In December of 2014 I was crocheting up a storm. Sometimes when I look back at old photos I find things I forgot I made and find a technique that I would like to explore more.
Today’s throwback is for a lace cowl I crocheted using partial circular lace motifs.
I like the finished look of this freeform lace. I’m wondering if I didn’t do more because of the brain ache, or if I just became distracted by something else. Either possibility is probable.
I found a picture from December 2014 that shows how the creative process sometimes works, or doesn’t. I was trying to develop a simple, repeatable wire dragonfly shape and went through many, many iterations.
I still wasn’t entirely pleased with the end result, although I did make a few more like the shape in the bottom left.
Sometimes my ideas work right off the bat, but more often they go through a series of trials, with mostly errors. If we aren’t willing to have a few gnarls in the thread, it is hard to achieve much of anything.
In September 2014 I made a button art tree by sewing colored buttons to a stretched canvas.
My button grandma had a high distain for anything that destroyed buttons, such as glue or cutting off the shank, since that makes them unsuitable for button collectors. So all the buttons are recoverable from this art, should they need to be. I do like how I used the lighter colors to indicate light direction.
In July of 2014 I was experimenting with making “viking knit” wire chains. I did a number of trials with different metals and gauges of wire. I stumbled across this picture that also showed the time it took to get a small section of work done.
I like viking knit chains, they have a nice feel and drape. The technique is looping, which years later I learned to do with yarn in a method called nälbinding. I still love nälbinding too. Neither are fast crafts, but they are satisfying.
In May of 2014 I crocheted a rather large owl basket for my Mom.
It stands up well when it is filled with towels. I like the spiral eyes as a choice. I believe I used a wool yarn that I had in my stash at the time.
Critters and Craft 