More Explorations in Felted Crochet

These are some observations I have on felting crochet:
Although I have another floor mat in progress, below, I wanted to make a few smaller items using this technique.  (The "technique" is a single crochet stitch using multiple strands of shrinkable wool yarn, and then felting it in the washing machine)
So I crocheted several little bowls.  Before felting they looked like caps.  Basically they are flat bottoms with short sides.

I washed them once, dried them in the dryer, washed them a second time, and pushed them into the shape and allowed them to air dry.

I crocheted them as a spiral, and so there is a bit of a lump where the stitches end on some of them.

 They really do shrink up into quite a pleasing thickness.  And there is no problem with the walls flopping inwards.
I will need to do a larger one now! 

This is the mat that I am currently working on:

 I started with a section of back and forth rows for the center.  Then I started to go in rounds around it.  It became a little too squarish, and so I added a few extra rows in yellow at either end.

 I am still using my 15mm hook!  and I'm holding many strands together.  I like the blue.

I started to wonder what would happen if I added in accent colors with thinner thread pulled up in the spaces using a smaller hook and a chain stitch.  So.....
 
I decided to make a little test swatch (what? just now after making several projects?)

this shows the back of the chain stitch

this shows the front of the chain stitch

this shows the swatch washed once.

I really like how the chain stitch blends in so well when it is felted, so I will pretty surely add it to the mat.  You can also see on the swatch how some combinations shrink quite a bit more than others.  The green is a lot bigger than the yellow, although it might have more strands to start with.   This is not a particularly scientific process, (but the intention is to use the yarns productively)

Crochet Rugs

 I like braided wool rugs,

 and I like to make them.
I also like to crochet, especially single crochet.

 And, having a lot of odd bits of wool yarn to do something with, I have been dabbling in felted crochet.  If I hold a lot of strings together, it felts into a nice thickness for rugs. 
After I did the rug a couple of weeks ago with the hexagons, I started to think about mimicking the look of a braided rug in crochet.
This is my first attempt. 

As you can see, I made a rectangular middle section with hexagon like ends.  It seemed to go a bit twisted however, and I can see that I should have ended the row at the bottom left hand corner.  Also, the brown boucle that I used on the edges didn't shrink at the same rate as the other sections, so it is a bit ripply on the outer edges.
This time, I am making the ends more rounded.
 That means that I am increasing on the ends in an arbitrary way, adding stitches when I feel that it is starting to curl up a bit.

 I wound up a bunch of yarns on my ball winder, so I have some balls ready that have the right thickness for the crochet hook, which is 15mm!

 Other times, i am just setting the individual balls out on the floor and pulling them out at the same time.  That way provides a bit more flexibility in the color mixing. 
I'll keep on with this experiment, and hopefully get to what I'm aiming for.  Also, I am wondering about a zig-zag ripple type of rug....
This morning we got the new dining room chandelier installed!  I like it, and it is wonderful to have some light in there at last. 
I will update you when the dining room table arrives!

Saturday Playtime with Yarn

This morning I "should" have been doing some store related tasks-- compiling T4 slips, entering all the mountain of bills and invoices and other mail into the ledger book, even starting the quilt sample for the shop that I want to get done while I'm here in Saskatoon for a couple of weeks.  However, I got sidetracked the last couple of days into a crochet project. ... which turned into a "use up ugly yarn" project,... which turned into a "dye the ugly yarn a new color" project.

 A couple of months ago I was experimenting with using multiple strands of wool to crochet with.  I was using all shrinkable wool, because I planned to felt the projects.   The white/grey thing, above, is one of  my first attempts at crocheting a circular flat thing. It turned out okay, although a bit lopsided where I started the new rounds.  But it is pleasingly squishy and fuzzy. 
(Around now you might be wondering "Why? Why is she doing this, with all the other fabulous things that a person could knit or crochet,...."  Well. You might remember that last summer I took on the task of dispersing the yarn from a retired weaver.  I did manage to get a great deal of the yarn out to new homes.  However, much of what was leftover from assorted sales was a bunch of odds and ends that includes older yarns that are quite rough feeling for many knitting or crochet projects,-- understandable since it was intended for woven rugs, i think,-- and also a lot of the "less desirable" colors, like weird pinkish browns, and lots of orange.   They also run the whole range of weights from lace-weight to quite a bit heavier.   I had to think of something to use all these yarns for so that they are useful, and don't spend the next twenty years just sitting on some shelf. 

