Volgers

donderdag 23 januari 2020

January: Tunisian crochet

In my last post, I told about my goal for this year: every month I choose a technique I want to learn or learn more about, or working on a technique I did years ago and became a bit on the background.
For January it would be Tunisian crochet.
I like this technique, but I don't like the long needles or cables: the needles are heavy in your hands, and the cables swish around, which I find annoying. So I did a lot of entrelac, which has the advantage that it can be done with a regular crochet hook.
Here an example:


I also did some Tunisian crochet in the round. The nice part of that is, that there are possibilities for working with different colors that you don't have when working flat.
You can use a cable with a crochet hook on both ends, like circular knitting needles, but I don't like them. I prefer a short needle with a hook on both sides:


Working in the round is not very difficult: you need two colors of yarn (or the in- and outside of a cake when you work with one color). Start with the number of chains that you need and join in the round. Then pick up loops until your needle is full. Turn your work and pull the second thread through the loops, just like you would do with regular Tunisian crochet. I always leave one or two loops on my needle for a better result. Then turn your work again and repeat. It's worked in spirals, so you don't have to close the rounds.
That's all...

Now back to my goal.
My starting point was this book with 25 different tunisian stitches:


Those examples are all worked flat,  but I was curious how it would be in the round.
I started practicing some stitches I didn't know working flat,and also tried how to make need decreases. Then I picked some stitches I liked for working in the round to make hats for charity.
Although I like to "play", I prefer making something useful if it's even possible. So I sewed the little samples into mini hats, also for charity. Innocent, producer of juice and smoothies, gives the small bottles hats during winter. Those hats are made by volunteers. From every sold bottle they donate some money to an organization that does good work for lonely elderly people.

Well, here are the results:


The mini hats are all worked flat, the big hats are worked in the round. Sometimes the results were surprisingly nice!
But I also worked on a had that would be beautiful if you like a circus on your hat, so I frogged that one.  Actually  it's a pity that I didn't picture it...



zondag 5 januari 2020

12 days of Christmas spinnen

Voor de kerst had ik mezelf op een 12 days of Christmas spinbox getracteerd. Ik bestelde de box bij Dutch wool diva, de link vind je hier.
De 12 zakjes hing ik aan de deur. Tsjonge, wat moeilijk om niet stiekem te kijken!
Maar, ik heb me netjes aan de regels gehouden en keurig gewacht tot kerst en netjes iedere dag een pakje opengemaakt.
Elke dag spon ik de 20 gram van die dag.
Dag 6 en 12 was een ander cadeautje, zo kon ik mooi de gesponnen draadjes wassen.


Elke dag maakte ik een foto van de lont en m'n spinseltje:




Het resultaat: 10 mooie wolletjes


En die gaan, samen met eerder gesponnen mini's in mijn honcho (combinatie van hes en poncho), waaraan ik in de vakantie ben begonnen. Dit is het eerste stukje:


En dan heb ik nog een doel voor dit jaar: nu eens mijn inmiddels aardige verzameling boeken benutten door elke maand een onderwerp uit te lichten waar ik me die maand mee bezig ga houden. dat kan zijn een techniek leren die ik nog nooit gedaan heb, me meer verdiepen in een techniek die ik wel eens vluchtig heb uitgeprobeerd, of stekenvariaties maken. te beginnen met verschillende Tunische haaksteken maken in januari.