Another "Vintage" Crocheted Shade Pull

Here is another original 'vintage' shade pull for you. This one is similar in its beginning rounds to the first one I posted here and the overall look is still what I would call Flower-ish. But it's very easy and quick to make and looks pretty hanging in the window. Here are the directions:

Using a 1/2 inch plastic ring, #10 crochet cotton and a size 7 steel crochet hook, work 24 single crochet into the ring, joining with a slip stitch to the first single crochet.

*Chain 3, skip 1 single crochet, work one single crochet in next stitch.* Continue working from * to * around the ring, joining with a slip stitch at the base of the first chain 3.

Work 1 single crochet into the first loop, *chain 5, 1 single crochet in next loop* ending with a single crochet in the first chain 5 loop.

Work 6 single crochets in each loop around.

Work 100 chain stitches, or whatever number you need to make your hanging loop the desired length. Slip stitch at the base of the chain. Weave in ends and hang.


This is a close-up of the finished design. I think it is pretty and sort of delicate looking, but I also think it would hold up to years of use hanging on a window shade.



This is how it looks hanging in my front office window. Don't you think it's much more attractive than the old tassel?

If you like these shade pulls for a change, soon I will show you some beaded shade pulls that add a little color and shine to your windows.

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Summer Embroidery Class for Children

We have a beautiful new children's room at our local library where I take my own children at least once a week for storytime or just to play and pick out new books to bring home. They always have fabulous programs for the children with music and magic and all kinds of fun things for all ages.

I spoke with one of the librarians a few months ago to see if they might be interested in offering some kind of needlework class for some of the 'older' children. I suggested knitting, crocheting or embroidery, and she picked embroidery.

So this week I have been working up my sample embroidered journal cover which the children in the class will do over four one-hour sessions later this summer.

I purchased seven square spiral-bound journals at my local Michael's store for $1.00 each. That will be enough for each student and one for my sample. I decided to start out with a maximum of 6 children, ages 10 to 12, in this class.

I wanted the fabric to be heavy enough so that the thread and the cute design already on the journal front would not show through, so I chose this blue denim and purchased 1 1/2 yards. I laid out the journal on my cutting mat to determine the dimensions necessary to make an old fashioned brown-paper-bag-type of book cover. I figured out that I would need to cut the fabric two inches larger on the top and on the bottom and four inches larger on each end.


Then I set to work drawing up a design. I thought children of this age group would enjoy something cheerful, and I'm also not a very good artist, so the design had to be simple! So this rainbow/clouds/sun/rain design is what I landed on. I drew it on white paper and poked holes in it at appropriate places so that I could transfer my design to the fabric with a fine point Sharpie by making dots on the fabric through the holes. It worked out great!


This is what the cover looked like pinned in place on the notebook with the design transfered with blue Sharpie for the lines and black Sharpie for the dots.


I chose DMC Perle cotton in bright rainbow colors for the rainbow, white for the clouds, light blue for the raindrops, and the sun will be done in the same yellow as in the rainbow. I thought the Perle cotton would be good to start out with so the children won't have to worry about separating their floss.


I unpinned the fabric from the journal and hooped it with an 8-inch spring hoop, big enough so that the whole design fits inside. Each of the children will get a hoop to use for the class project and keep afterwards. For the rainbow design, I chose a fun and funky zig-zag stitch which will be easy for beginners and show instantaneous results. I stitched small straight stitches at evenly spaced intervals in red on the first two lines of the rainbow design.


Then from the front of the fabric, I stitched through each of the straight stitches, alternating between top and bottom row, to form a zig-zag.


With the orange thread, I stitched the third row of straight stitches. Then from the front of the fabric I stitched through the straight stitches, alternating between the orange and the lower row of red to form the orange stripe of the rainbow.



I continued this same technique with the yellow...


and the green...



and finally the blue and purple. I know rainbows end with indigo and violet, but for my purposes, I thought purple was sufficient!

I hope to finish up the sample this weekend so I can share it with you and bring it to the library to be displayed. Hopefully I'll have a full house for my little basic embroidery class for children and the art of embroidery can continue on with the next generation!

