Organised

I've been stitching up a veritable tornado in the past few weeks. It's been a lot of fun. Today I set myself the task of organising and pricing the things I have to sell at the market. If I waited until I'd put the last stitch into the last thing I could possibly make in a final burst of inspiration I'd end up with very little actually ready to sell or a sleepless night. Neither of those are good for me. So today--not tomorrow--is my day to get organised.

I've spread out all my crochet flower brooches; categorised them and checked prices. I only had to make a few changes. Now they're in bags ready to go. Ditto the knitted ones. There weren't many of those. Next are the--more recent--fabric flowers and felt and fibre necklaces. I'll need to buy or make some more tags before the end of today. Tomorrow morning I'll do a dress rehearsal of the stall set up. After that I can have as many last minute bursts of inspiration as I like--or not--the basic work will be done. 

Flower Variety

I'm filling in some of the gaps in my range of flower brooches. Of course there are plenty of pinks and purples in the collection already. On my table today:

The white one is made from Bendigo 2 ply yarn--it was an experiment. The blue-green is one of my procion hand-dyes--a corn silk fibre. The brown is a hand-dyed wool, left over from my latest armchair project. 

Warming Up

The forecast today is for 17 and sunny. Already the sky is blue, even though the temperature is only about 9 degrees. I can't express how much of an inner glow the forecast of *sunny* sparks in me. I'm planning to tackle some of the perpetual weeding challenge today. Meanwhile, I've already finished these--on the strength of a forecast. I think my mind must be solar powered!

My usual crochet rose-brooch pattern, this time in a hand-dyed bamboo fibre. I wasn't sure how the bamboo would hold it's shape, given its great capacity for drape, but it's made a firm glossy fabric that I'm quite happy with. 

Random Rose

What to do when presented with an unexpected, unknown quantity of pink fibre that's had a bad start in life?

A pink rose, of course! Mothers' Day is coming up and later there will be Pink Ribbon Day. Meanwhile the worst bits have been set aside to liven up some felting.

Rose Reprise

It's been a while since I did much with the crochet roses. There's still a boxful waiting to have pins stitched to them in the studio. When I had just a bit of this brown handspun wool-silk blend leftover I thought I'd have another go.

I didn't have enough yarn to make my usual twenty petals, so I folded and twisted the leftover strip of double crochet to make a centre for the flower. Then I wrapped and  stitched the remaining petals the way I normally do. I like it enough to add to the pile of flowers awaiting brooch-backs.

Slow Day

Yesterday ended up being a bit of a slow day. I had a go at a crochet flower in the latest variegated yarn. 

I'm still trying to work out how much crochet I can do without over-stressing my joints. I think I got away with this one and I'm happy with the way it's turned out.

To Do

I have a guest coming to stay later this week. The spare bed is covered in knitting stuff. And there are various other bits and pieces stored in the spare room that need to find a better home. Clearing that up is a priority for today. The forecast is for a typical hot and windy Melbourne summer day. It's still officially spring here, and later in the week it will be cool and wet. But I shouldn't really wait till later in the week to get things sorted. On the other hand there are lots of crochet flowers to be finished off.

There's a bag full of brooch backs and an airconditioner in the studio. So if it gets too hot I can retreat there and still do something useful. I'll see how I go.

Development

When I first tried the rose-in-a-square pattern from the Harmony Guide to Crochet Stitches, I had two criticisms: it was a bit too square and a bit too flat. Considering that it was designed as a motif to be made into a blanket, maybe criticism isn't the right word. Anyway, I wanted to use it as a flower brooch, so square and flat weren't such desirable features.

Changing the sequence of stitches for the edges of the petal helped solve the square issue. Now I think I've found a solution for flatness. 

I added a couple of extra stitches to each petal. That makes the whole flower a bit tighter and pushes the petals together just a bit. I think it's better. 

By Design

Of course I had crochet flowers in mind when I dip dyed a variegated wool in landscape grevillea. I have a couple of variegated rose bushes in my front garden and they always make me smile.

I also had a go with the rose in a square pattern, but found that the bulky yarn there wasn't such a hit. 

Bigger, Better?

