The "Tuscan Window" Bag - pattern release

 

 

Although we have visited Italy 4 times, we have never visited Tuscany and it has been forever on my bucket list. I do wish we visit it some day. Searching for some photos on my external hard drive, I came upon some of the albums from our Italian travels and many contained photos of houses with hanging flowers from their windows. Hence my inspiration for this bag. Not to mention that I have a soft heart for the Under the Tuscan Sun film :)

The bag is made using two squares and decorated with lovely roses and vines. The decorative pattern is quite charming and eye-catching and it is also easy and repetitive. 

The pattern is in my Etsy and Ravelry shops.

Happy Summer

 

Happy summer guys!

This one is going to be different than all the others, but what can we do?

June is passing through my fingers unnoticeably. Lots of projects designed and started, but somehow I cannot make myself pick up the hook and actually finish something. I am more concentrated on mixing and matching crochet projects right now.

When I started exploring the Susani squares, I made this central square (below), but changed my mind because of the color. Because I knew I wouldn't find any practical use for such a square, and would have hated  just seeing it lying around, I crocheted the side panels and turned it into a bracelet. I embellished it with some lovely flowers and added beads.  So not everything is wasted :) 

What are your plans for the summer? 

Here, they opened up the borders, but if you go out of the country, you'll be quarantined  upon return for 14 days, and honestly, we do not feel like traveling abroad right now. So we stay put.

Beaded Susani Square

 

My exploration and play with the Susani inspired crochet squares continues. 

For this square I employed surface crochet only and  embellished it with beads. Needless to say, I quite like the final result. 

The only thing is that I have no idea how to use these squares and honestly I should have been more imaginative and make it larger so as to make it into a bag or a case. But, I'll think of something. It's a pity to leave it abandoned in my crochet treasuring box :)

If you missed my post with the first attempts at Susani inspired squares, here they are. 

Crochet Brooches - Mix & Match

Good day all!

I spent the weekend sorting out samples of mostly flowers I made for may patterns and tutorials and mix-matching them to create larger pieces. I was set on a particular color palette for these (greens and blues), but eventually added a bit of color. These below are rather biggish so would be great to add to a bag, or maybe worn as a statement brooch on a sturdier piece of clothing - like a jacket or a coat. 

Anyway, how's June holding up for you? Any interesting projects to share? 

Susani in Crochet

 

So. If you didn't know - when I get fixated on something and get it into my head, well... it's hard to take it out. This happened with the Susani textiles from my last post. I said I would love to try it in crochet - and I did!

For this project, I made a couple of squares and designed simple shapes I thought I could execute well.

The pink square  is the first one I did. For that one I used surface crochet for the central design, embroidery for the corners (lazy daisy and French knots) and regular crochet (picots)  for the edges. Since this is my first project of this kind, the central motif pulled the work a bit up - and this can be noticed on the bottom side - should have added more picots to elongate that side and minimize the tension there - but I saw it after I was done, and to be honest, hated frogging it, so I left it as is. 

 

The mauve one might look simpler in appearance, but it was more challenging. I started with the burgundy part, and after the initial chain, I pulled a pretty long strand of yarn up (surface crochet is worked with the yarn below the work) on the surface so that I can make it a 3-D, but it was really difficult, so for the next 2 layers, I just surface crocheted the outlines and added the next row as I would do with a regular crochet. I added French knots again to make it lively because I didn't like anything else added to the motif, and made a shelled edging around it.

I truly enjoyed trying my hand at this. As a matter of fact I have another couple of squares coming up for which I am eager to try something else. But they are still in the design stage. 
Will talk to you soon! Have a lovely weekend! 

Suzani Textiles

I have just recently learned that this type of embroidered textiles are called Suzani.

Suzani is a type of decorative tribal textile made in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries. The name Suzani originates from the Persian language where suzan means needle. 

The art of making suzani textiles employs a cotton or a silk base, which is then embroidered in silk or cotton thread. 

The primary use of a suzani was within the yurt, as a protective wrapping panel for textiles and belongings, but they were also used  as prayer mats, bed sheets, for sitting, etc.   

Suzanis were traditionally made by brides and their mothers as part of their dowry and they were presented to the groom and his family on the wedding day. They mostly represent symbols of luck, health, longevity and fertility.

There is a beautiful text on the history of Suzani here.

..

Inspired by these, I am trying to make a Suzani in crochet. We'll see how that turns out :)

All images found on pinterest via the Suzani search. 

Crochet Cacti Applique - pattern release

 

 

My cacti are here! 

I cannot tell you how happy I am that they are finished and I am immensely satisfied how they turned out. Not only can they be used on cushions as I previously imagined - we also tried them on Eva's jacket and the transformation of that cropped jeans jacket is amazing! 

These can be used to decorate not only cushions/ pillows, but also hats and bags and can quite easily become statement brooches. 

The pattern is
here. 

 

Cactus Cushion Applique

 

Happy Saturday all!

I have been working long on my cacti project and I cannot tell you how many times I changed my mind and altered the patterns until I was satisfied! Luckily, that project is finished and I am getting it ready for pictures.  

This here is one of my tries with large cactus applique for one of my cushions. It wasn't challenging at all, but I don't believe I'll been making any large ones again.

I hope you are having a fantastic weekend!

Surface Crochet

 

Via

What is surface crochet? 

It is a way to crochet (usually using the slip stitch) on the top of  (the surface of) a finished piece. With the surface crochet you can decorate a piece with stripes, lines, ribbing, edging, etc. 

I have tried my hand at surface crochet in a couple of my projects - nothing I did was spectacular though, but I quite like it because not only it gives a raised texture to a piece but also enriches it greatly. 

I am actually trying to work surface crochet on one of my cacti  - a project I hope to reveal soon, but that also avalanched some ideas how to use this technique in my jewelry and I simply cannot wait to get the cacti done and throw myself into surface crocheting jewelries ;)

Below are some ideas of surface crochet I found on the Internet. How about you? Have you tried this technique?

 

 Via

Via