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Make your own "Vintage" Crocheted Shade Pulls

A few years ago, a friend of mine asked if I could replicate some very old crocheted shade pulls that had been hanging in her house for as long as she could remember. She had lived in this old New England farmhouse for over 50 years, so they must have been quite old! She brought one to me to use as a sample, and I worked out the pattern and made her as many as she needed.

I never kept a picture of them, nor did I write down the pattern, and have since regretted both. How often I have thought how nice it would be to replace the $1.50 tassel shade pulls that I got from Home Depot with something pretty, unique and vintage looking! So here's what I did...


I gathered my materials which consisted of...

... a new ball of #10 white crochet cotton thread, some plastic rings in two sizes because I didn't know which size I would end up using, and my #7 steel crochet hook with Comfort Grip.

Then I started to think up a pattern and here's what I came up with...

Starting with a slip knot on my hook and a small plastic ring, I put my hook through the ring, drew up a loop around the ring...



...then drew up another loop through the two loops on the hook to complete the first single crochet.



I worked 22 single crochet stitches on the ring in the same manner and this is what it looked like after the first 8 stitches.



I joined the ring of stitches with a slip stitch into the first single crochet as shown above.



This is what my ring of 22 single crochet stitches looked like when finished.



Then I worked three chain stitches, skipped one single crochet and worked one single crochet into the next stitch. I continued this all the way around the ring until I had eleven loops and joined with a slip stitch at the base of the first chain three.



Then I did one single crochet in the first loop, worked five chain stitches and then one single crochet into the next loop.


I continued all the way around the ring working five chains and one single crochet into each loop, joining with a slip stitch into the first single crochet of the first loop. This is what it looked like.



In each loop around, I worked one single, one half double, one double, one triple, one double, one half double and one single crochet to make the little flower petal like curves. Then I joined with a slip stitch in the first single crochet as before. This is how it looked after four petals were complete.



And this is how it looked when all the petals were complete.



Then I crocheted 150 chain stitches and joined with a slip stitch at the base of the chain to complete the hanging loop. You could make this part however long you need for your own shades.



This is the old shade pull purchased at HD at the same time I purchased the shades. I removed the pull, leaving behind the little white button that screws into the bar at the bottom of the shade, and replaced it with my own brand new, handmade, original, unique, 'vintage' crocheted shade pull.


What do you think? The picture isn't the greatest and I apologize for that. I had a hard time trying to get the camera to focus on the shade pull instead of the scenery. But you get the idea.

They only took me about an hour to do each one, and that included time for taking pictures along the way, so they work up quickly. Make a few for yourself and see what you think.

I have a few more patterns that I worked up and I will share them with you soon!

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Another Katie's Hand Embroidered Irish Step Dancing Dress

Katie K.'s hand embroidered Irish Step Dancing Dress turned out to be my very favorite of all the dresses I made and/or embroidered over the many years that I provided this service. Take a look at the pictures and see if you like it as much as I did.

Katie K. chose a lighter and a darker shade of each of five different colors for her embroidered designs. I just love the way the colors work together and the overall richness of the effect.



This is the design of Katie K.'s initials which were embroidered in split stitch using regular DMC stranded floss on the right sleeve before the seam was finished.



This is the same Celtic knot design that Katie L. and Brooke chose for their hemlines. This one is embroidered using both shades of each of the five colors Katie K. chose, in sort of a light-and-shadow or bright-and-soft configuration. It's my favorite part of this dress.




This is the same design that Bridget and Katie L. chose, but in yet another color combination. It was always interesting to see how creative the girls would get with their colors.



This pink and pink design is similar to the pink and white heart design that Brooke chose for her dress, except that these hearts are not quite completely formed in this design. Still it looks like hearts and is appropriately pink.



Katie K.'s belt is the same design as Katie L.'s but done in the soft purple.




I just love this square design that Katie K. picked for her brat.



And here is Katie K.'s completed dress. A beautiful and cheerful dress for a lovely young lady and a talented dancer.

If you are interested in my method of embroidering these velvet dresses using a hoop without crushing the velvet, I'll be adding that very soon.

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My Own Beaded Stitch Markers

Recently in a post about Beaded Stitch Markers I talked about this really cool website called Wormspit.com. If you haven't checked it out, you should, especially if you ever use silk for any purpose. It will give you a whole new appreciation for this beautiful natural fiber.

But silk isn't the purpose of this post. It's the Beaded Stitch Markers that Michael shows how to make on his site. I made some myself and thought you might like to see them.


