! This month, we’ll crochet Columbines, and I will post some step-by-step finishing hints for this beautiful flower.

I’m trying to choose flowers for these Crochet Alongs, which have special significance for the month or season of the year.

So how does crocheting Columbines in July make any sense? The Columbine is the state flower of Colorado, which joined the United States on August 1, 1876. I figured if some of us want to celebrate Colorado’s statehood anniversary, we’d better make our Columbines in July.

To participate, go to the Crochet Bouquet Alongs site and read the guidelines. You will need to send me an email (all information at the link above). I will set you up as a contributor, so you can post there.

If you’re on Ravelry, you join the Crochet Bouquet Alongs group there. Or post in both places!

Naturally, I would love for you to use the flower patterns from Crochet Bouquet, but if you prefer a different pattern or if you’ve designed your own, you are absolutely welcome to join in.

You’re welcome to use Columbine Crochet Along badge on your blog or web site. Please save to your own server or photo host, and link the button to http://crochetbouquetalongs.blogspot.com.

See you there!

Crochet Bouquet is finally available in the UK and Canada! I’m especially happy about this, because my book-writing career began in the UK, with The Polymer Clay Sourcebook (Hamlyn, 1998). It was published afterwards in the US and in France under different titles.

We lived in Sheffield, England for a number of years, while my husband taught at the University of Sheffield. I enjoyed meeting with other fiber enthusiasts at the Hallamshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers, once a month. My older daughter started school in Sheffield, and my younger daughter was born there.

In appreciation of my family’s Yorkshire connection, I altered the “Sweetheart Rose” (pages 93-94 of Crochet Bouquet) to make a white Yorkshire Rose. The instructions are below.

You can read about the Yorkshire Rose, the Red Rose of Lancaster, and the Tudor Rose here.

Yorkshire Rose

Note: these instructions, as well as the instructions in Crochet Bouquet, are written using U.S. crochet terminology.

You will need:

Instructions for the Sweetheart Rose, page 94, from Crochet Bouquet

Yarn in white, golden yellow, and green

Crochet hook to give a firm tension with the yarn you chose

1. In golden yellow, crochet the center of the rose, Round 1, page 94. Instead of joining with a slip stitch, needle-join to the first st of the round. (instructions for needle-joining are on page 14. Needle-joining completes the round smoothly, so you can’t tell at first glance where the round ends.)
2. Skip Round 2.
3. With white, work Rounds 3 and 4 of the Sweetheart Rose. Needle-join to first st of rnd.
4. Fold the petals toward you so they will be out of the way as you crochet the next two rounds.
5. Rnd 5: there are three stitches between the sc’s of Round 3. The sc’s of this round are worked in the second (or middle) stitch of the three. Begin with 1 sc in the second unworked st between the sc’s of Round 3 as described. Ch 8. * Sc in the next middle unworked stitch, ch 8 * Repeat between *s 3 more times. Sl st into first sc of round. (total of five loops).
6. Rnd 6: work same as Rnd 6 of Sweetheart Rose. Needle join. Weave in ends.

Sepals

1. With green, ch 7.
2. Rnd 1: ch 2 (counts as first hdc), work 14 hdc in ring. Join with a sl st to top of ch 2 at beg of round.
3. Rnd 2: ch 1, * ch 11, sl st in third ch from hook; working back along the chain, 2 sc, 3 hdc, 2 dc, skip last ch, ch 1, sk 2 hdc of Rnd 1, sc in next hdc * Repeat between *s four more times. Join with a sl st in first ch of round. Weave in ends.
4. Sew the sepals to the back of the rose, making sure their points peep out between the large petals of the rose.

To make a Tudor Rose, work Rounds 5 and 6 of the Yorkshire Rose in red yarn.

A week ago today, I saw Showers of Flowers for the first time. Everything I heard about it is true! Amazing! Enormous! The owner Sharon Sturm is a wonderful hostess and a veteran flower-crocheter. Jinger, the store manager, worked hard to promote my Crochet Bouquet book-signing, even creating the fabulous banner below in addition to all her other duties.

We had a small but enthusiastic crowd for the book-signing party. I talked for a while about the making of Crochet Bouquet.

Since the columbine is Colorado’s state flower, I demonstrated how to finish the crocheted Columbine on page 49 of Crochet Bouquet. You’ll probably recognize the colors from last post.

Then I showed how to gather a Shelly Rose (page 68). It’s one of my favorites, because it is so simple to crochet, yet it is such a stunning flower when finished.

Sharon put out a spread of delicious snacks. Really, it was enough for everyone to have an evening meal! Her husband, Bob, worked alongside her.

