pattern links Archives - Page 11 of 19

Trinket boxes

Oh man, I thought this would never be done. Long ago this was to be a teaching pattern, for half double crochet increase and decrease. It was pretty subpar using only the techniques learned to the desired point in the course, but the idea was sound, so I re-created it using the magic ring and with the sides created in the round beginning with stitching directly onto unused loops of the base. Many, many revisions later, I bring it to you.

This pattern was a challenge. I shifted the increases and decreases in the corners of the box half a dozen times, and even developed a new hybrid joining/spiral technique for the base: slip stitch at the end of the round, but don’t chain up. I call it the stepped spiral. It has some benefits of both typical rounds techniques: less seam than joined rounds, less asymmetry than a spiral – though not zero seam or zero asymmetry. I applied it to two of the lids as well.

The chimney lid (funnel shaped) had a dramatic reimagining – I first made it starting at the top, stitching around in the back bumps of a starting chain, and then went back at the end to sew in two artificial chains to fill in the spot where the chain twisted down and made a sort of chip in the lid (since a loop made by stitching in the back bumps wants to be a mobius strip). I could not figure out how to pin down and explain my filling-in method, though, so I had to re-design. Instructions for top-down stitching are included, though you don’t get a ring of teardrops and you do have your starting slip knot up in the top edge, but the main instructions are for starting at the neck with foundation single crochet, a la this recent blog post. The main lid is in red below and the alternate in light green.

I plan to work out how to make these in non-yarn materials. I’ve tried embroidery floss with a size 4 steel hook (2mm; above), and I think four strands of thread (for a mini box) and narrow wire-edged ribbon (for a very solid, possibly slightly larger box) would both be appealing. When I do figure those out, in addition to blogging them I’ll put photos and materials lists on the trinket box pattern page.

Green-eyed macrame owl

In honor of I Love Yarn Day I decided to try a yarn craft I’d never done before. So I chose macrame, which is not actually a yarn craft; it is more commonly done with cord or something else that doesn’t stretch. After looking around I found a pattern for a macrame owl by a crafter named Alice.

The pattern was wonderful and I highly recommend it. It uses only lark’s head knots, half hitches, and square knots, and the diagrams are clear enough I didn’t need any supplemental material, even though this was my first macrame project (odd, since my mother did a fair bit of macrame when I was young). I did use a different macrame resource to confirm I was interpreting the diagrams correctly, but I was.

The pattern calls for crochet thread, and I used sport weight yarn. I wasn’t sure what the length conversion would be, so I cut pieces at least two yards long. I didn’t need to; I had well over half the original length left over. However, it was convenient to have the extra weight – with the end of the yarn wound on bobbins to keep the strands from tangling together.

I used bamboo skewers for the top and bottom rods, and beads from my stash for the eyes. Instead of putting glue on the ends of the yarn to turn them into needles, I folded a length of thin wire in half to use as a threader. I stuck it through the bead, put the yarn through the folded end of the wire, and pulled it through.

Here’s a picture of when it first started looking like something. I added pins to keep the fold in step 6 in place until it was knotted up.

I found the pattern via the Macrame Lovers blog. It updates sporadically (and hasn’t for over a year) but has a decent number of patterns both locally and linked around the web.

[I accidentally categorized this as crochet and then linked to it from elsewhere, so it will stay in crochet to keep those links valid.]

Royalty

My husband and I had our first anniversary on Saturday (which we celebrated by going to a wedding). My gift to him was a prince and princess stitched in embroidery floss.

What happens when you block and then wrap and then don’t re-block.

The patterns were from Kati Galusz, her free Medieval Fantasy: King and a paid Medieval Fantasy: Lady. I changed their clothing color as well as their ranks, and made an extra crown from the King pattern for the Lady’s promotion. The patterns were easy to follow and almost didn’t require any modification to use for embroidery floss, although the lady’s clothing was shorter than it was supposed to be. There’s still something I haven’t figured out about stitch proportions in floss versus yarn, and flat versus round. I added more hair than called for to avoid bald spots, and I had to extend the top of the lady’s arms because they were also too short.

In case you also want to make these out of embroidery floss, here’s the specs:
I used 6mm safety eyes from Suncatcher Eyes, in brown and country blue.
The dolls were a bit over 2.5 inches tall.
He required 1 skein each of DMC 310 (boots), 945 (skin), 435 (hair), and 680 (also hair – I split the floss in half and recombined to get variegation). He required 2 skeins each of DMC 783 (sleeves, pants, embroidery, belt) and 815 (doublet). One skein of E3821/5282 made both crowns easily. She required 1 skein of 898 (hair) and 2 skeins each of 910 (inner part of dress) and 945 (skin). She needed 3 skeins of 3818 (outer part of dress). I did the “skin” option for her legs. If I’d done the “stockings” option I might have been able to get away with one skein of 945, but it would probably have bumped me up to 3 skeins of 910. For the least invasive strand-changing on the lady, stitch her skirt and coat first.

To lengthen the lady’s arms as I did after they were crocheted but not sewn up, take a new length of floss, pull up a loop in the second-from-end of the 6 stitches across the top of the arm (which end doesn’t matter), chain 1, sc in same stitch, dc in each of next 2 stitches, sc in next stitch, and sl st in same st as sc. You’ll have added to the center 4 stitches of the 6.

I took only one progress photo, so here you go.

I title this “bald ‘n’ armless.”