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

Fileting Crochet

I've been listing a few filet crochet items in my store recently as I've developed a bit of a love for it. So I thought I'd share the basics and feature some of my favourite places for inspiration.
As a cross stitcher filet crochet appealed to me as I can use my cross stitch design software to design the filet work. And essentially its similar to cross stitch but with a crochet hook.

Stage 1 is to plan out the design - what do i want to feature?

Is it a name?

If it is, how many letters? What size does the finished piece need to be?


A symbol?

A Covering?

 

Once that's decided, the next step is to work out how big it needs to be and to consider the thickness of crochet cotton to use. Crochet cotton comes in sizes 10 to 30 - the smaller the number the finer the the cotton and hence the hook. 1 - 1.75mm hooks are best for filet as they produce a denser fabric. But filet can be worked on larger scale items too, e.g. scarves and wraps to produce beautiful effects - so if you don't enjoy fine work, you can still grab a hook and get going.

I then plot the item on my cross stitch program but graph paper works just as well. Once that's done its time to get going...

The principle behind filet is to work an open net, but where you want the pattern to appear you fill in the gap. 

For a simple motif

you would make 15ch. Rows 1-3 - Miss 4 chain, 1tr into 2nd stitch from hook, *1ch, miss 1 ch, 1tr. Work from * to end.

Row 4, you would work as row 1 but where you have a coloured in square on your graph paper - for example 10 squares from the edge, you would then work 3 tr into that stitch. You then continue working a mixture of netting stitches and solid stitches until you have completed your design.

The antique pattern library has some amazing patterns that you can use to create beautiful pieces of work. It contains knit and crochet magazines from the late 19th / early 20th century. Filet crochet was really popular then so the majority of the books contain some patterns and examples.

Here are some beautiful lace inspired makes from the fabulous makers at Folksy:

1. Laura's Jewellery   2. Swings and Roundabouts   3. Gimme That Spin 
4. The Crafty Bride    5. Milly Mooshu                    6. Lynwood Crafts

Please click on the image to visit their shop

What's in a Heart? = Folksy Friday

For today's Folksy Friday, I'm featuring hearts as my theme. So I got to wondering what the heart symbolises, is the meaning the same now as in the past. What about if hearts are different colours than the traditional red. So I spent an hour or so wandering the internet reviewing info on a wide range of sites - some very informative and interesting and others as clear as mud and gleaned the following info:

What do hearts mean?

We use the heart in many ways to act as a symbol for many words, even though in modern times it is often a symbol for the commercialism of St Valentine:

 

The simple heart says "I love you" or "I love this" or "Sending you lots of love". Its originis come from ancient times when the heart was thought to be the centre of the soul and controller of all emotions - that's why we "give our heart" to someone or "Put heart and soul" into something.

However change the colour of the heart and you change its meaning:

Black  -  hard heartedness or evil intent


Yellow hearts - lack courage


Purple hearts in America are a symbol for bravery - an award for valour in wartime


White hearts  - purity and innocence


Whilst many believe the green heart is a symbol for envy, in ancient cultures green is the colour of nature, of balance, unconditional love, forgiveness.

The heart with the arrow is taken to mean "love struck", you've been hit with one of "cupid's arrows". However the original symbol has Christian origins - the heart pierced was an ancient symbol for Christ - who gave his heart by chosing to die on the cross. There are many instances where new cultures adopt symbolism from others and perhaps this is one , maybe the heart pierced had a pagan meaning - or perhaps we've taken a Christian symbol and brought it into modern popular culture and changed its meaning? 

Finally this is the broken heart - a sign of sorrow, adandonment, the end of a relationship. Its a powerful symbol that says a lot without words about our state of mind.

What else do hearts say about us?

Doodling hearts is a sign of being in love or having a romantic nature

Dreaming of hearts can be sign of love or stress - it depends what your heart is doing in the dream - racing hearts mean stress. This is giving me images of hearts with trainers on going for a jog lol!

Adding flames to a red heart and gives a symbol for passion


So next time you're doodling a heart...... will you think about what it really means?


I crocheted this heart as a way of acknowledging the work and progress made by myself and a group of other ladies across Hampshire. We did a confidence building course and ended it off with a Gala Night, which we organised. Each lady had a goodie bag - and I crocheted and knitted keyrings. I'm now selling off the surplus ones in my Folksy Shop - to purchase a keying, please click on the photo:

What do you think the Fabulous Folksy Makers are saying with their hearts?

1. Polly Krafts                2.Clarkie Designs         3.Pants and Paper
4. Sow's Ear, Silk Purse    5.Murano Magic           6. Photography by Gail Griggs

Somewhere over the rainbow - Folksy friday

As part of the ongoing campaign to chase the rain away, I've been knitting all things rainbow this week! Have a community fair tomorrow so am really praying for sun so I can get some stock moving - have mainly concentrated on little things like hairslides, phone cases, corsages but will take some of my bigger makes too. Will also try and remember to pack the camera!


As am "rainbow inspired" at present have decided to make my Folksy Friday run along this theme... by featuring an item in each of the colours I have in my phone cover below:

So here a "rainbow of talent" from the fabulous Folksters:

1. Get Down and Crafty   2. Aunty Joan Crafts   3. Mary Elliot

4. Polly Purple Horse Crafts   5. Bags of Swish   6. Mia Scarlett

As usual please click the photo to visit their fab Folksy Stores








And as I've found lots of rainbows on my travels... I've decided to do a double and share those with you too!

1. Heloise V Crochet   2. Felted Fluffies   3. Rock Princess
4. 100% Delicate       5. Moody Cow Designs

Folksy Friday - Something for the little ones - Children In Need

Although I don't have any children's items in my store, I thought that I would post a Child friendly FF today in honour of tonight's Children In Need Appeal.

I will donate 10% of the cost of any items bought from my Folksy store tonight to  the Children in Need Appeal

Other Folksy Stores also supporting Children in Need include:

The Crafty Bride        Unique Beaded Gems    Pauline R (offline Party)

Made with Love Designs  Pirate Treasures Jewellery TSJ Jewellery Designs

The Sequinned Sheep   Goblin Market  April Is Forever Jewellery

Rowan Jade Jewellery  Blue Forest Jewellery - offline auction

Off the Hook




Folksy Friday - in my Child's Stocking....


1. Uniquely Yours     2. Eccentric Ella                  3. Haptree   
4. Sew Flair             5. Giggles Animal Gifts        4. Birdcage Creatives

Nuts and Oranges - Folksy Friday

As its getting progressively closer to the festive season have been thinking back to childhood stories of the Christmases my parents and grandparents experienced. And one thing that always stuck in my mind was the "stocking with nuts and oranges" - oranges being a real treat back then... So with the help of some Folksters, I've based my blog post today on the theme of "nuts and oranges" and fortunately they think just as creatively as I do...

From me is a toffee - could be brazil nut flavour :-) - duffle bag that Santa could put all the nuts and oranges in:





Shops participating in this treasury are:

Christmas Melts - Paulines Candles,  Wooden nut and bolt memory stick - Tree Gems, Orange Tote - Top Floor Treasures, May Contain Nuts bowl - Tait Gallery, Orange Boho Retro bag - Audrey's cat, Gemstone Bracelet - Lej Jewellery

Please click on the photo to be taken to the store

Thanks to Pauline's Candles, Top Floor Treasures, Sugar Mice, Audrey's Cat, Lemonade and Lamingtons and Lej Jewellery for being my personal shoppers and recommending all the items in this treasury, and introducing me to some fab Folksy Stores I'd not come across before.