Progress

Latest progress on the lacy, flowery scarf. This is much more what I want to achieve.

When worn the weight pulls the chain straight and makes the pattern considerably more linear but, while I suspect I will work on some ideas to make it even more open, I think this is very pretty.

The lovely slatey blue yarn is a blend of cotton, silk and cashmere. It has a nasty tendency to split if not treated with care while being worked but I think it is worth the extra effort as it is wonderfully soft to the touch.

To doily or not to doily

My earliest adventures in crochet were due to a kind gift from an elderly neighbour of my gran's. She presented me with an ancient chocolate box filled with mercerised cottons and a tiny steel hook. What a thrill!

My gran's house was adorned with doilies, complete with 3D flowers, which cushioned many family photographs. Most of these were created by my aunt, who was a definitely a dab hand with a hook and although she wasn't involved in my lessons her work was always around to inspire. My gran could do the basic stitches and so taught me what she could and set me on my way.

I spent many hours with this magical box, thinking of what wonders I would create.

The reality is that I bore quickly with shop-bought patterns – preferring to work things out as I go – and doilies with #40 crochet cotton, multi-coloured pansies and a 1mm hook were just never going to happen. I did manage a couple of doilies before I moved on to wool and hooks I don't have to strain my eyes to see but I still have the box and I still love looking through it. Good memories I guess.

And so to my current dilemma . . .

I want to create an open, lacy, crochet scarf (doily-ish). I have a pattern (Patons Crochet Booklet 3244)  but although it's not quite what I want it makes me think a lacy scarf will not be too difficult.

I was thinking loose and lacy and flowery all at the same time so played around with hook sizes, flower sizes and lengths of chain.

First attempts

There are a few niggling problems so, to help me figure out where I was going wrong, I decided to make up a sample from the pattern in the book.

The Patons lacy wrap

The Patons pattern worked out surprisingly solid so I'll definitely persevere with my own version but it was a pretty informative exercise all the same.

Seeing the samples together confirmed that I want this to be loose and lacy

The pretty box lid

Sunshine at Aberlady

Sunshine, miles of golden sand and a submarine – a fantastic day in East Lothian!

My PEEDIE messenger bag makes an appearance at the beach.
This black and cream version is the well-tested prototype for the ones in my shop.

Variations on a theme

More PLEATS bags. I absolutely love this style and am enjoying creating different versions.

Little ray of sunshine

Peedie bag – messenger style in super-bright!

I think I might have gotten a little bit carried away – the flap is blue on the underside, there's a big blue pocket on the back and the strap is really bright pink. The lining is a fab brown and white (!) patterned quilting cotton.

Obviously got a bit crazy after a few sunny days.

Been a busy day

I got a bit carried away with my new pattern . . .

I decided on an adjustable strap

The lining is a dotty printed poplin flatlined with waterproof cotton.
Pockets in red drill to match the outer layer

A button covered in red drill to match the bag and the button loop in  black drill to contrast

The photos aren't very good as the light was fading fast and my camera struggled with the red of the main fabric. Hope to get some decent shots tomorrow.

This is lots of fun to make and although this version is fairly plain I'm loving it!

Pleats or tucks?

Another week, another bag prototype. This one is developed for my mum to take on holiday. She needs a bag that will suit her style, make her feel her things are secure and be spacious enough to allow her to carry all the stuff she needs: passport, make-up bag, moisturising cream, sun-cream, book, sunglasses, reading glasses, wallet, keys, diary, hairbrush, lots of little bits of paper, various random things, kitchen sink (stuff!).

My mum is considerably more girly than I am so I thought I'd try out a style for her that has a bit more curvyliciousness – hence the pleats/tucks. I'm not sure quite what to call these so I'm being a bit vague. Essentially they are darts, stitched at the edge but not along the length. Just enough to hold the shape. The look is much more organic than my usual style – I tend to be drawn to smooth lines and a bit of sculpting.

Since this is a prototype it's made from fabrics from the stash (bull denim and a little bit of ticking – I've not decided on the type of strap or fastener this style should have).

The pleats create a lot of depth and taking that into account creates a very long-looking pattern. It took a couple of attempts to get the proportions right but now I'm happy that the folds are making the right shapes and the overall scale is good.

I like the form/function meets decoration quality of the folds.

Something from the land of corsetry: flossing samples. 

I've been playing with flossing shapes for the pewter corset. The bones on each side of the seams are cut to the same length and I want the flossing shape to work across both bones to create one pattern. 

At the moment I'm liking the grey one in the middle for at the bottom and the one at the right/middle for at the top. 

In practice I've sewn these starting with the short stitches and working toward the long, which I intend to change and sew from the other direction. That way the short stitches will be on top of the long lengths and will help to keep them secure and less likely to catch on anything.

Now I need to be brave enough to sew these onto the corset. Being nervous of ruining what you've already made is not how to progress!