A new bolero in cotton-cashmere – and new works in progress

Posted on February 4, 2012 by fats

Yesterday, I gave the cotton-cashmere motif bolero a roadtest and here are some photos of the finished product. I made this with a 3mm hook and sport weight yarn from Lotus Yarns (Autumn Wind Yarn).

The finished bolero in cotton-cashmere yarn.

At the last moment, I decided to crochet the front of the bolero together since it easily fits over my head anyway. I also didn’t fancy an open front bolero and also didn’t want the bother of making ties (as I’ve done earlier with the modified “Glitter Girl Bolero” here and here) or using a pin.

The back of the bolero is something that I particularly like with its uneven hemline. I did about 3 rows for the sleeves working the last two rows in treble stitches at the cap (just over the shoulders). The seams are sewn with silky camel 2-ply yarn.

Cotton-cashmere yarn is smooth and tends to slip off easily thus weaving in ends took extra work. Also, as with most crochet garments, don't store on hanger like this! This could stretch and ruin the garment! This is just for photo purposes only!

The bolero – worked entirely with a schematic / pattern drawn on paper – fits very well, thank goodness! Now I am using the same paper drawing for the blue silky cashmere bolero that I started earlier. By putting the piece over the drawing, I could easily see how I should be shaping the garment. I think the paper drawing also helps in creating new shapes and designs particularly for the neckline and sleeves.

Work continues on the sliky cashmere bolero. Still using the drawing on newspaper. My newspaper doesn't smudge, but yours might so use craft or Manila paper if you have one!

A new work in progress in the meantime is a (hopefully) bridal purse, taking after the Motifs on a Mesh Purse. I have been thinking of doing some items for weddings but never really got around to working on anything – well, now is the best time, thanks to reminder from Michelle!

Bridal purse a work in progress. Pattern to follow ...

My plan is a little purse that has a satin (or organza) handle, no zipper but rather a drawstring – plus matching crochet jewellery. It is just unfortunate that I wasn’t able to get those beautiful silk and silk blend yarns in my last order with Lotus Yarns! Silk would’ve been perfect! But for now, I must settle for cotton.

And finally, on the drawing board is a crocheted dragon amigurumi for my 10-year old nephew. My inspiration is this amazing dragon I saw in Chungli, Taiwan some seven years ago.

Dragons in Chung Li, Taiwan

February 4 is supposedly the start of the Dragon Year in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. So … Welcome the Dragon Year!

Exploring silky cashmere

Posted on January 27, 2012 by fats

Silky Cashmere Fingering from Lotus Yarns

Silky Cashmere Fingering
Fibre: 55% Silk/45% Cashmere
Yardage: 400 yards/20oz (365meters/55grams)
Hook: Aluminium crochet hook 4/0 (2.5mm)

The yarn came in hanks, and at fingering weight, can be easily unwound from the hank (either on a swift or the back of a chair) and made into centre-pull balls. Although I haven’t yet managed to make a decent centre-pull ball because the tail end of the yarn was always disappearing into the ball as it gets bigger. Maybe next time.

The yarn is viciously soft and shiny – thanks to the combination of silk and Mongolian cashmere. The yarn also has similar qualities to a thread that I am quite familiar with – rayon. Rayon is artificial silk (viscose) and is quite shiny too. However, Silky Cashmere has resiliency that rayon doesn’t have.

I started using this yarn following a necklace pattern that I designed (originally for cotton) some time ago. Then I enlarged this pattern to make a shrug/scarf. I thought that this was a good way to get to know the yarn better, using only small quantities of the yarn for testing.

Five motifs completed.

Now what I have in mind for this yarn at the moment is a lacy bolero made up of motifs joined together in the free-form way. I completed five motifs following charted patterns in Duplet 112 and Duplet Swimsuit 3.

Motifs from Duplet crochet magazine.

The motifs are then arranged on the table in the order that I intend to join them. I thought of the largest motif going on the upper back of the bolero and the smaller motifs on the shoulder/upper arm and the smallest motifs for the sleeves. The motifs are all different.

The motifs as joined.

