Thursday, February 16, 2012

Prim and Pretty Jute Blossoms


Photography edited using photoforge2 on my ipad!
Spring is near. The forsythia has buds and the chickadees are nesting in my studio window. In my spring cleaning I found some prim old jute balls and decided to stop cleaning and crochet a flower.

This jute has the perfect sepia tones and it is nice and thin. It should make a very pretty and prim spring blossom.
I thought I would photo document the steps and write a tutorial to share with you. I am a beginner crocheter and used a vintage crochet book to learn stitches and terms, so bare with me. I will do my best to describe each step. It was easy for me as a beginner and hopefully easy for you to follow, too.
Make a slip knot and Chain 6
Join using a slip stitch to make the circle center and chain 2.
16 Double crochet around the inside of the circle and join together with a slip stitch. I liked the slight cupping. You could add more double crochet to make the center lay flat. You decrease and make it cup more. It's ok to change the number of double crochets on this pattern.
Chain 1. Single crochet in first space. Chain 12. Slip stitch in the first chain of this string. Repeat around and finish with a slip stich.
You can stop here and cut off or you can add a second row by repeating the pattern around, adding the loops to the spaces in beteew the first row of loops. You could add a stem and leaves and
then cut off.
The stem is easy to make. Chain some then make a loop and continue chaining and make another loop and chain the remaining stem. Cut when you are ready.
The jute here is really fun to work with. I might try crocheting some traditional patterns just for fun to see how the texture and color works. I could see this might become a new obsession of mine!