Tunisian Crochet Resource

I’m still working out what I want to do with a bunch of sweet green wool yarn I was gifted. Right now it’s going to be a Tunisian crochet afghan. (Click here for my tutorial on basic Tunisian crochet.)

Since I’m using only one color, I’m experimenting with lots of different textures. My main resource for the different stitches and patterns is this website: My Tunisian Crochet. Sadly, some of the links on the site are broken, but the information that is there is fantastic, especially the youtube videos of how to work different stitches. Head on over if you want to spice up your Tunisian crochet repertoire.

Here’s the afghan stripe on my hook right now. I love the texture!

Happy Yarning.

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Repurposing Thrift Store Fabric

One great place to get fabric for costuming is thrift stores. As we liked to say in our college Medieval Club, “If it would make terrible curtains, it’ll make great garb.” And we sometimes literally turned terrible curtains into clothing. I’ve seen curtains, table cloths, and bed sheets become dresses, tunics, and cloaks.

This bliaut was once a table cloth and a bed skirt.

Of course, most of the fabric goods that turn up at thrift stores are cotton and polyester (which aren’t ideal Medieval European garb). But if you just want a Medieval fantasy look, these are great. Every once in a while you find a nice piece of wool, linen, or a bit of silk for more period garments.

It never hurts to take a look and see if you find something. For example, these two nice lengths of wool I found a few weeks ago.

They were about three dollars a yard all told. The gray twill is destined for a tunic for my husband. The plaid I don’t think I’ll even cut. It’s the perfect size and shape for a shawl, a viking cloak, or just a blanket.

Happy Yarning!

Now for the Prettying

My linen underdress is finished, and my wool overdress is all put together and hemmed!

Now for the part where I spend a few weeks on embellishments. I thought the hems, chain-stitched in white wool thread, took a long time, but I have evil plans to finish some of the long seams with Mammen cushion stitch. Here’s my practice scrap.

I tend to take a rather liberal view of what is historically accurate to a given place and time. For instance, I’m okay with using a stitch found on a tenth-century Viking pillow for my tenth-century Anglo-Saxon dress. As a crafty person, I’m prone to trying to recreate pretty things I see, so I figure Anglo-Saxon women wouldn’t have hesitated to try out stitches they saw their neighbors wearing. Unless they were busy running for their lives at the time. Silly Vikings.

See what I mean? Rather liberal.

In addition to these seam treatments, I’ll (hopefully) eventually add tablet-woven bands or silk onto the the cuffs, neckline, and possibly hem of my overdress.

Pretty. Pretty. Pretty…time-consuming! But at the end I’ll have my first “period” garb.

Happy Yarning.

Yarning

Works in progress from my yarning hobbies.

Stripes and checkers baby blanket

Knit, acrylic, about 60% done. Everyone in the Young Women’s program at church knows I knit because I keep toting this along to activities.

Update: See the finished blanket in a later post. Completed Stripes and Checkers Baby Blanket

Inkle Project #6

It’s a belt commissioned by my sister. #10 crochet cotton, inkle-woven, with a celtic pickup pattern I derived from the one on norsegirl.com. Incidentally, you too can learn to inkle weave from her website.

 

Update: See the finished belt in a later post. Completed Endless Knots Inkle Belt

Green afghan

Tunisian crochet, wool, just begun. I fell in love with the texture of this variation of Tunisian crochet. It makes a very fluid fabric. Plus, my mother-in-law gifted me a bunch of great green wool.

And…the Infamous Tree Blanket

Tapestry crochet, acrylic.

I’ve worked on this sucker on and off since high school. Still only about 70% done. I’m not all that eager to finish, because it just doesn’t look as nice as I hoped. There isn’t enough contrast between the dark colors and the black background, and all those strings I carry along peek out everywhere.

Still, it forced me to learn to crochet left-handed (to maintain a front and back), so it’s not a total waste?

When the mood strikes me, I also spin.

The project I’m proudest of was a knitted alpaca hat for my dad, with wool from his own alpaca.

Can you spot the hat? Knitting it was only a small part of this project.

What yarn crafts do you like to do?