 So, I started to compile them into heavier yarns. 
It can be really pretty to combine colors and it is a hobby in itself to make new combinations!

 These are temporary balls that are only 2 or three fine-weights wound together.

 For the crochet projects here, I am using about 6 to 8 strands held together, and using a 15mm crochet hook, I think.  It is pretty big, but a light plastic. 
After the test piece above, I thought it would be fun to do some hexagons, and sew them together like you would in quilting,
I made several hexagons in various colors and whip stitched them together. (  I did take photos, but unfortunately my camera has been hauled around a lot the past few days and somewhere I slid the focus from automatic to manual without really noticing, and so the photos came out all blurry). :(
Then I crocheted a few rows around the whole thing.
Then I felted it in the washing machine. 

Not all of the combinations felted to the same size, as you can see.  The purple seemed to shrink most, and the bright blue stayed a bit bigger,

This shows the rough proportion of shrinkage.  It is interesting that the color also changed a bit in the felting process, since the un-felted yellow hexagon shown here is exactly the same yarn combination as the felted one in the center of the mat. 

I really like the way the colors mesh on the green edging: 

I think that a crocheted base like this might also be a very interesting surface to embroider onto.
I decided to wind balls of the yarns, since most of it is on cones or in skeins, and pack it up and mail it to Savannah where I can play more with this process. 
However, some of the colors are really blah.... I used up most of the pretty colors already.  I don't want a bunch of ugly pinkish-brown, orange and black floor mats, No.  So I decided to over-dye some of it.  So I did. 
I came up with some nice purples, (also some bright reds, although they are sort of on the rust side, and some that are sort of navy)

 But for now, after all these explorations, I am definitely ready to do some "work"!

good Morning,

This is just a quick post before we drive up to Hardeeville to meet my Brother in law for a BBQ lunch!
Projects are progressing here, I even have a finished project!  It is sort of appropriate to post this on a friday, as I saw on another blog the acronym TGIFF, or "Thank God it's Finished Friday"

 This is the linen table runner I was working on earlier this week.  I found a nice easy crocheted edging to add, and I was quite happy with the results.  It just needs a longer, or shorter table to go on.

 I washed it in the washing machine, and laid it out flat to dry.  The edging is a linen yarn, so I was quite sure it wouldn't shrink.  I might try another one of these.
I was also inspired to do a bit of actual machine quilting as well, so I hauled out this top that I had pieced in November.....

progress indeed....
who knows, maybe if I get the binding on quickly I'll have two TGIFFs!

Break from the quilt-- new tablerunner!

The weather yesterday was gorgeous.  I did some tree pruning in the yard and planted some violas in the planters, but still didn't want to come indoors.  So I did a bit of hand-work on the deck.  When I was doing the little flower blocks the other day, I had some petals left over.  (I had just attached fusible rectangles onto several fabrics and cut out a number of petals freehand)

 So I laid out all the leftover ones into a larger flower onto the corner of the piece of cream linen, which was about 18" x 56".  Nice size for a table runner!  I love table runners.  well, I love making them, but I do like to use them too, although I tend to forget what I have and use the same ones over and over.

After I hemmed the edges by machine, I wanted to add a crocheted edging. 

 First I used the large tapestry needle to do a blanket stitch all around the perimeter.  This took quite a long time!  certainly longer than I had anticipated.  Probably nearly 3 hours to do that.

 Then I used a size 2.75mm crochet hook to do a single crochet into each space.  this went a bit faster.

