Design – Crochet Along With Me

Five Colour Friday

This granny square is a mix of yarns. I’ve chosen some by Cygnet and a few from Scheepjes. All are double knitting.

If you wish to indulge you can buy them all from Mrs Snufflebean. You could make a whole blanket with 120 different combinations of 5 colours. There is a list of all the different combinations to help you here.

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Play with a purpose – The Posy Square

All you need is a ball of yarn and a hook!

I’ve been playing around with a few odd balls of scrap yarn. Some were so small they really qualified as ‘lengths’ rather than ‘balls’. However, the object was to make a circle in a squaare – as easily as possible!

Now I don’t expect that this is an original method, but it works. (If anyone knows another source please let me know)

Twelve UK trebles into a magic circle to start. The second round is just two UK trebles into each gap between those of the previous round. Round three begins the conversion into a Granny Square, counting in threes, which can hopefully be seen in the above picture.

After this round it looks a little wonky. Don’t worry, it sorts itself.

Another round of treble blocks and the Granny Square is complete. Now, it really does look wonky, but….

Just a gentle pull from left to right – and another from top to bottom and…..

All ready for blocking.

I’m calling it the Posy Square.

What I learnt today

I love colour. I have dyed a range of fibres and fabrics for over 30 years and during that time have learnt a lot about colour. Vibrant, mid to dark tones are my favourite and often the combinations I choose.

Many years ago a very wise old lady encouraged me to move out of my comfort zone from time to time and this has often been such a blessing and eye opener!

This weekend has seen a move away from the bright and vibrant as I made a point of choosing pastels and specifically a colour I dislike

All those ends really don’t bother me. I enjoy weaving them in. Yes, I know I’m weird but I find it truly relaxing and meditative.

I’ve moved on to the third round now. So far I’ve learnt a few things

It’s hard to match colours in bad light when tones are similar (I actually already knew that, but it’s good to be reminded)
Tension is important (yes, I knew that too) – so don’t crochet when you are angry or your stitches will be far too tight and difficult to replicate later
Granny squares are still not my favourite but useful for this exercise

So. Which is the colour I really dislike?

It’s that mid tone ‘purple’.

Combined with pinks and blues it’s bearable but boring. On its own ….

I’ll leave you to fill in the dots 😂

One day I’ll tell you the story of why I dislike this technique so much. In the meantime working in ‘difficult’ colours in a technique that is ‘alien’ is good for the soul! (Or something).

Blogging from A-Z April Challenge – G is for

Grids

I find grids very useful. Squared paper is easy to obtain, but better still – the grid you draw.

Measuring isn’t obligatory – and I often start by drawing a rough grid by ‘eye’ in my journal.

Are you a quilter? Quite an interesting way of developing your own personal quilting pattern is to begin with your intials. Firstly – fill every alternate square with the initial of one of your names

Then choose a second initial and complete the rest of the boxes.

This simple pattern is based on an M and an h – upper or lower case can be chosen at will – and the shape of the letters doesn’t have to have any bearing on your signature.

Once ‘inked in’ the line becomes more apparent. The above needs a little touching up if it’s to be programmed into a quilting module – but for freehand quilting, either by machine or by hand, it gives a good indication of the final result.

I love using grids. You never know what you will discover

You can also find my chatty A-Z posts here

Blogging from A-Z April Challenge – C is for..

Collage

I enjoy working with paper. It began as a design tool for textiles – but after discovering that it was also a useful base for stitch it has more and more become an integrated part of my work.

Paper is so readily available! It doesn’t need to be expensive. The cover of this book is just plain old painted newspaper.

I’ve built up the surface on cardboard from a cereal packet – glued it down with Matte Medium and added a protective coating of the same on top. Doodles featured heavily on some of the painted surfaces before being cut or torn and laid dowuse pn. Really simple zigzag stitches were added – more as surface interest than anything else. If you are going to try it – just make sure that any paint or glue is well dried before you start.

I use paper for my daily nine patches too. These might seem a waste of time – but the colour combinations have seen their way into other peices of work, so nothing is wasted.

Posted for the April A-Z challenge. The posts on this blog all relate to creativity in some way. ‘Chatty’ A-Z posts are appearing here.

Blossom

Spring is here. Early spring, that is. In a few short weeks the apple blossom will be flowering in abundance – it’s one of my favourite times of the year.

No blossom on the trees and bushes at the moment, though. But I do have flowers in the house!

Flowers are a useful source of colour inspiration.

A post for National Crochet Month – find all posts in this series via this link.

Category: Design

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