Curious and Crafty Readers

As a child, I thought autumn was a pleasant myth. Leaves changing color? We didn’t see so much of that in Central Texas. The trees would be green, then one night the temperatures would dip below freezing, and the next day their leaves would be brown and crinkly.

To make matters even more confusing, the live oaks stayed green all winter and dropped their leaves in the spring!

Crochet Bouquet offers sixteen different leaf patterns for you to choose from. So whether the leaves in your neighborhood turn brilliant or brown, whether they fall or hang on, let’s celebrate autumn by crocheting leaves!

At the end of April 2007, I turned in the last of the flowers and projects for Crochet Bouquet, and I was one happy gal!

Linda Kopp, my editor and Stacey Budge, the art director at Lark Books spread out all the flowers and leaves, and believe me, there were many more than you see in the book. They arranged the flowers into chapters, and also worked out a flow of color through the book.

The upshot was that I had to re-crochet some of the flowers in different colors, which I was glad to do. The folks at Lark know what they’re doing when it comes to creating beautiful books.

Mumsy was one flower I redid. Linda said, “We want a yellow one and a white one, about 2-1/2 times as big as the earlier ones you sent.”

I went back to my notes. The earlier Mums were about 4 inches (10 cm) across. I phoned Linda and said, “Two and a half times larger means that these new mums are going to be 10 inches across.”

“Yes,” she said.

“Okay, just checking!” I said, and got to work.

What do you do with a Mumsy that is ten inches in diameter? Use them as throw pillows? Maybe. My kids had a better solution. Hats!

Many thanks to my cousin Phyllis for showing me how to make a homecoming mum. (Visit her Southern Living At Home web site here!) She was appalled at how much homecoming mums cost, so she and her daughters and their dates would get together before the homecoming football game and make their own.

Their black and gold mums are way over the top, with braided streamers, fancy folded points around the rosettes, and strands of charms. When homecoming was over, the girls hung them on the walls of their rooms.

Here’s a fairly simple version. The streamers are about 30 inches long (about 75 cm). Feel free to tone it down or fancy it up! Either way, start early enough that the glitter and glue will have time to dry before the game—give yourself at least three days.

You Will Need

• Crocheted Mum, using the “Mumsy” pattern from Crochet Bouquet. Use lightweight yarn. I used a sport weight wool to crochet five tiers of petals.

For the rosette:

• 2 yards each of a 1-1/4″ wide ribbon and a 1/2″ ribbon

For the streamers:

• 1 to 3 yards of ribbon in several different widths, in school colors
• 2 yards of ribbon around 3/8″ wide, in an accent color like black, white, gold, or silver

Some optional decorations:

• 1 to 2 yards of ribbon with footballs printed on it
• 1 to 2 yards of lightweight metallic chain or other novelty trim
• Tiny cowbells or jingle bells

Other supplies:

• Heavy card, like the card at the back of writing tablets
• Fabric glue or hot glue
• Scissors for cutting the card
• Sharp fabric scissors for cutting the ribbon
• No-fray adhesive
• Stapler
• Clothes pins
• Glitter and glue or glitter-glue
• Large safety pin
• A few inches of duct tape

1. Cut ribbon streamers to the desired length. Cut a V-shaped notch at the bottom edge of the wide ribbons. Cut narrow ribbons at an angle. Carefully dab no-fray adhesive along the bottom cut edge of each ribbon.
2. Use glitter glue or glue and glitter to write name, date, school name, or other words on the wide ribbons if desired. Set all these ribbons aside to dry.



3. While they are drying, cut two heavy card circles that are as large as possible, without showing behind the mum. I traced about 1 inch in from the edge of the mum, then took a round plastic lid about the right size and drew around that. Using those two lines as guides, I cut out my circles.
4. Cut 8 to 12 six-inch lengths of the wide and narrow ribbons you bought for the rosette. Center the narrow ribbon on top of the wide ribbon, bring the cut ends together to make a loop, and staple the ends together.



5. Arrange the stapled loops around the edge of one of the card circles, to see how many you will need to go around (I used nine). The stapled ends should overlap the edge of the card by at least one inch. Place the mum on top of the arrangement to see if the spacing is correct. Adjust if necessary and trace just inside the stapled ends so you will know where to put them when you glue them on.
6. Take the loops off the card. Spread glue on the card as shown in the picture, and begin placing loops in the glue. Add glue where the ends overlap. (You can use hot glue for this if you want. Be careful!) Set this aside to dry.



If you haven’t already crocheted the mum, this would be a good time to do it.

7. When the streamers are dry, arrange them on the other card circle, so you can see how they need to be spaced. The way they show when you arrange them on a flat surface is very much how they will show when they are worn. If one ribbon is completely hidden by another, it will mostly stay that way. You’ll need to stagger them, and you may want to balance narrow with wide, balance one color with another. Keep your glittery ribbons near the top of the stack.
8. Once you have the streamers the way you like them, you may want to take a digital photo and print it, so you can refer to it as you work. Otherwise, grab the tops of the ribbons between your palms and flip them over so the ones at the back will now be on top.

   Now start gluing the streamer tops, face-up, onto the cardboard. Begin with the streamers which are now on top of your stack. Glue the tops about halfway up the card circle. Cluster them toward the middle of the circle, and let them fan out slightly, so that they’re 6 to 8 inches wide at the bottom. Add glue as necessary.

