Curious and Crafty Readers

Judi & Co.’s lustrous Cordé (100% rayon wrapped around a cotton core) gives stunning texture and definition to crochet stitches. It comes in many color-ways, but this one in particular makes me think of raspberry chocolate cream. Apparently the folks at Judi & Co. were thinking along the same lines, because it is called “Cherry Bon Bon.”

I used a little over one hank of Cordé to embellish this handbag. I made flower fabric (read more about how to make it here), using flowers and leaves from Crochet Bouquet:

• Oval Center Rose (page 28)
• Compound Leaf (page 107) with Round Leaflet (specific instructions on page 108)
• Corrugated Leaf with three points on each side (page 109)
• With Simple Fives (page 33) and smaller Corrugated Leaves to fill in the spaces.

Basically, I made a template the same size as the handbag, arranged the motifs to fit the space, sewed them together with sewing thread, and then hand-sewed them onto the handbag. I sewed all around the edges of the flower fabric piece, and then tacked it at strategic points to keep it from sagging.

Judi & Co. carries over 30 different ribbon styles in dozens of color-ways. Most of the ribbons are great for crochet. I also like to crochet their solid and multicolor raffia-like yarn.

Irish crochet lace has been an inspiration to me since the 1980s, and so you might imagine how pleased I was to take an Irish crochet workshop from Máire Treanor at the Knit and Crochet Show earlier this month.

Máire is from Ireland, and she’s the author of Clones Lace: The Story and Patterns of an Irish Crochet.

Máire showed us some stunningly beautiful examples of crocheted lace from Clones. She said that the crocheters of old specialized in certain motifs. Someone else would buy a bunch of motifs and then crochet them together. She also showed crocheted laces from other countries, which were most likely inspired by Irish crochet lace.

See all the Clones knots in my class sample? They’re so cute! My favorite tip we learned was how to make the Clones knot by swiveling our crochet hooks back and forth.

My doily is about 12 inches (30 cm) across. Máire’s little crocheted doilies use even more motifs than mine, but hers measure no more than 5-1/2 inches (12 cm) across. She uses much finer thread.

When I’m finished joining all the motifs, I’ll take out the green tacking thread and remove the paper.

Several people asked me what yarn I was using, because they loved the pale pink and pretty butter cream colors. Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 crochet cotton. Really. The green shamrocks are DMC Cebelia No. 10.

Instructions for the motifs and the Clones knot appear in Máire’s book, which has been reissued recently by Lacis. The cover is slightly different than the one shown above. The catalog number is LH52, price US$28.00.

• Say Máire’s name more-or-less like this: MY-ra TRENN-r
• Clones is pronounced CLOH-ness. It’s the name of a town in Ireland.

School is nearly over for the two daughters in my house, and they’ve already asked if we can spend some time at the beach this summer. This reminded me of palm trees, and that reminded me of the crocheted Palm Leaf on pages 112-113 of Crochet Bouquet.

Please join me in crocheting the Palm Leaf for our June 2010 Crochet Along. To help you figure it out, here is a tutorial.

Row 1 is easy enough, and you can see Row 1 completed in Photo 1.

Originally, I wrote this pattern with three rows, but my technical editor, kjhay, felt it would be easier to understand if we combined my rows 2 and 3 into a single instruction, which is Row 2 in Crochet Bouquet.

Row 2 of the Palm Leaf pattern begins at the center of the leaf, goes out to the tip of a spike, and back to the center.

Photo 2 shows the Palm Leaf after “ch 11…” on the very last line of page 112. The ch 11 is a long, long turning chain.

Now turn and work back along the chain. Photo 3 shows what the piece should look like after the “3 times;” on the second line of page 113.

The next few stitches are actually worked into the first few stitches of Row 2, bringing us back to the center of the leaf (Photo 4).

The instructions tell you to make the stitches into the back loop only. Most of the time, we catch the top two loops of any crochet stitch as we work. The front loop is the one that is closest to you as you work. The back loop is the one that is away from you as you work.

Working into the back loop each row, as we’re doing in the Palm Leaf gives a corrugated look, and it helps us gather the leaf when we’re finished crocheting the points of the palm.

Repeat Row 2 seven more times, and end with a piece that looks like the one in Photo 5.

To gather the leaf, pull up a loop in the base of each spike, except the one you just finished. It doesn’t matter where you put your hook, as long as there’s one loop for each spike. (Photo 6)

Yarn over hook and draw through all the loops on the hook. Pull the loop tight to close the gathered edge as much as possible. (Photo 7). Ch 1 to anchor the gather. Then make the stem.

Now that you can make the Palm Leaf, check out Topsy Turvy #1 (pages 40-41 of Crochet Bouquet). It works exactly the same way.

