Sunday, December 11, 2011

Crafter's Attention Span....shorter than the average chihuahua's

Let's see....where was I? Oh, yes, that's right. I was planning on making some slippers from a vintage pattern I found amongst my great-grandmother's things. I fully intend to do so, it is just that.....well, I've gotten distracted!
You see, most of the crochet hooks that I own belonged to my great-grandmother and she was using this old, tube thing that if I were to hazard a guess, used to house a small embroidery kit. It just has not been working for me, as I continually knock the silly thing over and spill the hooks and tapestry needles onto the carpet....which by the way is a thick awful mess that seems to swallow anything small. The only way to find things is to step on them and do the "hopping-on-one-foot-curse-real-loud-boogie". But I digress. Back to the dilemma of what to do with my crochet hook collection. 

After finally feeling strong enough to clean my closet(I herniated a disk in my lower back...but that is another story altogether), I came across a long lost travel wipes case, empty of course. I honestly don't think I've seen that thing since early February when I began watching my nephew regularly and how it ended up buried under a pile of stuff in my closet I will never know. Next to the case, I unearthed a storage tote, another item I had forgotten about, that was filled with some old tablecloths and random fabrics that I had purchased at a thrift store some time during the summer. I must have stared at the stuff in that tote for an hour, and I STILL don't have a clue as to why I needed those things, or what the sam-hill-of-beans I had intended to make with any of it. 

That is when the little light sparked, flared and burnt out in my head. I decided to make myself a little "clutch" to put my hooks and such in! I suppose I didn't do to bad of a job, and in my defense I couldn't sleep and had just taken my pain medication. Did I mention it was 1 A.M.? I get these crafty urges at the strangest times....I'm just lucky my husband sleeps like a rock and I have a room dedicated to my hobbies! So I grabbed some fabric, the spray adhesive, some felt, some yarn and that little case and set to work!







Now, as I said, it was 1 AM and I had just taken my pain medication, so it didn't occur to me that I might want to take a photo of the "before". The original plan was to hot glue the crochet inserts into the case, but they stay pretty well without having done so, and I like that I will be able to change them if I really want to! It is a little rough around the edges, but it is working out beautifully! :0)

But, wait! That's not all! I also got distracted by the small crochet hooks that belonged to my great-grandmother....and I mean small. I had no idea that there was such a small hook, size 14! I also found some handkerchiefs with hand-tatted and crocheted edges in great-grandmother's things. I got to wondering what I might be able to make with such small hooks and I had no idea what to use for "yarn". Then I remembered that along with all the yarn my mother-in-law gave me, she also gave me a small tub of embroidery floss, so I gave it a whirl, and this is what I came up with!!

The pattern for the flower can be found here: http://crochethealingandraymond.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/pointy-petal-flower/

The tiny butterfly was made using the same pattern as the flower, except I made the second and third "petal" by using a DC in place of the Half-Treble and then stopping with the fourth "petal". I used only 2 strands of embroidery floss for the smaller items, and 4 or more for the bigger ones and then put them together for a 3D effect. Just a quick note....the button in the photo is just an extra large one, I'm not that talented to make such small things and I don't think I have the eyesight for it either!! 







So, hopefully I will be able to get to those slippers....if I can keep from getting distracted anymore!! :0)

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