Now, I think I need to do some browsing to find a nice crocheted edging that isn't too difficult.  I've seen some on pillowcases, and places like that.  I don't have a whole lot of the linen here either, and I'm not too sure whether I have more of this color at home in Saskatoon.  I might have to set it aside for a while.  Or, maybe think about doing some stitching right onto the linen part-- right now it just has that one flower on it.  Monday again, hope you get to do lots of stitching this week!

What I'm working on today

These are a couple of things I'm working on this week. I have high hopes that the crocheted mesh with weaving might be nearing completion! My original plan was to semi-felt it, but I'm having some second thoughts about that because I sort of like how it's looking now. I would definitely do another project with technique, although the weaving part has taken a lot longer than I thought it would. I've also been doing some random cross stitch. The linen isn't really made for this, so it's a bit primitive in the spacing. I have an idea of using the flower vase motif in a collage.
   NB.  I just got my laptop up and running, so I have a garland tutorial for tomorrow!!

My new totebag

Yesterday was a great day! the weather was beautiful, and I was able to stay at home and do a bit of sewing!
Some time ago I had got this pattern to try out.  It is called Streetcar Bags by Indygo Junction.  I liked the substantial look of it for autumn and winter.  

 I had somehow acquired some pieces of a thick grey wool that I really liked.  It looked like someone had started to make a jacket.  Because it wasn't a solid piece of yardage meant that I had to piece some together to get a chunk large enough to use for the front and back body of the bag, but I sort of like the extra seams.

 At one point I thought this section looked like a cool bathing suit from the '40s

 It was a bit daunting for me to follow someone else's pattern, but I just took it step by step, and it made sense.  I also followed my mantra, "It isn't hard, it just takes some time".   The hardest parts were to actually figure out what pattern pieces I needed to cut out, and the turning inside out of the handle. 

 After about 2-1/2 hours I was finished!

 I liked the look of the two buttons on the flap that was shown on the pattern photo, but ultimately decided to go with a felted flower/button combo.  The bag is fastened with a magnetic snap.  I didn't put in a flat reinforced bottom as instructed by the pattern, but I might still do that.  I am pretty happy with it.  I think I might make another one, since I have a lining cut out from a different fabric.  I had been planning to use that until I decided on the purple flower, and they really weren't compatible, so I had to choose some other fabric for the lining. 

 And, I continue to weave threads into my crocheted mesh.  I made a test piece and felted it to see what different yarns and combinations would look like.  I photocopied it before I washed it and made notes on what each thread section was.  Also I was able to measure the shrinkage.  It was interesting to discover that it didn't shrink much horizontally, but the vertical shrinkage was nearly 20 percent!  So right now my piece is quite long looking for it's width.

 There are a lot of strings to weave through!  I will do a few a day until it's done.

Home

Well, I have returned home, and now my nesting instinct is in full force, as I'm busily cleaning up, unpacking, and happily looking over my sewing room.  (Actually it is not just my sewing room any more, since it is my office and yarn storage as well). 
While I was away there was lots of progress on the sunroom that we are having added on to the end of the house.  In fact, there is lots of activity out there right now!  I hear saws.  Today is when they are coming through the wall!  It will be a French doors entry from the TV room, which is right next to my "sewing room"! 
It is very exciting!!!
I would show you a photo, except yesterday on the way home, I stopped by the store and forgot my camera there. 
Instead, I can show you some pictures of a scarf I made before I left on my trip.  It was sort of a test piece for that technique I mentioned earlier.  It is a "mesh" made of double crochets with a chain stitch in between each double crochet. 

 Then, the idea is to weave in other yarns in and out of the mesh. 

 This is the scarf, and the ends I just tied off into knots and trimmed evenly:

 I think it turned out pretty good!  Now I have my larger project to finish. -- the small blanket.  Actually I have pretty much finished the mesh part, and am working on sewing in all the ends of threads where I changed colors.  Stay posted, the transformation is soon to come!