Charting Progress with the Pink Ladies, Folksy Friday

I've been given a commission to produce a lace crochet wall display for a local shop. I love experimenting with lace so I grabbed the opportunity.... and then came the moment of fear!!! The patterns they wanted me to use were in the form of crochet charts - you can see an example HERE.The DMC America Site also has a gorgeous heart pattern - but you do need to remember that the abbreviations are written in "USA Crochet" I've seen charts in books alongside written instructions many times, had a bit of a brain melt down whilst looking at them and returned to the conventional written word.... but this time I had no choice....

So having waded through the booklet and found the pages where the chart symbols were explained in English I decided I needed to give it a go. But.... I didn't want to mess up the lovely anchor cottons I'd been given to work with, so I ripped out a baby hat I'd been given as a "spare wool" item by a friend and had a play with larger hooks and conventional yarns first. And discovered it was quite easy once you understood the code. As a result of my experimenting I created a few flowers and decided they'd look good as hair barres. So I unpicked the work again, added some clear reflective beads to the yarn and got going, the end results being ( please click on the photo's to visit my store):

 PINK LADIES FOLKSY FRIDAY

Anyway as I'd mastered charts I decided to have another attempt at mastering spirals. My first attempt wasn't 100% right but with some stuffing materials and a bit of floral inspiration, it did form the perfect centre for a flower brooch. Rewatching the Grease DVD whilst in a "pink mood" then provided the inspiration for my Pink Ladies Folksy Friday :

Bits and Bobs Crafts - Pink Floral Brooch

1. Squintissential     2.CraftyBitz                             3. Aunty Joan Crafts
4. Pants and Paper   5. Be Beautiful Again Trinkets    6. Jessica's Jotters