Recently, “Curious and Crafty Readers” had a link coming from a foreign language site:

farfin linked here saying, “Bu örgü yapraklar çok hoşuma gitti ebruli iple örü …”

I peered closer at the link. It was Turkish, and, and . . . I could read it!

What makes a gal from Texas learn to read Turkish? And what in the world does this have to do with Crochet Bouquet?

Well, I’ll tell you.

We go back twenty five years or so, to the Austin Public Library, where I found this book: Tulips, Arabesques, and Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire (by various authors, Abbeville Press, New York, 1982). This book introduced me to the wonderful ceramics, metal work, textiles, and calligraphy of Turkey.

A motif you’ll see frequently in Turkish tiles and textiles is çintamani, (the ç is pronounced ch) or the three dots. They’re often used together with wavy lines. The three dots probably represented three legendary pearls floating on the waves of the sea. The pearls symbolized good luck and power.

The three dots motif was the inspiration for the Pearl Trillium, on pages 87-88 of Crochet Bouquet. The sea waves became the wavy leaves behind the flower. You probably noticed that the colors I chose for the flower are from the cover of the book.

All those years ago, as I pored over the gorgeous images in Tulips, Arabesques, and Turbans, I vowed I would go to Turkey someday and see those wonders for myself. That’s why I’m learning Turkish.

Many thanks to farfin for linking to Curious and Crafty Readers. To return the favor, here’s her site, 10marifet.org, which has lots of cute craft ideas and great examples of needlework. You don’t have to read Turkish to enjoy. Çok güzel! Teşekkür ederim, farfin!

Here’s a bouquet of one of our lovely Texas wildflowers, the Firewheel, for all Mothers! Especially mine!

The Firewheel is also known as Indian Blanket and Gaillardia. We love Firewheels at our house.

I considered naming one of our children after this flower. But that wasn’t to be, so we named our dog Firewheel. It suits him!

Find instructions for a crocheted Firewheel on pages 83-84 of Crochet Bouquet. Here is a correction for that pattern:

Fire Wheel, page 84, add a “(” (shown in bold below) before the word “insert”

Rnd 2: *Ch 7, (sl st-picot) 4 times; yarn over (2 loops on hook), skip next picot, (insert…

Bu örgü Teksas’ta çiçek var, adı “Fırewheel.” Türkçe’de “ateş tekerleki.”

Eine gehäkelte texanische Blume, “Firewheel” genannt; auf Deutsch, “Feuer Rad.” (Ist das richtig, meine liebe Mutti?)

You still have time to give your mother a hand-made card for Mother’s Day!

Page 129 of Crochet Bouquet gives general directions for making greeting cards with crocheted flowers.

Mostly you need to choose a flat flower or leaf, and use a fine thread to make it. Find blank cards and matching envelopes at craft stores.

For the card shown here, I used

• Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 crochet cotton in violet, golden yellow, shaded violets, wasabi green
• size 4 (US) steel crochet hook
• blank card and envelope (I bought extra in case of mistakes)
• rubber stamp with “Thank You” or other message that you like
• stamp pad with gold ink
  1. Practice stamping on some scratch paper until you get the feel of the stamp and ink. When you’re confident, stamp the blank card.
  2. Crochet the Plain Pansy (pp. 63-64 of Crochet Bouquet) and the Spiky Leaf (pp. 121-122). Make a chain the desired length for a stem, turn, skip one ch st, slip stitch in each stitch of the chain.
  3. Weave in the thread ends and press flower and leaf if necessary.
  4. Arrange flower, stem, and leaf on card. When you are pleased with the arrangement, glue them to the card, following the directions on page 129.

I’ll be teaching at the Crochet Guild of America’s Professional Development Day, Wednesday, July 7, 2010 • 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM It is part of the Knit and Crochet Show held every year in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Professional Development Day includes panels of experts who talk about how to make money with crochet, lectures by successful crochet designers, and lots of information on how to profit by your passion for crochet.

I’m part of the afternoon program, where participants have a choice of three different, hour-long, round-table sessions.

My session is entitled “A Book’s Journey – from Idea to Book Signings.” Here’s the description:

You have a great crochet book idea, but where do you start—and end? How do you identify potential publishers? How do you pitch your idea? What basic points should you look for in a contract? How do royalties work? How can you organize your time to meet deadlines? What happens after you submit the final manuscript and projects? What should you do while you wait for your book to appear on the market? Once your book is out, how can you increase your book sales? Learn the answers to these questions and more in this whirlwind lecture.

When Crochet Bouquet was finally finished, I gathered most of my notes, sketches, inspirational materials, and some correspondence between me and my editor, and put them into a big ring binder. I bring it along to talks like the one I’m giving at Professional Development Day.

Here are some sneak peeks into the notebook: some leaves from the original proposal; a draft of the Thistle pattern; a couple of party invitations that inspired me.

