Ramblings from the Belfry

Hi Lili

What a GREAT window display. Just love it.They look so professional in that bright shop-light. How exciting that must be. Heck, I'm excited and I'm all the way over here. ;-) Oooh. Does that mean someone bought the rabbit-digesting snake? Coooool.

Ahh the dent. That phenomenon is truly a pain especially if you want to make frequent color changes like I do. I started off wanting achieve a kind of weaved look  to make my crochet pictures, but I couldn't stand all the jagged edges that turning the piece creates.

I think I've mentioned Tapestry Crochet before? It is easy enough when worked in the round (no turning) but Carol Ventura, the professor of textiles that is THE source on the subject has developed a way to make flat panels that look woven:

Ventura rules

From the website http://www.weavespindye.org/images/CVrules.jpg 

at  www.weavespindye.org/pages/?p=mem-artist.html...  the site for

the Handweaver's Guild of America.

You might have to see it in a larger format but it looks pretty impressive.

Here's a couple of darker ones that she did:

From http://www.crochet.org/97conf/cv106bg.jpg              http://www.crochet.org/98conf/vc309bg.jpg 

Ventura2

CV3

both form the Crochet Guild of America website

I really prefer these to the brightly colored one. (Rather unusual for me, eh?)

Anyway she has a set of books that explain the technique but I haven't bought them. Being cheap and a little too attached to the internet, I did look online for the instructions. I found a few arcane references and tried it on my own. I simply couldn't understand what they meant and I couldn't figure out a way of my own that pleased me. So being resourceful, crafty and stubborn, I switched to using motifs and making crochet drawings that were a bit more built up. :-) More like bas relief sculpture. Yeah. I wish.

Speaking of motifs, I haven't made any formal fridgies but I have used fridgie patterns to make little dealies for my pictures. The charm bracelet I made has a lot of such stolen ideas.

Charms

Specifically the star, the heart, the palm tree and the moon. The rest are my own designs. So this is as close as posting a fridgie as I can get. I have some left over charms that I might glue to a magnet. Now, I had a pack of small round magnets somewhere. Where did I put those? The trouble with being a pack rat is that things are constantly gettting misplaced lost in the huge piles of goodies that glimmer invitingly within my lair. ;-)

Too bad yarn is so pretty. So collectable. So addictive. If I had the financial means I would have skeins of yarns everywhere like in a cartoon. I'd have to use them to fill the matress and sofa cushions and the cupboards and drawers. I kind of like that idea. :-D

I think the main reason I haven't tried tunisian crochet is because I don't want to buy new hooks. Same thing with knitting actually. A whole new set of tools - needles, circular needles, stitch holders, etc. Because I love tools and would want to try them all. A dangerous road for me to start down. ;-)

Sure I've seen Crochenit hooks. Here's a the online ones:

From Annie's Attic http://www.anniesattic.com/detail.html?prod_id=4485

   plastic 14" size M  

From Herrschners http://www.herrschners.com/search.aspx?q=double+end+crochet+hooks&catID=&tab=

$ 3.79 - #3.99 American

 10" or 14"  aluminum sizes G-K            10" plastic sizes P, Q

 The sizes are US standard (even though they vary a bit between manufacturers). Here's a chart I found at Purple Kitty Yarns that hopefully will help clear things up. They also have a lot of crochenit patterns and such. 

http://www.purplekittyyarns.com/info/crochet-hook-conversion.html 

Aluminum Crochet Hook Conversion

(mm)   US   UK/Canada

4.0      G/6        8

4.5       -           7

5.0      H/8        6

5.5       I/9        5

6.0      J/10       4

6.5      K/10.5   3

10.0     N/15    000

16.0     P/16     -

16.0     Q         -  this is probably 17 or 18mm 

19        S         -  this is probably 19 or 20mm

Have you seen the cro-tat hooks? I've always thought tatting was kind of limited in the range of things that could be made. Maybe I'll look into it further. It doesn't pay to have too closed a mind. ;-)

So I've rambled on for much too long. I have a necklace to mail. I sold that kitty face nicklace with the motifs on it:

 

Blue yellow kitty face

So I better get off my butt and get to the post office.

Have a good one today.

Talk to you later.

Always

Ceci