Showers of Flowers started a number of years ago, when Sharon badly broke her leg. During her long recuperation, she started crocheting flowers to put in flower arrangements. Everything grew from there. It’s a lovely story of turning a set-back into something great.

Sharon’s arrangements are displayed throughout the store, and if you only glance at them, you would think the flowers are real. Kits are available, which include the silk greenery, yarn, and pattern. Here’s a photo of her geraniums, in the evening sunlight. Aren’t they pretty?!

Even as a kid, I noticed and admired color. I must have been seven or eight years old, when I decided to study it. Ever since, that’s what I’ve done.

Color inspiration happens all the time, if you just watch for it. I was weaving yarn ends in a few days ago, piling the trimmings together. I glanced at the pile, and wow! The combination of peach and dusty coral and burgundy took my breath away.

I had to crochet some flowers in those colors right away. First, I looked carefully at the scrap pile, to see the proportions of the colors. There was a lot of peach and coral, some variegated yarn, and just a tiny bit of burgundy. Proportions are important.

Large Ray Flowers (page 31) and a Filet Center-or-Not (starts on page 21 of Crochet Bouquet) were perfect for a multi-color experiment. You can change colors however you want, either following the pattern, or following your own instinct.

And when your color instinct talks, listen to it! You’ll find color inspiration in all kinds of places.

Speaking of inspiration, how about this flowery tractor? We saw it in Knox City, Texas.

I can hardly wait to visit Showers of Flowers, a fabulous yarn store in Lakewood, Colorado, near Denver. I’ll be signing books there on Tuesday, June 10, from about 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

How perfect is that?! Signing a book about crocheted flowers at a shop called Showers of Flowers!

People keep telling me how great Showers of Flowers is. It’s amazingly big. It’s comfy. Sharon, the owner, says she never does anything halfway. It’s going to be fun!

I’m going to bring lots of flowers and projects from the Crochet Bouquet, and some that didn’t make it into the book. You’ll see the wonderful flower cape, modeled here by my daughter, Eva.

And I’ll be announcing our first Crochet Along.

Hope to see you there!

For more information, call the store at 1-800-825-2569.

“Mom, can I use these flowers?” my 12-year-old daughter asked, showing me a plastic bag of bright Off-Center Ovals and single Plump Leaves.

I said, “Okay.” I didn’t hear a peep out of her for a long time. She emerged from her room with a poster. It was a collage of things she likes, a couple of badges from school, a ribbon she won—and some crocheted flowers.

It was so pretty, and such a good idea for using crocheted flowers, I had to share it with you. I think small, flat flowers would be great decorations for scrapbook pages, too.

Then my 12-year-old did something else that made me very happy. She helped her little sister make a collage, too! They used Firewheels, which you may recognize from Crochet Bouquet, and I love how they glued Baby Stars and Tiny Petals (both are “Millefiori” patterns) onto a Fern Leaf. It looks very exotic.

The best way to glue a flower or leaf is to paint a thin layer of glue onto the back with a stiff brush. Be sure to brush the glue all the way to the edges. Then press gently in place on your project. When you brush the glue on, you’re a lot less likely to have globs of glue squeezing out between the stitches.

Yellow is such a happy color! It really brightens up this pair of cropped jeans.

I’m thrilled with the brilliant yellow yarns we can buy these days, particularly because one of my daughters looks great in yellow. Strong yellows go in and out of fashion. When they’re out, it’s very difficult to find bright yellow yarn. Stock up on it while you can!

The flowers on these Capri jeans are crocheted with Cascade Yarns’ Pearls (the one with a little shine in it) and Pima Tencel. I used Pearls to crochet the leaves and stems, too. You can use stash yarns, too. Be sure to pick yarn that you can run through the washing machine, since that’s how you will wash the jeans.

Remember, you don’t have to use yellow. Use different colors, more colors—whatever you want.

Summery Capri Jeans

You Will Need:

• Instructions for “Baby Stars” (one of the “Millefiori” patterns) and “Veined Leaves” from Crochet Bouquet
• 3 colors of light weight (3) yarn:

• Two similar flower colors, maybe in different textures

• One leaf color

• 5 mm crochet hook (US size H/8)
• Purchased cropped jeans
• Seed beads for flower centers
• Sewing needle and thread, pins

Instructions

1. Crochet forty or so Baby Stars (page 26), about half in one flower color and half in the other.
2. Crochet two Plain Vein Leaves (page 123).
3. Arrange flowers using the photo as a guide. Pin them in place.
4. Estimate the length of the stems, and crochet one for each flower grouping.
5. Arrange the stems and leaves and pin in place.
6. Sew all crocheted pieces onto jeans with sewing thread, adding two seed beads at the center of each flower.