Before joining the motifs together, I made a ch-mesh outline around the motifs. I prefer to work the mesh of the type “dc, ch 3, dc.” Then I started joining them beginning along the upper portion of the bolero (the shoulder line). I decided to keep ths line fairly straight so the bottom portion may be irregularly shaped and could be more visually interesting.

Detail of the motif on the right sleeve of the bolero.

The motifs selected for the bolero have strong edges reinforced by sc’s. I need good sturdy motifs and not light ones. I selected flat motifs for the back and shoulders and the last two motifs at the cuffs have 3-dimensional flowers. I wanted to keep the main body of the bolero fairly flat while the ends of sleeves can have a more 3-dimensional design.

Detail of the motif on thee left sleeve of the bolero.

Detail of the motif on the left sleeve of the bolero.

Hopefully, I will be able to make a size and fit that takes advantage of the mild resiliency of silky cashmere fingering yarn. This means a bolero that’s a bit fitting around the arms and shows off the lace design against the skin.

Detail of the motif on the back of the bolero.

I didn’t use any needle joining for the motifs. This time, I used wholly crocheted joins. Work is much faster this way and teaches me to join irregular shaped motifs.

The work in progress.

Crochet-Joining and Needle-Joining Motifs

Posted on November 17, 2011 by fats

The other day, I completed a new flower motifs collar after nearly a week laboring the design and technique. As with previous Irish-crochet inspired pieces that I completed in several days, this collar consists of flower motifs, this time in multi-color cotton thread.

I started by crocheting the flowers separately and then arranging them on a flat surface. Typically, I crochet as many flowers as I like, sometimes guided by a general design idea such as “one large flower surrounded by medium sized ones and two or three tiny ones of different color placed somewhere along the margins.”

The next step is joining the flower motifs together all along the outside of the shape through crochet stitches. To hold the motifs together while working, I sometimes use pins as shown in the photograph below.

In the inside of the shape, I decided not to use crochet stitches this time, but rather to use a needle, as I have seen in some of the techniques in making needle-made laces. This results in a tighter, closer and stiffer join.

Here is the finished shape. I made two of these, each with three small rings along one end for joining together. Although, making these shapes wasn’t too difficult, I spent a lot of time testing and deciding on the final shape of the collar, as well as the method of joining them together and securing the collar in place.

I had thought of making two asymmetrical collars, a collar with a criss-cross tie like a lace-up corset, as well as using the shape as a hairband. The final design is so simple (a collar joined with rings in the middle and secured with flower pin) that one wouldn’t think I had to go through all the trouble of trying out all sorts of other designs.

The finished flower motifs collar, available at The Crochetology Shop at http://crochetology.net/shop/

With the collar now out of the way, I have returned to working on the motif top (or dress) which I started several weeks ago using a motif from a free shrug pattern from Pierrot Yarns Japan.

Motif dress in progress

I stopped at the point where I needed to make a decision whether to make a top or to make a whole dress. I am tempted to make a dress but couldn’t really bear having to make more of the same motifs. So this time, I decided to use two different motifs for the lower half of the dress.

Detail of one of the motifs.

For the lower half, I have started using a larger hook in order to make larger motifs to accommodate the hips. Without shaping, I will look like a springroll with a bulge in the stomach and the bum.

The new motifs are likewise crochet joined. The most difficult in this process is again the decision-making – which motifs to use? Which motifs will go well together visually and structurally? It was also necessary to modify the motifs that I used which came from crochet dictionaries and the shrug pattern.

For instance,I decided to lessen the number of dc’s in the dc-bobbles of the motif from the shrug pattern so that I can come up with a lighter fabric more suitable for the summer time. I also had to modify the last rows of the two additional motifs in order to use them together with a join-as-you-go method.

So yes, this crocheted garment is hopefully going to be a dress if I don’t get distracted into turning it into something else.

Jewelry in Irish crochet

Posted on April 23, 2010 by fats

I finished this necklace today for our Design Crochet Along. I’ve been wanting to make an Irish Crochet piece using the Priscilla Irish Crochet Book from the Antique Pattern Library and finally managed this one.