9. Clamp the glued streamer tops against the card with a couple of clothes pins. Let dry.



10. When the rosette is dry, use a strip of duct tape to fasten a large safety pin near the edge of the back of the rosette as shown in the photo (the loops are glued onto the front).
11. When the streamers are dry, place the card circle on the back of the rosette’s card circle, so that the pin is perpendicular to the streamers (the pin should be parallel to the ground, the streamers should hang away from the pin). On the streamer circle, mark the position of the pin’s loop and fastener.



12. Put the rosette down. With scissors, gouge a hole where the pin’s loop was marked. Gouge and cut a larger hole for the pin’s fastener. Put circles back together, threading open pin end through the smaller hole, and the fastener through the larger hole. Do they fit well? If not, enlarge holes.
13. Once the pin fits well into the holes, glue the back of the rosette circle to the front of the streamer circle. No streamer tops should show at the back. They will be sandwiched between the card circles. The pin should look as it does in the picture, except we hope you will be neater than I was.
14. Clamp with clothespins at the edges. Put glue on the front of the rosette, and on the bottom of the crocheted mum. Press the mum in the center of the rosette.
15. Weight the mum with heavy books, or other clean, heavy objects. Let the piece dry overnight. Remove weights and fluff mum’s petals. Tie bells or sew charms onto streamers if desired. Wear to school and to the homecoming game.

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 (pages 109-110). 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 kindly showed me how to make homecoming mums, and I’m planning to use Mumsy to make one for my daughter—tonight! 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:

1. First tier (a double round of petals)
2. First tier padding
3. Second tier petals
4. Second tier padding
5. Third tier petals
6. Third tier padding
7. 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. Read general information about the Crochet Bouquet Alongs here.

Have fun crocheting, and let us hear your mum stories!

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.

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

1. Crochet one full Plain Pansy (pages 63-64 of Crochet Bouquet).

2. Crochet the next Pansy through the third lobe of Round 2.

3. 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.)
4. Crochet Row 3 as printed in the book.
5. 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.
6. 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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Sew the button to the center of the Small Primrose.
4. 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.
5. Glue flower and leaves to backpack. Let dry.
6. 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:

   http://www.theknittingnestaustin.com/

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!

You can join the Crochet Bouquet Alongs anytime. We’re crocheting a flower a month, more or less. Follow this link to find out how to join. We now have a Crochet Bouquet Along Yahoo group in addition to our Ravelry group, where you can post photos and join in the discussion.

A crocheter in the Crochet Bouquet Alongs group on Ravelry 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) 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.

Yarntopia, Katy, Texas, will host a book signing for Crochet Bouquet on Thursday, August 21, 2008, from 5-7 p.m. I’ll be there with lots of samples and projects from the book, and I’ll be happy to autograph your copy!

Yarntopia was busy this morning, when I went for a visit. Two classes were in progress, and a couple of friends were on the comfortable sofa, discussing yarns and projects.

I couldn’t resist a skein of Noro sock yarn in shades of green, with touches of turquoise and black. It will crochet up into gorgeous leaves. My friend Woolwinder told me that Yarntopia is unusual because the shop encourages crocheters.

The shop is at 2944 South Mason Road, which is at the intersection of Cinco Ranch Road and Mason Road.

For more information, phone Yarntopia at (281) 392-2386.

On Saturday, September 6th, I’ll be in my hometown of Austin, Texas, to visit and sign books at the Knitters and Crocheters Guild meeting, 2-4 p.m, at the Howson Branch Library, 2500 Exposition Blvd. I am so proud of this group, still going strong after 25 years, and I’m especially proud, because I started it back in 1983.

Fall is an especially beautiful time to visit Taos, New Mexico. The mountainous backdrop, the golden trees, and the pretty buildings look especially clear and warm in the autumn sunlight. If that isn’t enough, the Taos Wool Festival comes to town around the first weekend of October.

I’ll be teaching a Crochet Bouquet workshop on Monday, October 6, where we’ll make several flowers from my book. Participants will learn applied crochet embellishment, ribbon flower technique, how to use padding threads, and how to join a line of petals into a perfect round. We’ll design one or more flowers in crochet, using critical observation, shaping techniques, and crocheted details that add to the realistic look. I will present many ideas and examples for using crocheted flowers.

On Sunday, October 5, you can learn to crochet my beautiful oak and maple leaves. They are stunning, and will amaze your friends and relations.

Go to http://www.taoswoolfestival.org/Workshops.html for more information (including how to register) on the many workshops offered as part of the Festival, October 1-11.

The Wool Festival itself is October 4-5, with fiber and textile vendors, fiber animals, contests, and good food. It’s a treat for the senses.

I hope to see you there!

* * *

In other news, my friend Cari Clement, Director of Fashion and Design for Caron and NaturallyCaron.com yarns, is also running a flower crochet along. The project is a stunning sunflower, designed by her assistant, Liz Walsh. Check it out at Cari’s Naturally Caron blog. http://blog.naturallycaron.com/2008/07/02/stitch-a-summer-sunflower-with-lizzie/, and subsequent posts.