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A New Surface, A New Focus

Recently, we bought the first piece to our new dining room- the sideboard:

Next up is the table, which we will get stained to coordinate with the chairs and sideboard. (Link is to the unfinished furniture store's supplier, but the pertinent information is that it is 48" wide, and 72"/87"/102" long (two leaves))

That's all very fine and well, you might be thinking, but what does this have to do with crochet? What doesn't it have to do with crochet?! These are my new canvases. I now have the furniture that supports and revels in vintage thread patterns to grace them.

And I have found the pattern that will do it best. I had looked at the pattern for "Cathedral Window Tablecloth" at Celt's Vintage Crochet site, but it was seeing a finished product at Crochetville that really knocked my socks off. Way to go, habetlerm!

She made the tablecloth with sz 10 thread, and I was afraid that would be too large, but it looks great. I may still use sz 20, and perhaps even sz 30 for a runner for the sideboard.

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posted by Kate on Saturday, February 24, 2007 @ 12:36 AM

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A Source for Patterns - Russian Sites

I have spent the afternoon surfing the web in fascination - on pages where I can't even make out the letters (my Cryllic is rusty :-) ). Why? Because of the beautiful patterns! I have been looking at a plethora of Russian sites, where there are some truly beautiful patterns available.

"If you can't read Russian," I hear you asking, "how will the patterns help you?"

Luckily for me - and other crocheters out there - schematics seem to be far, far more common than here stateside. The fine doilies show thread and hook size by a numerical size, and that "translates" just fine.

"How can I find these patterns?" you might now be thinking, "and is there anything beyond the pretty doilies?"

Well, I will say that it is the lacier patterns that have the schematics that I have found most easily - doilies, stoles, tops, baby booties, and handkerchief edgings. And you do have to have a level of comfort with schematics (and I recommend Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet).

But how to find them? Here's what I did: I went to Altavista.com's translation service (Babelfish) and typed in "Crochet". It came back with:
вязание крючком

I copied and pasted into Google, and up came a laundry list of sites and descriptions I couldn't read. But next to each one was a link titled "Translate this Page". Now, it isn't magic. It isn't a great translation. But it's genereally enough to help me a little if I need it to find patterns.

And then I just clicked around and started going "oooooo, pretty!"

You could add terms for "pattern" (картина) or "schematic" (схема) or even try other language sites (I have seen some impressive Japanese lace out there, for example).

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posted by Kate on Sunday, February 11, 2007 @ 3:51 PM

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Little Hooks

One year ago I had never crocheted a doily. The only thread crochet I had done was a set of about a dozen stars for my Christmas tree (my then-boyfriend-now-husband and I swapped ornaments from our trees that year, and to this day he has one crocheted star on "his tree" and I have a red bow on "my tree").

I jumped right in with doilies, and my first doily was somewhat of a behemoth. My second doily was also a larger one, but both worked up fairly quickly with "larger" steel hooks (sz. 7) and "larger" thread (sz. 10).

Since then I've made dozens of doilies, including a large collection of Patricia Kristofferson doilies (of course, to make it to "dozens", I'm counting the set I've made from her 99 Little Doilies).

I just finished a small doily from that book in sz. 30 thread and sz. 10 hook, to use on my husband's Valentine - I hope to have it blocked to share soon! - and have gone a bit more adventurous and am stitching Irene from Doilies with a Twist (PK, of course) in the same sz. 30 thread.

Now, sz. 30 thread and sz. 10 hooks are about as big as some stitchers I know like to go. I applaud them even more after working on this pattern.

One bit of inspiration for me is the collection of "Elf Doilies" Diane has posted on her website. Diane was one of my testers for my doily pattern (that I am eager to show), and her work is incredible. Most of the doilies on this page have a quarter or penny pictured next to them to give you an idea of gauge. Here is the link.

After finishing this doily, I would love to find a sz 12 or smaller hook, and try my hand at a simple doily pattern to make tiny. I just have to find some thread, too!

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posted by Kate on Friday, February 09, 2007 @ 12:13 PM

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Yarn Tales

A poster with Crochet Partners' Yahoo!Group made a list of needlework-related (knitting, crocheting, etc.) books and the like. I was surprised how many children's books there were, and excited to track down a few for Mini-Me.

Also linked on the page was a set of works referencing knitting at Wool Works. This is a really great looking site that calls itself "The Online Knitting Compendium". You know I mainly work the hook, but there are more than a few sets of needles sticking out of WIPs in my craft room (and my den, and my living room, and...). It has a discussion forum that seems similar in purpose (if not in scope) to Crochetville, as well as many other permanent resources.

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posted by Kate on Friday, January 19, 2007 @ 3:42 PM

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