Crocheted Flowers - update
Posted by Administrator on Apr 28, 2008
Recently I wrote a post about a book I saw online for making crocheted flowers. Imagine my surprise when I got a comment from the author - how cool! She gave a little more info about it, and of course said that it’s a good book. 
Browsing Amazon, I discovered that there are quite a few books on making flowers with crocheting, knitting, felting, beading….you name it. Flowers make great jewelry and accessories, so I think I will check out a few more books on crafting flowers and I’ll report back about which ones I liked the best. Maybe I’ll even make some flower jewelry to test out project ideas from the books.
Crochet Flowers
Posted by Administrator on Apr 17, 2008
I just saw this book on Amazon that looks like it would be a lot of fun: Crochet Bouquet: Easy Designs for Dozens of Flowers
Crocheted flowers are a great way to use up a little bit of leftover yarn if you are a fiber artist, and they can easily be made into accessories like pins, or sewn onto hats, scarves, sweaters, etc as a cute embellishment. The jewelry maker in me wants to crochet up a whole bunch of flowers and stitch them together into a fun necklace, or dangle a couple from earwires. I even have some very thin yarn and tiny crochet hooks so that I could make appropriate sized flowers….so I think I would have fun with the patterns in this book.
If you’ve seen this book please leave a comment and let me know if it’s any good.
Good Crochet Book
Posted by Administrator on Jul 17, 2007
Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Crochet
It includes basic instructions, project patterns, stitch patterns, and for jewelry makers, a section on wire crochet which includes a necklace project by Arline Fisch. Since I’ve been learning some new crafts recently & knitting/crocheting some jewelry, garments, and handbags for myself, I started reading craft books that aren’t as jewelry specific. So far, this is the best book on crochet that I’ve read, and I love that it includes information about using crochet techniques in jewelry. There is also information on all kinds of other crochet techniques, and quite a few patterns for things to make using the techniques. The patterns range from very easy to very complex, as do the techniques covered.
Crocheted Purse and a WIP
Posted by Administrator on Jun 29, 2007
I know it isn’t jewelry, but I made this cute crocheted purse while following along with the learn to crochet lessons at Crafty Daisies. There was a link to a purse pattern in lesson #4, which I altered slightly, mostly by making it bigger and winging it on the ruffle part since I didn’t write it down (but ruffles are easy enough to crochet without a pattern).
And since this is supposed to be a jewelry blog, here’s a picture of my latest in-progress resin piece, using the top of an altoid tin as a bezel:
Crochet Carnival
Posted by Administrator on Jun 18, 2007
The latest edition of the Crochet Carnival is up!
If you aren’t familiar with blog carnivals, they are fun collections of blog articles related to a given topic - in this case, crochet. My bobble cuff is included along with a bunch of articles that I definitely plan on reading as soon as I’m done posting this.
Check out the blog carnival homepage to find carnivals on topics that interest you - a couple I like are Carnival of the Creators and Make it from Scratch.
Crocheted Bobble Cuff
Posted by Administrator on May 21, 2007
This is my favorite crocheted jewelry design so far. I wanted to learn some new crochet stitch patterns, and found a bobble stitch pattern in my Reader’s Digest needlework book (it’s a huge hardcover book that was given to me by a friend’s mom, and has instructions for all kinds of needlework including knitting and crocheting).
To make a bobble stitch, you yarn over, insert hook into stitch, yarn over, pull hook through stitch, yarn over, pull hook through two loops. You keep doing this into the same stitch until you have six loops on your hook, then yarn over and pull the hook through all six loops. The bobble will look kind of flat at this point, but so you single crochet into the next stitch, which gathers it up and makes it look more bobble-like.
For this bracelet, there are two single crochet stitches in between each bobble. I used a multiple of three stitches and alternated where the bobble was in each row. In between a row of bobbles, I did a row of single crochet. That’s basically the stitch pattern as printed in the book! I ended up with a flat bobble at the end of the middle row of bobbles, so that’s where I sewed on the button. To make a closure for the button, I did a row of single crochet along one end, but chained a couple stitches and skipped a couple before continuing the single crochet, forming a small loop.
I used sport weight yarn and the hook size recommened on the label, and did nine repeats of the bobble to get a decent length for my wrist. You would probably want to experiment with gauge to make sure your bracelet is the right length for you. I think I’ll make it a bit tighter - maybe one less repeat - if I make this again, because it stretched a little when I wore it for a while. It still fits okay, but I’d prefer a tighter fit. I have some beautiful silvery gray yarn (”Love” from southwest trading co’s vickie howell line of yarns - the black version here was made with “Craft” from the same line) that I think I’ll use to make another cuff and a matching necklace. The black was really tough to photograph, so I’m hoping to get a better picture once I’ve made this in another color.