My sweet daughters picked me a bouquet of Texas wildflowers for Mother’s Day. My usual reaction to our wildflowers is “Pink Evening Primroses are my favorite! …except for Gaillardia…and Wine Cups are my favorite, too…and I really like Horsemint…and I love the Indian Paintbrush!” Really, they’re all my favorites.

Gaillardia is also known as Indian Blanket and Fire Wheel, and it’s the inspiration for the “Fire Wheel” in Crochet Bouquet (page 83).

The Fire Wheels in the book are acidly bright. The real flower has two-tone petals of orangey-red with yellow on the outside edges.

Here’s my crocheted Fire Wheel among the real thing, growing in our yard. The Delicate Pom-Pom Center (page 36), that I made for the center was too big. So I re-made it with only 4 chains per loop (instead of 6), and half the number of loops on the last round. That was better!

I used orange yarn to sew the layers together. It softens the darkness of the red somewhat. That’s pretty much what designing is all about: messing with stitch counts and colors until you get the effect you want.

Here’s more yarn information, as promised, for the flowers in the “Crocheted Flower Basics” chapter:

• Page 16: The yellow felted flowers are Cascade 220, and the multicolor felted flowers are Jojoland Quartette, a light-weight cashmere and merino blend. The photo above shows the same flower in Caron International’s Felt-It. The far left flower is freshly crocheted. The middle has been washed once in hot water, and the rightmost flower was washed twice with the hot-water laundry.

Thank you to Susie for asking the first question on “Curious and Crafty Readers.” She wanted to make the red flower that takes the place of the ‘O’ in ‘Crochet’ on the book cover (it also appears on page 11).

I used red Cascade’s Lana Grande, a very bulky yarn, for the flower. The pattern is the Five-Petal Traditional Rose (page 97), worked through Round 5.

The sepals are made with Lion Brand Incredible. The sepal pattern is part of the Fire Wheel (page 84). The yellow Simple Center (page 34) is Lion Brand Fun Fur.

Let me tell you about the other yarns that appear in “Crocheted Flower Basics.”

• Page 8, top flower. Merino Tape from Colinette. Here are a couple of Primrose Layers flowers done in Merino Tape. It’s such fun yarn! The flowers are pretty big, though.
• Page 8, second from the top, is Lion Brand’s Incredible ribbon. The third flower is a very old yarn from my stash, and the orange flower is a synthetic raffia.
• Page 9, orange flower is Caron International’s Simply Soft Boucle, and the other is Caron’s Pizazz. Both are very bulky.
• Page 10, the turquoise flower at the top is Merino Style from Knit Picks.
• Pages 11 and 12. The flowers that illustrate different kinds of stamens are Magallones from Araucania Yarns.

More next time!

I met a lady on Ravelry who has already crocheted several flowers from Crochet Bouquet, including the “Sunflower on a Grid.” (Her Ravelry tag is iCrochetiCreate.)

I worked out the pattern for that flower on the long drive from our house to Alpine, Texas. My husband went to a conference there, and I got to tag along. * I crocheted and ripped and crocheted some more and took notes. * Rep bet *s several times.

Finally the proportions were just right, and I crocheted it all in black Euroflax Sport. Why black? Because the inspiration for this flower was all black.

The Grammar of Ornament, by Owen Jones (Dover Publications), is one of my favorite design books. Right there on the bottom right corner of “Plate 1: Ornament from Oceania,” is this design, which looks like it might have been from a piece of bark cloth. I have admired those flowers and the colors for years. “Sunflower on a Grid” is my interpretation of that design.

The black flower didn’t make it into the book, because black is very difficult to photograph. Sometime in the summer, I’ll post a project that uses the black “Sunflower on a Grid” and takes advantage of the grid for a special effect.

Workshop and Book Signings—Hope to See You There!

I’m teaching a crochet flower class at the Estes Park Wool Market, June 13, 2008, in Colorado. We’ll practice several unusual crochet techniques from Crochet Bouquet, including how to use padding threads. By the time we’re done, you’ll have a bunch of pretty crocheted flowers. Check the sidebar for more information.

Crochet Bouquet book signings:

1. Dublin Public Library, May 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Dublin, Texas.
2. Hastings Books, May 24, 1 to 4 p.m., Stephenville, Texas.
3. Showers of Flowers yarn shop, June 10, Denver, Colorado.