Overlay Crochet

Hi, Pat checking in here.  Nice post on blocking Marie, I have to block some pieces and yours are an inspiration.  I have been playing around with what is, for me, a new crochet technique, Overlay crochet and making some pieces from Crochet overlay jewelry by Melody MacDuffee.  She works with a size 14 needle and sewing thread, way to small for me so I moved up to a size 10 steel hook and size 8 cotton crochet thread.  The pieces are very dense and textural and I love the process.

 

Above is a little purse, the strap is all the colors crocheted together.  The fringe is from the Beaded Edge by Midori Nishida with coral drops. The closure is a vintage flower and a loop. It is about 3 1/2 inches square without the fringe.

 

 This is the front and back of a little bag that is about 3 inches square.  It too has a crocheted beaded fringe (with sandstone), vintage buttons and a small wrist strap.  The wrist strap is beaded and I am working on a longer necklace length so that the straps can be interchangeable. The back is just a square design with no overlay.

 



 

 

This is my favorite so far, it is the back and front of a potential bag that has not yet been assembled.  I have some great orange beads and grey beads that I am hoping to use, it reminds me of fire.

Melody also does cabochons, I adapted the idea to encompass rocks.  these were a couple I had picked up in Terra Lingua TX (outside of Big Bend).  The samples below I bought while shopping with a friend and browsing in a rock shop.

Overlay is fun but I can only do it for a few hours in the morning while I am awake and alert enough to figure it out.  Now I have to work on creating some of my own patterns, I want to do some mandalas. 

 

I took an on-line Craftsy course in knitting lace that included instructions for blocking.  I found this part incredibly fascinating and therefore am posting photos of the process from my second lace scarf.
This first photo is the unblocked scarf with kitchen twine laced around the perimeter.  This is used for stabilizing the yarn when it is stretched.

The four corners are stretched and pinned...

Then each section is bisected to smaller and smaller sections...

Until it is completely pinned.  Then you let it dry

I purchased a Craftsy web-based class on lace knitting.  A swatch of the final project was knitted using a multicolor yarn and the knitted lace end was photographed in process to show how the lace edge is added by incorporating it while binding off the end.  The lace edging grows perpendicular to the body of the scarf.

Using Manos del Uruguay FINO yarn in Amethyst Earring and size 4 needles the provisional cast on was performed using blue cotton yarn in one instance and a circular needle in another instance.  I love the idea of using the circular needle so that the provisional cast on stitches are ready to be knit without taking any additional steps.

After  blocking, by soaking the completed scarf and pinning it to stretch it out, and weaving in the ends after blocking (so that the woven ends don't impede stretching of the scarf), behold the final product!