This is what I used to make mine:

I purchased two packages of toggle clasps from my local craft store. Each package has six of the round pieces and six of the straight pieces. The round pieces are what I used for the stitch markers. Any ideas for what to do with the straight pieces would be welcome!


I also used some head pins that I had in my beading box, leftover from past projects.



I got out some beads I had leftover from previous projects, and I also purchased two strings of beads from the craft store. I wasn't sure what I'd be in the mood to use, so this is what I had to choose from when I sat down to make my stitch markers.



I also dug out my good old faithful Rosary making pliers, shown on the right, and got the needle nose pliers from the toolbox in the basement.



Then I started playing with beads and this is what I came up with. I liked the combination of the Cool Multi Colored Glass Luster Beads, along with some smaller clear glass beads and some even smaller round silver beads.



I lined up the beads on the head pins and used my pliers to make a loop in the top, putting it through the hole in the round half of the toggle clasp, and this is what I got. My loop in the top of the head pin is not quite as neat as Michael's, but I think my head pins were much shorter than the pins he was using so I had very little left to hold when making the loop.


Still, I thought they came out quite nicely. I love the different shaped beads...



...and the colors in this set that I used.



They seem to have a good weight to them, and the toggle clasp used has a hole big enough for at least up to a size 9 needle.



Altogether it took me about an hour to make all twelve of these stitch markers. Now I just have to find a knitting project so I can actually use them!

Do you have some little dressed up tool or accessory that you love to use? Share it!

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One Katie's Hand Embroidered Irish Step Dancing Dress

Recently I've been talking about the hand embroidery I had done on a few Irish Step Dancing dresses and I showed you some of the designs. Here are the designs from another dress I did for a lovely young dancer named Katie L. This was her fifth year dress which was newly made since she had outgrown her first velvet dress, thus requiring all the embroidery from the two previous years to be done again. Being a fifth year dancer, she had earned the privilege of wearing the brat, or scarf, and also the belt and her initials on the right sleeve, plus two more small designs on the front of the skirt. All this in addition to the original third year designs and the fourth year small designs. Quite a lot of embroidery to be done all at once! And this dress was one of two that I made and embroidered that year!

This is the chain stitch embroidery design that Katie L. chose for her brat. The fabric was a silky satiny type of polyester which draped nicely across the back when pinned at the shoulder and opposite hip. The shape of it was square, but it was folded into a triangle to be worn. The embroidery was put on the exposed corner so it could be seen from the back. Lovely design and very nice color choices.



This is Katie L.'s belt design. I stitched it before sewing up the belt so that I would not have to stitch through two layers of velvet. As you can see, this design is Much Simpler than the belts I did for Brooke and Bridget!



This is one of the small designs on the front of the dress. I just love the simple lines and curves, and I think you just can't go wrong with rich purples and greens.



This is the other small design on the front of the dress. It is the same one I did on Bridget's dress, only in a different color combination.



Katie L.'s initials, done in split stitch using regular DMC embroidery floss.



And this is Katie L.'s completed dress. I love the knot design at the hem with the rainbow colors used throughout the dress all brought together. She did a nice job choosing her designs, placement and colors.

The other dress I did that same year was for another Katie and it turned out to be my absolute favorite dress of all. That one will be coming up soon!

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How to Crochet -- Ripple stitch

Recently I showed you how to change your yarn color at the end of a row of crocheting and also how to carry your yarn up the side of a crochet piece instead of cutting the yarn at each color change. Did you like the look of the stitch I was using? It's called the Ripple Stitch and here's how to do it...

First crochet a chain stitch as long as you want the width of your piece to be, making sure the number of stitches is divisible by three, for example 99 chain stitches. Of course this number will depend on the size of the yarn and hook you have chosen for this project and how wide you want the piece to be. Now add one more chain stitch.



Now turn your work and do two double crochet stitches into the third chain from the hook as shown above.



This is what your work will look like.



In the very next chain stitch as shown above, work one single crochet and two double crochet stitches. This is your pattern stitch -- one single and two double crochet stitches.



This is what your work will look like now.



Now skip the next two chain stitches and work the pattern stitch -- one single crochet and two double crochet stitches -- into the third chain from the hook, as shown above.