This necklace is made with crochet cotton thread size 8.

It didn’t take very long to finish, I only started last night. From the Priscilla book, Irish crochet seemed really difficult so I just had to make modern modifications to manage with what I have – which is a size 8 thread (not very fine thread usually called for in Irish crochet) and a size 1mm steel crochet hook.

My friend Mimi recommends this page for those who wish to learn Irish crochet. I think it is a good start for those who might find the antique books difficult to understand.

The necklace uses an S hook for closure.

While working on this, I found a few techniques to make the instructions on the APL Irish crochet book a bit easier to understand and make. I didn’t use a padding cord but instead used a long chain, and I didn’t baste the motifs to make the background netting but I tried to find ways to crochet the motifs in a single piece so there’s less sewing. Hopefully, I will be able to write the pattern for it shortly.

However, there will probably be the need for free-form techniques in the pattern, since exact pattern instruction for Irish crochet backgrounds is not advisable. As the Priscilla book on Irish crochet said, “… to follow directions for a given number of bars composed of a given number of stitches, would be fatal to the beauty of the lace, as no two workers would space alike.”

For the pattern to respect the creative freedom of the crochet worker, the Priscilla book recommends the use of a “general plan”, in particular for filling in the backgrounds surrounding motifs, which the worker should familiarize herself with and use adeptly under the immediate circumstances with the aim of producing the finest lace.

I work with cotton threads of very limited size – mostly size 8 threads and sometimes, size 10. In traditional Irish crochet, these are thick threads used for the padding cord and making large motifs. With the necklace above, I have made a number of ‘adjustments’ that I thought could work with the materials that I have, and additionally, have developed the design that fits the material and the methods.

Hopefully, these would be of interest to other workers as these are of interest to me. Nevertheless, I would recommend learning from the original material, which are available from the Antique Pattern Library, whenever possible.

CAL: The Calico Bag (Handle, assembly, finishing)

Posted on March 30, 2010 by fats

I love calico!

After making the first draft pattern for The Calico Bag, I am now making another Calico Bag to troubleshoot the pattern. If you’re interested in this as a Crochet-Along (CAL), feel free to join in. And if you like this pattern and make a finished object, please let me know; I would love to see finished work or modifications of the patterns I make. If you’re on Ravelry, you may find me thru this page.

Work on the bag handle started last night and finished today. Below is a photo of the handle in progress.

Calico bag handle in progress.

The handle is worked in the round, and the entire 55 rounds should make a handle approximately 15 1/2 inches long. The color pattern of the handle depends entirely on your creative decisions. You may also refer to the tail of your calico cat for inspiration. Remember, stuff the handle with kapok (or other filling material) as you work. One pod of kapok is enough to stuff the handle. Below is a photo.

Preparing kapok for filling.

Crocheting the seams of the bag

For the bottom of the bag, I decided to use sl st as seaming method, and sc for the sides of the bag. Below is a photo of the seaming in sl st, worked on the wrong side of the bag. I used white yarn.

Sl st seaming for the bag's bottom.

For the sides of the bag, I decided that the sc seaming method would be more flexible and thus suitable, in contrast to the sl st seaming which is much tighter so I used for the bottom of the bag. Below is a photo of the seaming in sc, worked on the wrong side of the bag. I used a color that matched one of the two sides of the bag.

Sc seaming for the sides of the bag.

And finally here is the handle and the body of the bag ready for assembly.

The handle and the bag body ready for assembly.

Bag Lining and Snaps
You may also sew a lining for the bag (line the bag before attaching the handles), and use magnetic snaps instead of Velcro strips. Here (photo below), I have sewn a lining for the bag and used magnetic snaps. Thanks to Mimi Alesis for the tips on attaching magnetic snaps.

The Calico Bag can be lined with fabric, and magnetic snaps can be used instead of Velcro strips.

To attach the magnetic snaps, I crocheted two circles the same color as the bag lining and slightly larger than the snaps. Then I attached the snaps to the crocheted circles and sew these to the bag.