Tapestry Crochet

You can find the pattern of my Thinking Cap in the 2014 issue of Crochet Accessories. I submitted photos of the red and white Knot a Hat (below) to Interweave. They sent me Pavlova and Kiwi colored Kenzie yarn to tapestry crochet the hat for them, then tweaked the name of the project.

Proposed Knot a Hat

This playful hat was inspired by the blue baby beanie (below) that Maarit Aalto gave me in 2005 at the Crochet Days Conference in Finland. Instead of starting at the top, crocheting begins at the rim. The rounds spiral around towards the top, so the tail can be as long or short as you wish!

Tapestry crocheted hats begun at the rim.

This year’s edition of the magazine is full of other fun projects, too, so I hope you’ll take a look and give this knotty project a try!

Have you seen the new Vogue Knitting Crochet? My tote is one of thirty four projects in the stylish 2013 special edition of the magazine. Members of Ravelry can see all the accessories, skirts, tops, and dresses here.

As usual, I experimented first. After finishing the brown and white bag, I emailed a project proposal with a photo to Vogue. They liked it – sent me a contract and several skeins of Prism Windward yarn – and voilá!

The first version is on the left, in front of the Vogue Knitting Crochet Tote on the right.

Their photo looks much better, don’t you think?

Tapestry Crochet Tote in Prism Windward and Windward Layers, Vogue Knitting Crochet 2013 (photo by Rose Callahan).

I hope you’ll take a look and give this project – and some of the others – a try!

Just in time for summer!

So, how did my Desert Sunrise Afghan end up in Robyn Chachula’s new Unexpected Afghans book? Well fortunately, she invited me to submit a proposal, explaining that, “The book will be a designer showcase of crochet through afghans.  We will be featuring 25 designers to showcase their craft through the medium of an afghan.”

Robyn suggested I tapestry crochet a 48″ diameter sunburst, kind of like a Gothic stained glass window and my Sunburst Bowl, with colors inspired by the photo below:

Robyn selected seven colors of Caron Simply Soft yarn. She gave me the freedom to change them, but I decided to challenge myself with her selection. I eliminated one of the reds she sent, though, because it didn’t contrast enough with the other reds. The yarn and colors really took me out of my comfort zone – a good thing. I arranged them with high contrast in mind.

If you give this afghan a try, there is a mistake on page 80. The graph is great, but the color key on the right is incorrect. MC should replace A on the top, the pink square should be A instead of B, the orange square should be B instead of C, etc.

Robyn’s wonderful book includes twenty-eight other innovative afghans and five exquisite pillows, too! I hope you’ll take a look!

It’s always a challenge to design pieces for editors. How does it work? Well, they send out calls for specific types of projects for upcoming publications, then select the ones that best match their vision. Editors often tweak the proposal and usually choose the colors and yarn. That’s how it happened with this project, a “felted tapestry crochet bag with a simple geometric motif” for the February 2011 (issue 14) of Inside Crochet.

Some publications return the projects after the instructions have been published, others don’t. Most purchase all publication rights, others return the publication rights to the designer after a year or so. All of this is spelled out in the contract.

When the Manos de Uruguay Handspun Kettle-Dyed Wool arrived, the “voyage of discovery” began. The first step – what size hook? I tried several before selecting the size P (10mm) hook on the far right (below), because it produced a stitch that was tight enough to hide most of the carried yarn, but loose enough to produce a fabric that would felt in a washing machine.

Each of these swatches was crocheted with the same number of stitches, but different sized hooks.

This is how the bag looked before it was felted.

Tapestry crochet shrinks and felts like magic in a washing machine. Every yarn reacts differently, though, so the journey continued. Conclusion: this particular yarn needs to be washed a few times to felt sufficiently.

Details of before felting (on the left) and after felting (on the right).

The fabric became very dense after it was felted – no lining necessary.

A lining would have hidden the pattern inside the Tapestry Bag.

Fortunately, I’m supposed to get this project back – along with the publication rights. I really like how the carried colors peek through the fabric, giving it a “tweedy” look.

So, what do you think?