This is what your work will look like after doing a pattern stitch in every third chain stitch several times.



Continue working the pattern stitch in every third chain stitch until you have the last three chain stitches left. Work one single crochet in the last chain stitch.



Work two chain stitches before turning your work. This is what your piece will look like.



After working two chain stitches and turning your work, do two double crochet stitches into the last single crochet of the previous row. This stitch will be right next to the turning chain, as shown above. This is how you will begin each row.



Skip over the two double crochet stitches and work the pattern stitch -- one single crochet and two double crochet stitches -- into the next single crochet as shown above. This is how you will work the entire body of your piece, except for the beginning and end of each row.



At the end of the row, work a single crochet into the top of the turning chain from the previous row as shown above. This is how you will end every row.



This is what your work will look like after the end of the second pattern row. The edges look a little odd, like there might be too many stitches in the top row, but you will see after a few more rows that they will be straight as an arrow!



See! Continue the piece in the same manner until it is as long as you want it, adding a new skein at the end of a row as needed. Finish off with a round of single crochet evenly stitched on all four sides, working three single crochet stitches in each corner.



The above picture shows the texture of this stitch. Each two rows of the ripple stitch makes these little ... well ... ripples in the piece. This makes a very warm afghan!



You can see by stitching a row in a different color how one row of this stitch looks by itself. Each pattern makes a little lopsided shell.



The next row of pattern stitches fills in with lopsided shells going in the other direction.



This pattern is nice worked in a solid color or a variegated yarn. It can also be worked in two or more colors.


This is a close-up shot of a baby blanket crocheted using the Ripple Stitch and Red Heart Baby Cloud yarn which is very thick, textured, soft and fluffy. Doesn't it remind you of cotton candy? Yummy!


This is the whole baby blanket. I did a little ruffle kind of border on this afghan which was made by working a round of single crochet around the whole afghan, then a round of single crochet and chain three in each stitch around. It's fun to experiment with different combinations of stitches for a border. Just make something up and see if you like it.


This is the full size afghan I made for my husband using the Ripple Stitch. This afghan, as you can see, is wide enough for our queen size bed. In this picture it is folded into quarters, so you can imagine just how long it is when opened all the way. I haven't measured it, but my guess is somewhere between seven and eight feet! It took 18 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver yarn in the 5 ounce skeins. This is the Aspen Print variegated yarn and I just love the colors in it.


This is a close-up of one of the corners where you can see the simple single crochet border. It's just enough to finish the edges neatly, but nothing foofy or frilly. My husband loves it.

I have also used the Ripple Stitch with a solid color sport weight yarn to make a baby blanket which turned out very lightweight. It took me almost as long to crochet the baby blanket as the full size afghan because there were just as many stitches in it. They were just smaller because of the yarn and hook size.

This is a fun stitch to use no matter what size piece you want to crochet. Make one and see what you think.

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Even More Irish Step Dancing hand embroidery

Recently in my articles on Chain Stitch Embroidery on Irish Step Dancing Dress and More Irish Step Dancing Embroidery I shared with you some of the Celtic designs I embroidered on my daughter's friends' dresses. Here is another one I did with a little bit different placement of designs and very ... how shall I say it? ... interesting color choices...


This is Bridget's dress with all the designs embroidered for her fifth year. She chose to place the four smaller designs below the large triangular knot design on the skirt, and she also wanted the entire hem of the circular skirt embroidered with the knot row, or pretzel design. As it turned out, I only had time to do the front half of the hem before the big show this group does in March every year, so that is how it ended up. Also notice that Bridget chose to switch up the color combinations on the four smaller designs, changing the inside and outside colors between the two matching designs.



Here is a close-up of the pretzel design. Bridget decided to have alternating rows of very bright pink and very bright yellow along the hemline. This picture shows where two designs joined.



This star design was one of my favorites to do. I love the simplicity of the outside shape, and the three shapes woven together on the inside. This would be lovely in any color combination.



This design was popular with the girls because the inside shape resembles a shamrock. I did quite a few of them in green, of course! It's hard to tell from this picture, but the inside shamrock like shape is actually green, and the outside shape is sort of a periwinkle color.



These are Bridget's initials, done in a very soft pink floss in split stitch.




This is a close-up of Bridget's belt design, done in four pastel colors. The yellow lines weave up and down from one end of the belt to the other as do the blue lines. The green and pink designs are each a separate little shape interwoven with each other and with the blue and yellow lines. This one was very complicated to stitch, trying to keep track of what color went where and when to go over or under previous stitches. This is the one and only four color belt design I did!



Here are Brooke and Bridget's dresses, complete and ready to go on stage! Notice Brooke's belt design on the left. It is the same as Bridget's but I stitched it in only two colors. After stitching these two belts, I switched to a simpler belt design for all the other girls' dresses!

Stay tuned for a few more hand embroidered Irish Step Dancing dresses and a little demonstration of my method of embroidering on velvet with a hoop.

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Look who knits - Karen Allen - aka Marion from Indiana Jones movies

And boy does she knit! See for yourself! She's been quite a busy lady since she played along side Harrison Ford in the first Raiders of the Lost Ark movie back in 1981. I think that is the only movie I've ever seen her in, but according to her listing on the Internet Movie Database, she has been in over 50 movies and TV shows! I guess I'm too busy doing my handwork, which is a good thing!

Karen's use of color, texture, design and style are really something to see. The sweaters are certainly not your run-of-the-mill cookie cutter type of sweater, and her scarves, hats and gloves are equally as interesting.

Now if I can just think of an excuse to have to drive out to Western Massachusetts, I'll drop into her store in Great Barrington and let you all know what I find. If you have been there, please comment and let us know what it was like.

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How to Carry Yarn from row to row in Crochet

In a recent post, you saw how to change yarn color or add a new skein to a piece in progress. Now I will show you how to carry yarn up the side of a piece, such as an afghan you are crocheting in a striped pattern with two colors. Sometimes it's fun to mix it up a little and make something colorful instead of a solid color, so here's how to do it...


Stitch to the end of the first color row, purple in this example, where you want to start using your new color, blue in this example. Change yarn colors as described here. Do not cut your purple. Just leave it hanging loosely while you work two rows of your blue.



After working two rows of your blue, you will be back to the same place where your purple is waiting for you. With the last two loops of the last stitch of blue still on your hook, drop the blue yarn towards the front of your work, bring the purple yarn up behind the blue and draw the purple through the last two loops of blue to complete the row and the color change.



This is what your piece will look like with the purple yarn carried up the side and the blue yarn hanging loosely while you work two rows of purple.



Once you have completed two rows of purple and you have the last two loops of the last stitch still on your hook, drop the purple towards the front of your work, pick up the blue yarn from behind the purple and draw it through the purple loops, thus completing the last purple stitch and the color change.



This is what your piece will look like with the purple and blue yarns carried up the side and the purple yarn hanging loosely.



Repeat this same procedure for two more rows and this is what you will get.



And after another two rows, you can really start to see how the carried yarns make a little bit of a twist pattern along the side of the piece. This is because, with each color change, the old color is dropped to the front and the new color is picked up from behind the old color. This carried yarn will be covered up by the border being stitched over it so it will not show in the finished piece.



This is what the front of the piece looks like with the blue yarn hanging loosely along the side waiting to be drawn into the last stitch of the purple.

This method can be used no matter what stitch pattern you are using for your afghan. It can also be used with more than two colors. The method is exactly the same, but you will just have more colors to keep track of! Experiment with it and have fun.

If you like the stitch pattern used in this example, stay tuned for a lesson on the Ripple Stitch coming soon!

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A Helping Hand from Patternworks

Have you ever had an odd question about some little detail in your knitting or crochet project and you didn't know where to turn? I recently found this page while checking out some summer classes at my favorite vacation yarn shop, Patternworks, in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.

Their Helping Hand page starts out with their own contact information, then continues with five tutorial videos for knitting: Cast On, Bind Off, Increase, Decrease and Cable Eight Front. These videos would be very helpful for a beginner.

There is a helpful FAQ section with the last entry being "What do the different yarn weights mean?" There is an excellent description of eight different yarn weights, gauge of each yarn, what size knitting needles or crochet hook to use and what each yarn might be used for. Very informative.

If you are looking for someplace to donate your knitted or crocheted items, you can look through the list of Favorite Charities and see which one suits you best.

