crochet is trendy

This summer crochet is very trendy on the catwalks! Gorgeous dresses and outfits were included in the collections of many famous designer:

 Chanel

Diane von Fuerstenberg

 Les Copains

I have marked for some time now, some beautiful patterns which I want to make :

but till now never had the time to start anything! For the time being, I only make small things like brooches and necklaces for my shop:

But if you have the time and the mood to make a crochet dress or a skirt for the summer, you can find fantastic patterns online, like these from  knitting daily:

Or you can try this skirt pattern, which is very easy :

The fantastic art of crochet

I wanted for a long time to make a post about crochet, seeing this beautiful art’s revival through more and more sites and decoration blogs. And even if you cannot crochet, you can find beautiful crochet readymade trims to use in your decoration.

In country living I found a beautiful article with decoration ideas, using readymade crochet trims. Bethany Lyttle writes:

"Evidently, sight isn't sufficient for the full appreciation of crochet. Otherwise, why does the hand reach, almost reflexively, to touch its pretty looped designs? Crochet lace, for centuries a household embellishment in most homes, and long deemed a needlecraft worthy of study by young women in both Europe and the New World, continues to capture the attention of anyone who sees it. Even for those whose tastes tend away from romantic touches, there is an almost instant attraction to its unassuming loveliness and charm. In part, this is because crochet edgings, while pretty, are rarely showy or overdone. And, whether we know how to crochet or not, we all know someone who did. Crochet edgings bespeak our grandmothers, aunts, and mothers, suggesting a quiet attention to detail and a loving extra touch....".

In Apartment therapy I found these beautiful stools:

Moonbasket has gorgeous lamps, vases and votives decorated with crochet:

And as always, Etsy is the best source for incredible crochet creations:

Shown from top left:
crochetbautterfly, namolio, kirevi, FebystanDesigns, suili,AprilAdriance, OnelifeRosen, joyoustreasures, uloni, verityunmondoaparte, sixskeins, Ebruk, JaneBoFelt, swakdesigns, 

elde, Yoola

With great joy I read in several forums and blogs, that young girls show interest in learning this art and because I read that many of them have difficulty to read and understand the symbols and shortcuts in the charts, I have here a picture with the basic symbols:

and  here you will find the instruction for the basics of crochet.
Have fun :)

Happy mother's day to all sweet moms!

I have been away from the blogosphere the last two months, due to work overload (it's tax season, the worst period for the accountants), but I will be back soon! Today I want to wish all the sweet moms of the word!

And a big thank you to Mary, Natassa and my sweet friend Maria for the awards they have been given to me.

Shopping therapy

The spring is coming, the whole nature is singing about it! The flowers have begun to bloom and the birds are singing cheerfully! And with in spring comes also the need for renewal! I made an extensive shopping therapy, first within Etsy and last week I went to the shops! No I did not buy new spring clothes and shoes, to be sincere I didn’t even look at these windows! This winter I managed to gain  five entire kilos and I have decided that I will not buy anything new until I lose them! I bought however various materials in order to experiment with new creations! I bought gorgeous fabrics and felts and made cute brooches!

The fabric flower pins or corsages made intense appearance in this spring  fashion shows and they are a fantastic accessory for decorating  an evening dress, or to  wear on your favorite jacket or it to adopt the style of Sarah Jessica Parker, placing a pin flower above a simple t-shirt.

Tutorial how to make a flower corsage with silk muslin:

1). Cut for the individual petals about 24 recktangles of fabric approximately 7x7 large. You can cut some smaller and some larger pieces. On the top of each piece cut with the scissors formin two curves:

2). Stitch the petals together along the bottom edge using a gathering stitch, one after another, until you have all the petals stung on the thread:

3).Draw the fabric up tightly, creating a flatt circle of petals and tie off:

4).Embellish the flower with a button, or beads:

5).Cut a disc from felt and sew a pinback on it, or cut with the scissors two small lines and pull the pin back through them without sewing :

 6) Glue the disc to the back of the flower with fabric glue and your corsage is ready!

I made this brooch for this week's eurpean team challenge, which is "your favorite traveling destination", chosen by Zsazsazsu!Visit her blog to see all the lovely creations made for this challenge!. I love to travel, and every place on this planet is for me a favorite destination, but I chose Paris, which is a fantastic city, and I have visited three times, but I can never had enough of it!

The shibori technique

After the lovely comments on my first shibori scarf -thank you all so much-, I thought to write a liitle about this art.

 Shibori is an ancient Japanese art and has many interpretations. It essentially denotes shaped resist textile, and is commonly associated with dyeing cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, or compressing it.

It is utilized in knitting and felting, for transformative knitting, either by the use of physical resists (marbles, corks, hazelnuts) that prevent specific areas of knitting from felting, creating unique fabric with bobbles and dimensionality, or by the use of non felting fibers as resists, for example a silk yarn with a wool yarn.

 

  

  

 

My first scarf with the shibori technique

The new challenge for this week is “sea creatures”, chosen by Nicole, aka UltimateOrganicSoap, who was the winner of “spring” challenge. You can read more about it and see the submissions so far on her blog. I was inspired for this challenge by this photograph of underwater life and made this scarf, trying for the first time the shibori technique:

Scarves-the best solution to keep you warm

Scarves are in fashion this winter and are very good warmers. They are easy and quick to make and also a very good idea for gift.

The weather may now not be very cold and spring is around the corner, but knitting is still pleasant and March has always surprises!

I started some time ago a scarf with the fabulus yarn I got as Christmas present from my dear friend Susie from England and I hope to finish it before the weather gets too warm :)

I chose a lace pattern veru easy to execute, so that I can carry it with me and be able to knit without having to look at the instructions al the time:

Repeat the stitches between the two arrows, that is your stitches must be divided with 12,plus 3.

First row: sl,1k,*k2tog twice,yo,1k,yo,ik,yo,ik,yo,skp twice,1k*,repeat directions between *,1k.

Second row: purl

Third row: knit

Forth row: purl.

Repeat rows 1-4.

And if you don't know knitting, there are fantastic knitters at Etsy who offer gorgeous scarves: