Roses Galore

I'm continuing to make hand-dyed cotton roses. Meanwhile the garden is bursting into bloom.

So I have fabric roses on my table and recently picked rose blossoms hanging to dry. That's the next step of this year's Christmas pot pourri underway. I've been drying orange peel for quite a while already. 

Fresh Today

I've just popped in from my studio to post my latest makes.

Another felt and fibre necklace--I'm having lots of fun making these! And a new hand-dyed cotton rose brooch. There's good news on that front.   I've worked out that I don't need to iron the fabric or cut it neatly. Tearing off a strip of the right width works just as well. Now I can get on with some other colours.

And I've picked the first two real roses the Spring from my Lorraine Lee bush. It normally blooms way earlier than this, but I suspect there's been just a bit too much neglect in the garden lately.

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.

Christmas Rose

It's the twelfth day of Christmas today--or maybe that was yesterday. I haven't made twelve of anything, but I did make a couple of these roses earlier as Christmas gifts. Today I made just one more. That finished this particular hand-dyed cotton yarn.

And in case you're wondering, yes, I'm still in holiday-go-slow mode.

Behind the Scenes

The House Artisan's Market is on again tomorrow. As usual there are background tasks to be completed in the last few days. I made so many crochet roses a few months ago that I didn't keep up with sewing on all the brooch backs.


Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the studio catching up. It was a hot day, so the airconditioner was particularly welcome. I have a bit more to do today. If all goes well I may even have time for some card-making.

Rose Again

I haven't been making rose brooches since my elbow started playing up. I had a skein of variegated yarn which I'd dyed especially, though. It's been talking to me and I've been resisting. This morning I decided to try a knitted rose.  

I like the range of colours. So much so that I'm tempted to risk a bout of crochet to see how it looks in my favourite pattern. Of course the dyed variegations can never really reproduce the beauty of the real thing.

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.

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.

One More

I made another couple of roses for brooches. I used the leftover yarns from the scarves I've been making, so these ones are purple.

Purple is still a difficult colour for me to pick up with my camera, but there you are. The one at the bottom of the pic isn't rolled up yet, so it still looks like a funny little worm.

On the subject of counting, my Blogger tools tell me that this is my 1000th post. It seems like a big number. One a day adds up over time, I guess. I'm not planning to make anything like 1000 roses, but I might surprise myself yet!

Another Way

I rang my friend Knitspin Girl last night to talk about knitted roses--what else! I told her I'd been knitting my roses by increasing every stitch in every second row, then arranging the resulting curly strip into a spiral flower shape. She said, "the only one I know is where you cast on a gazillion stitches and then decrease". My immediate thought was that would be more work than the method I'd been using, but you know how it is--I had to try it.




















I cast on 130 stitches and decreased every stitch in every second row. It's a much looser result than I'd expected. I guess that's because of the way the ruffles form as stitches are decreased. I guess I could rearrange the petals a bit with the yarn ends.

Meanwhile, I've been tackling the weed invasion in the sunny breaks in the weather. I took another bootload of green waste to the tip yesterday. And I really should get out there again this morning.



Testing, Testing

I'm following the idea of making kits for the rose brooches, so I made a couple more to check the details. Here's how the knitting looks before I begin casting off.

My biggest challenge is presentation and packaging. It's the subtly varied handspun yarn that makes these special and unique, so somehow I need the yarn to be visible. I'd like to include a photo of the finished brooch--even though the real thing would be on display--but I think a colour photo would be confusing since there's no way I'll be matching the colours. And the knitting is Oh-so-simple! Do I need to include step by step photos? I'm wondering about linking to a tutorial on my blog page. That would mean working out how to add tutorials. I'm guessing there's an option for that somewhere . . . 

Winter Garden

I've been watching the weather forecast, looking for an opportunity to head out into the garden and continue my battle with the weeds. It's been raining this morning, but it looks like it may be clearing now. Meanwhile I've spent an easy half hour on another woolly rose. 

These ones don't need any weeding or feeding and they bloom in all weathers. What you can see in the pic is the newly knitted rose-to-be on the left. It's a strip of knitting with increases which make it curl and ruffle. To turn it into a flower like the one on the right, I need to wrap the strip in on itself, stitching as I go. I'm deliberately checking through the steps here because there's been a suggestion that I make up some kits to sell at the wool shop where they stock my handspun. So my next task is to see how much yarn each rose takes and then allow a bit extra just in case.

Same, Same?

Here are two more rose brooches. I think I'll give them a rest for a while after this, but first I'll try to explain how one thing leads to another. 

It all started when R bought one of these at the Neighbourhood House market. She's been wearing it and liking it and her friends have noticed. I bumped into her at a local cafe where she was having lunch with a friend. She introduced me as the person who made her brooch--and she'd like another one to go on her red coat. Maybe a black one. Her friend would like one too, make that two of them. What colours? Cream and red. Now those are two of the most versatile colours on the planet, so I try to sharpen the request. The cream is not just an off white, but maybe a bit buttery. The red is fiery, not pink. Now I've got something to work on, but then R and her friend pull out their purses and want to give me money.  Now we're moving from creative challenge to business transaction. Meanwhile I have other friends arriving for a meeting--we're planning a celebration for the Neighbourhood House's 20th birthday and are working on displays of old photos. R and her friend each have two pre-schoolers who have finished eating and are starting to play. I've pulled out my laptop to review photos. L takes the money and I jot a note on a piece of scrap paper: three rose brooches--"black, cream-buttery, fire red". I wrap the money in the scrap of paper and give it to L for safe-keeping.

Now I've got rose brooches on my mind--so many possibilities. I try mixing some colours--what about different shapes--I need more of the pins to sew them on. I'm not sure about the plain black, so I try one with a bit of silver. Two weeks later there are a dozen on my table. I'm going to call it a day. As soon as I finish this post I'm going to ring R. I'll show her the options and let her choose three. Then I'll work out what to do next. There are more markets coming up and lots more colours to explore. But it's time to stop for a breath. 

In Progress

I'm still working on rose brooches. This is one of the yarns I spun up in an attempt to make a creamy colour. It's a lovely yarn, but I wouldn't call it "cream"--more like a soft apricot. The orange comes through more strongly than I'd expected.

In this progress shot you can see how it looks as I begin to cast off the knitting. Increasing stitches on every second row makes the kniting want to ruffle or curl up. All I need to do to make the flower is arrange that curled strip the way I want it and stitch it into place. Then I can stitch it to the brooch pin and the job's done. There are versions of these flowers all over the place. What makes mine different is the yarns which I colour and spin myself. 

More

I made three more of the woolly flower brooches.




















As you can see, I'm still experimenting with different patterns. The one on the bottom left is my current favourite. It's done in crochet. I like the combination of semi-defined petals with the overal spiral effect. This burst of blooms was set off by a request for several of the knitted roses (top centre) and I have two more colours to do. I usually make these out of leftovers, but since I've had to mix and spin the colours to request, I've got enough to play with. I suspect I'll run out of enthusiasm before I run out of wool. Then it will be time to give them a rest and move on to something else.



Pretty One

I spun up the creamy yarn destined for rose brooches. And I did make one of the knitted brooches as planned. Each brooch only takes a little bit of yarn, so I had some left over, and a bit of time for experimenting. Here's what happened:

I love the way crochet stitches give such a clear definition--especially knowing how incredibly soft this yarn is. I went ahead and made a purple one too, though, being me, the pattern is a little different each time. I've promised another three of the classic rose in different colours, and there's enough yarn to play with, so  I think there will be a few more variations before I get this particular bug out of my system.