The Care Tips section deciphers the meaning behind those little pictures on your yarn labels. You know the cute little icons that you can't really make out with words that are even harder to read. Now you can just match them up to this list and know what they are trying to tell you!

There is a little How-To for making the perfect gauge swatch, something we all do for every project, right? Well, ok, I admit it. I don't do a gauge swatch for things like afghans or scarves or mittens. But it really is best to do one before starting on an item that needs to fit well and be the proper proportions.

And the last little Helpful Tidbit of information on this page is a conversion between yarn sizes, something I have had to figure out many times by trial and error. If only I had known about this page, it would have saved me so much time and frustration!

So check it out and let me know if you find something here that is helpful to you.

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New yarn just arrived! What a bargain from Herrschner's!

One of my nieces is getting married this fall and I love to give newly married couples a handmade afghan as a wedding gift. I usually use regular old Red Heart worsted weight yarn, purchased from my local Walmart or Michael's store because I like Red Heart. It is reliable, resilient, easy to work with, and most importantly it is machine wash and dry! It holds its shape well, doesn't pill and lasts a really long time. It is also affordable and fairly easy to find.

However, sometimes I come upon a bargain that I just can't pass up. The other day I was browsing around Herrschner's yarn pages and I found a Red Heart variety that I have never tried -- Red Heart Easy Tweed...

...which is a textured yarn that has the look of tweed. It's mostly acrylic, machine wash and dry, uses a size K crochet hook, which is fairly large, and is usually priced at $4.49 for a 3.5 ounce skein. That is way out of my price range, even for a wedding gift! Well, it was on sale for 97 cents a skein! Can you believe that? Less than $1.00 a skein! And they had 10 colors to choose from!

Well, I got on the phone and called my sister. I told her to have her daughter check out the site, look at all the colors and let me know which one she liked best. I had found the yarn I was going to use for her afghan! Yippee!

I ordered 35 skeins of the Pistachio color and just yesterday look what that nice man in the brown uniform left on my doorstep...


Doesn't it just make your heart skip a beat when you open a box and see all that Potential?

Since I already have a full size afghan in the works, which I will share with you shortly, this one will have to wait in line. But I will certainly let you know when I begin. It's just nice to know I have all the yarn I will need right at my fingertips, and for such a bargain! I'm happy.

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More Irish Step Dancing embroidery

In the previous post I shared the story of how I got into doing this embroidery on Irish Step Dancing dresses for my daughter's friends. I lost count of just how many dresses I stitched and I'm not even sure I have pictures of all of them. But here are a few pictures of one of the completed dresses with close-ups of some of my favorite designs.



This dress is one of my favorites because of the layout of the designs. Each dancer was allowed to decide where she wanted the designs placed on her dress, after the third year. I think Brooke's placement was very balanced and pleasing.





Brooke chose this design and the pink and white color combination because she thought it looked like a ring of hearts. The designs were usually only stitched with two rows of chain stitch, but Brooke had her own ideas, and wanted pink on the outside and white on the inside. I was pleased with the results, and so was she!




This color combination was Brooke's own idea too and where do you think she got her inspiration for it? The Irish Flag of course! Very appropriate!





These are Brooke's initials which were embroidered on the right sleeve before the sleeve seam was sewn up. The initials are the only embroidery on the dress that is not chain stitch. I used split stitch throughout this design. I used white floss for the letters and a metallic pink floss for the crazy line that weaves in and out and up and over. Using the floss was fine, but stitching with that metallic thread was a nightmare for me! However, Brooke was very happy with her dress and as far as I know she still wears it with pride.

Stay tuned for more on embroidered Irish Step Dancing dresses soon!

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Chain Stitch embroidery on Irish Step Dancing Dress

When my older daughter was somewhere around 10 or so, she had some friends in school who were very much into Irish Step Dancing and had gotten to the point in their dance careers where they were ready for their velvet dress with hand embroidered designs. These dresses were sort of a symbol of their progress and were only worn by those who had been with this dance group for 3 years or more. It was a very big step, so to speak.

I saw one of the moms diligently practicing the chain stitch on a piece of scrap fabric one day while she was waiting in the car after school and I asked her what she was doing. Up to this point, I had no idea about anything having to do with Irish Step Dancing. She showed me her practice piece and I gave her a few tips that might make it easier for her. Jokingly, or so I thought, she said, "I'll pay you f