Crochet Basics
Posted by Administrator on Apr 18, 2007
I found some great tutorials on crochet basics. If you want to learn the stitches that I use in my tutorials, head over to The Purl Bee’s Crochet Basics. There are great pictures of each stitch!
Crochet Flower Tutorial
Posted by Administrator on Apr 18, 2007
Here’s my second crocheted pendant tutorial. For this one, I used a sport weight yarn called Craft from the Vickie Howell yarn collection. The red color is called Chica. I used a 3.75mm crochet hook.
To begin, chain 8 & join with a slip stitch to form a ring. Single crochet 14 times into the ring, then slip stitch to join to the first single crochet. Now you have a sturdy-looking ring with single crochets all around it.
Now make the petals - if you have 14 single crochets, you will end up with 7 petals. To make a petal, single crochet, double crochet, triple crochet, double crochet, and single crochet into the first single crochet. Then slip stitch into the next single crochet to make a space between the first petal and the next. Repeat making one petal and one space all around the ring.
If you want a pendant, you need to make a bail. Chain about 7 stitches, then slip stitch to join to the center of the flower, making a loop for a bail. If you don’t want a pendant - say you’re making the flower to sew onto a scarf or something - skip this step and just weave your ends in when you are finished making all the petals.
Tutorial: Easy Crocheted Pendant
Posted by Administrator on Mar 8, 2007
If you know how to make a chain stitch, a slip stitch, and a single crochet stitch, you can make this pendant. The yarn I used is from Vickie Howell’s new yarn “rock”, manufactured by Southwest Trading Company. It is a sport weight yarn, so you could probably substitute any sport weight yarn and get similar results (the color I used is called Courtney - it’s such a bright pink that it seemed like a flower would be a natural thing to make with it). I used a 4mm crochet hook.
You can change the look of this flower by varying the number of chain stitches in the center and each petal - thus increasing or decreasing the size or the loop- or by using a different size/style of yarn with an appropriately sized hook for that yarn. If you aren’t feeling too adventurous or are a true beginner, try doing it with the exact yarn and hook that I used until you feel comfortable enough to experiment.
To start, chain for about an inch and join the chain using a slip stitch to form a ring.
Instead of doing single crochet into each chain stitch, single crochet into the ring itself until you have single crochets going all the way around the ring. Join to the first single crochet with a slip stitch.
To make the petals, chain 4-5 stitches, then single crochet into the next stitch. Do this all the way around, using the same number of chains for each petal if you want a uniform look. Then single crochet into the loop of the first petal the same number of times you chain stitched. In other words - if your petals used 4 chain stitches, single crochet into each petal 4 times. This stiffens up the petals a bit.
Instead of fastening off, chain for about 1 1/2 inches, then join the end of the chain back to the body of the flower with a slip stitch - this makes the pendant bail (the loop you use to hang your pendant from a chain). Cut the yarn and weave in the ends. That’s it!
In the picture, the pendant is hanging on a knitted I-cord, also made from a sport weight yarn, but you could hang it on any kind of chain or fiber. If you’d prefer a pin instead of a pendant, don’t make the bail of the pendant, and glue or tie it to a pin finding.
Bead Crochet by Bethany Barry
Posted by Administrator on Nov 28, 2006
Bead Crochet: A Beadwork How-To Book (Beadwork How-To series)
I bought this book a year or two ago, based on the picture on the cover, which I think is really beautiful. I personally like freeform designs, and the necklace pictured incorporates lots of color in what looks like a semi-random mix, but done with a great eye for color and design.
The book starts with a section on the history of crochet and lots of how-to information on crochet stitches as well as beadwork techniques. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience with either beads or crochet, this section would probably be pretty useful - since I do have experience with the techniques, I mostly glossed over it.
Then there is an illustrated project section. The projects include jewelry as well as purses using several different bead crochet techniques. I liked some of them, others not as much - but of course, that’s just a personal preference. I’m more drawn to the freeform-style projects, and there was a mix of these and some much more structured designs.
Finally, there is a small gallery of bead crochet, by Bethany Barry as well as other artists, some of whom were familiar names to me from back when I did more beadwork. I would have liked a bigger gallery section, because that’s always my favorite part of a jewelry book, but otherwise I have no complaints about this section of the book.
Overall, I like this book. I refer to it now and then for inspiration (the pictures are good), but I find myself wishing it was longer - I’d like to see more projects, especially for someone a little more advanced, and an expanded gallery section. On the other hand, it was pretty inexpensive for a jewelry book, and I think it is a good introduction to bead crochet and some of the possibilities for using it as a design technique.
