Irish Crochet

Hi there!  I've posted this project over on the Irish Crochet Together blog.  Have a look!

Embellished Espadrilles

What to do with all those Irish Crochet motifs???  I had a little chat with some of the ladies on the Irish Crochet Lovers forum about the motifs we make on the CAL's.  Some of them have a sample book that they keep all the motifs in.  Melba is arranging hers on a thrift-store purse.  It looks great!  She's using all different shades of brown, and all different motifs.  I've been saving mine in a little ziplock, unsure of how to use them.  The ladies got me thinking, and I decided to sew some onto a pair of espadrilles and I love the result!

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!

I'm so inspired!

So much so, that I've issued a challenge on irishcrochettogether!

Maybe you haven't visited over there, but I also edit the irishcrochettogether blog and you should go check it out.

I buy InStyle now and then...not like before (children) when I had a subscription, but every once in a while I'll get a copy.  I couldn't resist this cover!  That lace dress by Valentino is so pretty!  And of course inspired CROCHET IDEAS!!!  No, I won't be making an entire blue crocheted dress, but I would like to make a little something, even just a motif, using Irish Crochet techniques.

WooHoo! Check me Out!

I met Maire Treanor last summer while taking her Clones Lace workshop in Berkeley at Lacis.  She is a wonderful woman, and is writing a series of articles for Interweave Crochet magazine on Irish Crochet lace.  She asked if she could use one of my photos for her article that appears in the Spring issue.  OF COURSE SHE COULD!

We had taken a field trip to the Sunnyvale lace museum and there was a piece of actual Clones lace there, made in Ireland.  All of their other "Irish Crochet" is from the US.  Maire could tell the difference between the Irish and the non-Irish, from the thread used to make the lace.  US lace is made with mercerized cotton and antique Irish Crochet from Ireland is made from non-mercerized cotton or linen.  I had photographed many of the lace pieces with motifs that were interesting to me, and she remembered that I had an image of the Clones piece.

Wild Rose Group

I have finished my second group of motifs for the museum project, and have shipped them off to England!  This group (the Wild Rose from the Priscilla Book 1 of Irish Crochet, page 12) took about a week to finish.  The main rose is about 2.75 inches in diameter, to give you some perspective.  I used size 80 thread over doubled size 10 PC, with a .06mm hook.  It was helpful to use painter's masking tape over my middle finger as protection against that pointy hook!  I now have a nice callous.  The smallest rings on the main flower were the most difficult to do.  I wrapped the PC around the base of a steel hook about 6 times (doubled) and then went to work with the 80 thread.  My eyes crossed!  I could only do two at a time, and then would take a break.
I am so excited to be contributing to this project!  I just love the idea of so many hands, all over the world, working together to create a beautiful exhibit.

Irish Crochet Project

I'm so lucky to be involved in an international Irish Crochet project for an upcoming museum exhibit.  I can't share all the details but I can let you know that we have people contributing from France, Moscow, England, Northern Ireland, Australia and three states in the US.  I can also show you part of my contribution.  These little motifs are 2.5 inches wide and tall, and are made with No. 80 DMC Cordonnet Thread and a .6mm hook.  TINY stuff to work with!  I end up doing a lot by feel and instinct, rather than actual counting of the itty-bitty stitches.  The motifs are from the Priscilla Book 1, motif number 36.