I’m one of those people who prefers to sit in a window seat when I’m flying. It really paid off on the flight to the 2007 Crochet Guild of America Conference. When I saw the clouds against the brilliant, blue sky, I snapped a photo and thought, “My next piece will use these colors!”

THIS is why I prefer the window seat.

The bag below that I designed for the Crochet Master Class book is the result. This Beaded Tapestry Crochet Bag project combines my love of basket weaving with bead tapestry crochet. The two different sized beads and the motif trick the eye into thinking it’s looking at a woven surface.

Beaded Tapestry Crochet Bag project in Crochet Master Class book.

The beauty of tapestry crocheting with beads is that each thread can be loaded with one bead color and only the color that is needed at the time is crocheted to form a pattern while the other thread is carried. When crocheting with beads, the bead naturally slides to the back of the stitch, so the back of the stitch is on the outside of the bag. That’s why the graph in the book appears to be reversed.

The inside of the bag is the “working side” since the beads fall to the back of the stitch, so both the inside and outside look great!

This project was tapestry crocheted with three colors, but only one thread was carried while another was crocheted. Since every row only has two colors, ecru or navy was cut off and the other one added close to the end and beginning of each color section.

Detail of the Beaded Tapestry Crochet Bag.

Several years passed before the book was published (not unusual), so I was thrilled when it was finally released! What an honor to be included with such a talented group of designers!

This book is a real masterpiece!

Crochet Master Class is not just a pattern book, but features eighteen crochet techniques. Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss, the editors, chose one designer to represent each different approach. We were sent questionnaires, then they put together the biographical, historical, and technical sections that precede each of our projects.

Jean and Rita at the 2009 Crochet Guild of America Conference (photograph by Sherri Bondy).

When I showed Jean and Rita the bag below at the 2007 CGOA Conference, they said it would be perfect for their “master’s level” book. Editors usually shy away from such complicated projects, so I was ecstatic that they were doing a book that would really challenge crocheters!

My first Bead Tapestry Crochet “Woven” Bag.

I later decided to redo the bag, though, with slightly different handles and motifs and with the colors I saw on the flight to the conference. Both of these master’s level bags were made with size 8 and 6 seed beads from Fire Mountain Gems and size 3 DMC 100% cotton Senso thread. As happens so often, this particular DMC thread has been discontinued, but other Senso threads or another size 3 thread could be substituted.

So, if you’re ready to expand your horizons, or would just like to learn more about the many faces of crochet, then Crochet Master Class is for you!

I needed a sturdy oval based bag that would fit under an airline seat and would hide the dirt accumulated while traveling. So I packed some tapestry crochet graph paper, a pencil with an eraser, a size 00 steel crochet hook, and contrasting colors of #18 Omega Nylon in my travel bag so that I could work on it during my long trip to Africa.

Looking around for inspiration at the John F. Kennedy International Airport Delta Terminal in New York City, I noticed a fabulous window at the gate where I was waiting for my flight to Ghana.

Window in the Delta Terminal at the JFK International Airport

Triangles work well for tapestry crochet, but I didn’t want to copy it exactly, so I drew several versions on my tapestry crochet graph paper, then asked some of the other passengers for their opinion. Fortunately, they all chose the one I liked best!

I counted the stitches across the bottom of the motif to figure out the number of stitches in each repeat, then did the math to figure out how many stitches were needed for the base chain.

After crocheting for hours (following the increases from one of my other oval-based bags) I put it under the airline seat in front of me to see how it would fit – and to my horror – the bag was too wide! So, I reluctantly frogged it and restarted with a shorter chain that would produce a narrower bag with less motif repeats.

Crocheting the base of the bag at the bus station in Accra, Ghana, in 2009. I hadn’t slept for 24 hours and still had an 7 hour bus ride ahead of me!

The finished Geometry Tote, tapestry crocheted with Omega Nylon

I later realized that two of my older projects had similar triangular motifs – not the same – but almost! I’ll probably crochet a few more projects with more variations of these small and large triangles. The possibilities are (almost) endless!

The pattern for the Geometry Tote has just been published in the February 2011 Crochet World. I hope you’ll give it a try!