Wendy Herdman, of Mesa, Arizona, is new to tapestry crochet. She says, “After several years hiatus from crochet, I stumbled on a reference to tapestry crochet while looking at painted thread techniques and the concept immediately made sense. Typically for me, I jumped into my yarn stash and started experimenting with all of three paragraphs “instruction”. Now that I feel comfortable with the basics, I’m looking forward to refining and expanding my skills.”
“I tend to work very organically with only a general idea of the finished project in mind. I don’t use published patterns or do more than rough sketches beforehand so my work is a constant process of finding solutions to problems I didn’t even know I’d be facing! That process–asking the questions, making mistakes, experimenting–constantly informs the direction of my work. Every piece begins with a single question: “What if?”
When I asked Wendy what she liked about tapestry crochet, she responded, “I love being able to change colors on the fly and even rip back huge sections without having to worry about stopping and starting new threads. It’s incredibly freeing.”
When asked, “What don’t you like about tapestry crochet?” She said,
“Having to stop to untangle the yarns! Working two or three colors at a time isn’t too bad, but when I get up to five or six I start seriously thinking about trading out a few colors to keep the numbers down.”
“My stash is mostly acrylic for economic reasons and for now that translates into a lot of Caron’s Simply Soft. I like the range of colors and the smooth feel, but I’ve been sneaking in more natural fibers and different weights of acrylic as well. In the end, anything that offers a good color or interesting characteristic to exploit is going to be a likely candidate for my work basket.”
None of her pieces are done with graphed images – but are made up as she crochets. To see more of Wendy’s fabulous original creations, take a look at her projects page on Ravelry, where she goes by wherdman.
And when asked, “Do you have any tips?” Wendy replied, “Play! Every now and then, throw away the patterns and the graph paper and just play. It’s good for the soul.”
Tapestry crochet is just what I have been looking for! The baskets are gorgeous. I want to start with the kitty bag but am unable to find Reynolds Gypsy cotton. What other yarn or thread would give similar results? I can’t tell whether it is a cotton yarn or a crochet thread (like DMC). Thanks.
Gypsy cotton is like a worsted weight yarn, but any type of yarn or thread would work. Thinner fiber would make a smaller purse.