It’s a wonder how much writing, how many corrections, how many random bits of inspiration, and how much communication goes into a slim volume like Crochet Bouquet.

For more information about the CGOA Professional Development Day and registration information, please visit the Knit and Crochet Show site. Hope to see you there!

Amazon.com reviewer Curmudgea wrote a complimentary, heart-warming (my heart, for sure!) review of Crochet Bouquet. She brought up a subject that will have many of you nodding in agreement:

If I had one quibble, it would be that I wish the book were spiral bound so that it would lie flat on my lap when I’m working.

It makes good sense for craft books to be spiral bound. I imagine that the cost of spiral binding keeps many publishers from choosing that option. Also, when a book is on a shelf in a bookstore, the publisher really wants you to be able to read the spine—impossible with a spiral.

But never fear! Your local printing and binding shop comes to the rescue!

I took a copy of Crochet Bouquet to Staples Office Supply in Stephenville, Texas. Jessica, a helpful and friendly associate in the printing department, carefully shaved off the spine of the book. She adjusted the hole-puncher so the holes would be centered down the page.

We decided on a navy blue spiral, because the black spiral contrasted too harshly. Jessica inserted the spiral, trimmed and crimped it, and voila! Crochet Bouquet was spiral bound!

After cutting the binding away, the cover was still stuck to the first page. We left it that way. A 12mm spiral works best for Crochet Bouquet. If you like to write notes in your books, consider inserting blank sheets of paper before binding. You’ll have to trim them to size, and you may need a larger spiral.

The cost was $3.49 plus tax. If only all our problems could be solved so inexpensively!

About a month ago, Amanda Carestio of Lark Books wrote to me with exciting news. Crochet Bouquet is now available as a digital book!

“We know that the knitting and crochet community has a large presence online,” Amanda said, later adding, “…we’re doing our best to anticipate the market and to provide what crafters want in the format they want it.”

You can buy an e-copy of Crochet Bouquet at Zinio.com. Here’s the link.

When you buy a book from Zinio, you download the Zinio reader program, which is like a pdf, only more secure. The e-book pages look just like the paper book pages, with photos and illustrations.

At the moment, Amanda told me, digital readers like Kindle or the Nook do not support photography or illustrations. So for now, you’ll need to crochet at your computer. It’s a great solution for readers who like their craft books to lie flat. The computer screen is the next best thing to spiral binding!

And it looks like Crochet Bouquet is in good company. The March 17, 2010 issue of The New York Times said that best-selling author John Grisham has finally allowed his books to be issued as e-books. Before now, he was concerned about “piracy, pricing and the effect of digital editions on physical bookstores.” (”Arts, Briefly,” compiled by Dave Itzkoff, piece contributed by Motoko Rich)

I can’t comment intelligently about piracy, but the suggested retail price of the e-version Crochet Bouquet is the same as the paper version. Also, I think physical bookstores will be around for a long time yet. They’ve survived the onslaught of audio books and online discount bookstores, so they’ll most likely adapt and survive the e-book trend, too.

To my mind, the more ways a book can be available to readers, the better!

Please join us in making a Fern leaf for February’s Crochet-Along!

Readers have adopted the Fern leaf (on pages 110-111) as one of their favorite patterns in Crochet Bouquet. (The other favorite is the Plain Pansy.)

The Fern is one of my favorites, too. Once you figure out how it works, the Fern is fairly easy to make. You can add leaflets or picots to alter its size and shape, as I did for this Christmas Tree Mat.

The Fern is a bunch of crocheted bumps or picots, separated by chain stitches or slip stitches. You begin at the base of the leaf, then

Following the pattern, work a series of chains and picots. When you have three picots right next to each other, you’ll know you are at the tip of the first leaflet (see inside the black box in Photo 1).

Work back along the chain you just made, slip stitching in each chain st, and making a picot across from each previous picot. Don’t sl st all the way to the end, because that’s part of the main stem. (Photo 2)

Continue making leaflets in this way. The fourth leaflet is one picot pair shorter than the first three. Now you have essentially worked “up” one side of the fern, as in Photo 3..

The top of the fern is three very short leaflets all clustered together as you see inside the pink box in Photo 4.

For the second half of the fern, you crochet the leaflets as you did before, but instead of chaining between the leaflets, you slip stitch down the center stem. (Photo 5)

When you’re done, you will have worked down the other side, and ended back at the base of the leaf.

There are many ways to make a picot (proinounce it PEEKoh). For our Fern, make a picot like this: ch 3, sl st into the third chain from the hook. When the pattern says “ch 3, sl st picot” that means you “chain 3, chain 3, slip stitch into third chain from hook.”

The pattern has lots of information to help you figure out where you are on the leaf. However, if you find this information distracting, copy out the instructions on a piece of paper, leaving out the extra words. See this post for a more details on copying out patterns.