My step by step exploration of flower possibilities continues. I wanted to try yesterday's rose pattern with a different yarn. That's it in the pic on the left. What about adding another row of petals?  Yes, that works. And finally I changed the stitch pattern to make the petals more rounded. There they are on the right hand side.

The next step would have been to try the extra row of petals with the rounded shape, but that was the end of the yellow variegated wool yarn. I had a blue version of this yarn, but I knitted it up into the "easy and blue" scarf last month. The trimmings I made are cute enough, but the triangle scarf is less than ideal. Maybe it's time to pull it out and turn it into flowers. And I think there's a red yarn in this family too. I'll have a hunt through my box today.

The weather in Melbourne is typical for spring--we had a warm sunny 27 degrees yesterday when I had a couple of social commitments and no time for my garden, while this morning I'm at home with a forecast maximum of 17 and grey drizzle. I think I'll keep my flower-making efforts indoors again.

Is a Rose?

After making dozens of my crochet flowers in the last few weeks, I've been looking for a bit of a change. And my most recent hand-dyed cotton yarn is a bit softer than the others I've been using. Whether it's the colour or the texture of the yarn I don't know, but I didn't like the effect as much. So I pulled out my "Harmony Guide to Crochet Stitches". There's a whole chapter of motifs. Amongst them I found a "rose square motif". I pulled out the rose and ommited the square. It looks like this:

I was happy enough with that to make another one. Now of course I want to know how this pattern would look in some of my other yarns--and what if I add another row of petals?--and so the story continues.

Growing

I started making crochet flowers from my rainbow-dyed skein yesterday morning. It's a bit addictive so I made several. My friend L liked them, but suggested they needed to be bigger. I have  been making bigger versions of the various crochet flowers by using a thicker yarn and a matching (bigger) crochet hook, but this particular yarn is a one-off. Admittedly all my hand-dyed yarns are one-offs, but this one particularly so. I painted the colours onto the skein with thickened dyes to make a complete colour wheel for every two metres of yarn--I used my biggest niddy-noddy to make the skein. Doubling the yarn once it's been dyed isn't really an option because I need to keep the clarity of the colour changes. So I had to try something different.

To make bigger flowers with the same yarn I needed to increase the size of each petal--taller stitches and more stitches. I didn't know how far I could push it before the resulting fabric would no longer hold its shape, so I went step by step. I ran out of yarn before I found the limits of my system. It was an interesting experiment and the flowers are bright and fun. I need to do some clearing up around the house before I dare pull out my procion dyes to attempt some more rainbow skeins, but never fear: there are plenty of other yarns for me to play with in the meantime. 

Confession

After browsing India Flint's book for a short while yesterday  I reverted to my usual bright colour choices. The yarn is a cotton which I painted using thickened procion dyes. I made a complete colour wheel out of the skein.

And yes, that's another crochet flower in the making--I seem to have developed a habit!

Blooms

After my unsuccessful attempt at making a market bag, I shifted my focus back to the crochet flowers. I made a few more in the rose shape, but also varied the options with this.

I also got back to some spinning--pictures to come.

A walk to the Neighbourhood House to photocopy teaching notes and my evening quilting class rounded out the day.

Full Circle

I've been stitching away at the crochet flowers, completing at least a couple each day. Now I've made it all the way around the colour wheel.



My plan was to add the brooch backs and offer these for sale at the Christmas market. I may still do that, but I am rather taken with how they look as a group like this. And I have some scraps of cotton left--you know how I am with scraps--so the story continues.

Getting Warmer

I'm steadily stitching my way around the colour wheel cottons.

I'm working through yellow-orange to red. Eventually I'll make my way around to the bright greens which will link up with the first colour. Meanwhile, the weather is not producing a corresponding warmth. I've been waiting for it to stop raining to finish off the weeding in the front garden, but that's not happening today either. The soil is a heavy clay, so not good for digging when it's wet. I guess I'll stick to my cotton flowers for now.

Flowers Ahead

The colour of this crochet flower reminds me of the now ubiquitous high-visibility work wear. It amuses me to think of some-one wearing a pretty blossom to dress up their safety vest.
I made it from a sample of hand-dyed cotton from a colour wheel I dyed a couple of years ago for a class. The yarn has been hanging around waiting to be put to use since then. I'm thinking of using each of the samples this way and I took the least atttractive to try first.