RECYCLE – RY – Craft Gossip

I fell in love with this free project from Crafts n’ Things Magazine. It’s not actually crochet as you make it with wool sweaters scrounged from the thrift store or your closet. But, I’d have fun embellishing it with crochet appliques.

felted purse 092401

http://www.craftsnthings.com/Projects/Newsletter/2009_09/D_felted_purse.aspx?email=

RECYCLE a pattern and turn it into something entirely different, like this coaster pattern:

http://www.kaleidesigns.com/crochet/patterns/archive/coas008.html

that was turned into this beautiful beret:

http://sandyshook.blogspot.com/2009/09/going-around-again.html

Imagine the ingenuity and artistic eye that looked at that coaster and saw a beret. I’m quite impressed. Great yarn choice too. Sandy gives the whole story of the process on her blog.

I like the idea of using doily patterns to create larger items. It’s not much of a stretch to make a larger doily with perle cotton instead of bedspread weight and end up with a runner or place mat. But, there are books out there (Amazing Lace is one of my favorites) that use doily patterns for everything from shawls to rugs to afghans. Try your hand at that with a pattern you have in your stash and see what you come up with. Maybe a pretty bedspread is hiding in a doily book!

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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