Irish Crochet Together Blog Challenge Project

detail of Valentino fabric

Over at irishcrochettogether.blogspot.com we had a little challenge and this one was based on the gorgeous Valentino dress that Cameron Diaz modeled on the cover of InStyle magazine.  I learned quite a bit but I don't think I love the final product.

I love my main motif.  I made this with Blue Heron Yarns 100 percent Egyptian cotton.  I love LOVE this "yarn".  It's a 2-ply lace weight that is comparable to an eight or maybe a three-weight cotton thread.  It's shiny and soft and the color transitions are gorgeous.  It was liberating to crochet this.  I used the leaf shapes from the Valentino fabric as inspiration here.  This was free-form and FUN-- quite a change from deciphering all the antique IC patterns I had been working on.

For my background, I wanted a filled rectangle, but I wasn't sure how to do it.  First, I basted the motif to a base fabric.  I knew I was going to use the Habu Textiles Silk thread that I bought in SF for the background, and I knew I wanted to include some Clones Knots.  I started filling in the round part at the bottom of the motif with Clones Knots.  After I did that I thought it looked distracting, so I opted for surrounding the motif with a border of Clones Knots instead, and filled the round part with plain, diamond-shaped filling stitches.



I liked the four-spoked cross pattern in the inspiration fabric, so I used a shamrock type filling stitch to mimic that.  I first made the outer edge, which is the Egyptian cotton over PC (single crochet with picots).  I pinned it out to the size I wanted around the motif.

I started the shamrock filling at the bottom, went up the right side, then started again over to the left (and ripped out and re-made what you see here).  I then filled in the last rows on the top.  I learned that this silk pulls apart easily and does not rip out easily.  I haven't practiced filling stitches very often and I really need to continue to work on them!

challenge piece detail

finished challenge piece

The final piece is about 6 x 10 inches.  New techniques for me were: free-form crochet, shamrock filling stitch, and working into a corded edging.

I learned that half-double crochet doesn't look very good in IC motifs.  It makes a raised bar that I love in other projects, but the texture doesn't add much where I used it this time.

TIP:  I used my laptop portable desk by Belkin as my work surface while doing the filling stitches.  It is slanted a bit, and made of a fabric covered foam on a rigid backing.  I could pin right into it and the slant facilitated working the stitches!