Glamorous Crocheting

Hello Dynamos!
When Mims was about 4 months old, I tripped on my neighbor's front porch step and broke my left pinky.  I am left handed, so it was extra tough.  It won't surprise you that Mims did not seem to take it easy on me because I had a broken finger.  Four-month-olds are selfish like that...

Ahahahahahahahaha!!!

Okay, so my finger was broken at the knuckle, and it still (five years later) doesn't close into a fist all the way.  And it hurts when it rains, but that is not the point I am making.  Where I was going with this story is that I need  to crochet with those ergonomic big-handled crochet hooks or my pinky aches for the rest of the day.  Alas, the big-handled crochet hooks are four times the price of the skinny aluminum ones, and I have a set of the skinny aluminum ones, so OBVIOUSLY I needed to make my own handles.

Yippee! I could make anything I wanted. And I wanted glitter!  I saw a video awhile back that The Crafty Chica did on glittering a floor.  That was what I wanted my crochet hook handles to look like!  Fabulously, glamorously, Zsa Zsa Gabor-worthy glittered!

When I got to the craft store to pick up some polymer clay, I found that the Premo line of polymer clays had glitter colors!  Hooray! My job was half done! I picked up a package of red and blue glitter clay and went on my merry way.

I made my hook handles (1/2 oz is about right for a handle, 30 min at 275 degrees!), and they were glittery and beautiful, in a subtle subdued sparkle sort of way.  A coat of resin helped bring the sparkle out, but it wasn't the fabulous over-the-top blinding-myself-when-I-crochet effect I was looking for.

So, I got out a hook that I had made a handle for in a flat turquoise color, and I got out my micro-glitter.  I gave the handle a thin coat of uv curing resin, and then glittered the heck out of it.  When it had cured, I went for round two, making sure to cover all the spots that weren't sparkly enough!  When the 2nd layer had cured, I gave it a thicker top coating of resin to seal all the glitter inside, so it wouldn't get on me and my projects.  Glitter hook, super awesome. Glitter on my face, not so much.

All in all, this project was super fast and so much fun I would highly recommend you glitter yourself some fabulous hooks.  And my pinky doesn't hurt!

Oh yeah, one last thing, I couldn't help myself.  I crocheted a cover for a green handle with my favorite Aunt Lydia's Size 3 Crochet Cotton.  So soft and squishy, and I like that the green shows through!

xoxo

Crochet Vases: Something New to Think About

Lately I have been thinking a lot about crochet.  I like its density, and the way it holds its shape, which is a quality that sets it apart from knitting and sewing.  Yes, you can make thicker knit fabrics, or you can sew with interfacings, but sculptural pieces are math challenges.  With crochet, its less math, and more It Just Turned Out That Way.
I have been very inspired by some crochet baskets that I saw recently.  They were very pretty, and brightly colored, and they got me to thinking about how cool it would be to have a crocheted vase.  The density of the crocheted fabric makes it perfect for traditional vase shapes, but water would make it a soggy mess.
I didn't want to crochet around a vase, or a baby food jar, mason jar, or empty can.  I wanted it to look like it was a magic trick, like somehow this vessel that in no way is watertight is holding water and flowers.
So what I needed to do was waterproof and seal the crocheted vessels.

Crochet and Liquid Polymer Clay

I started out by crocheting some basic vase shapes.  I made two out of acrylic yarn, and one out of cotton.  I didn't make them very large, since I wasn't entirely sure that my experiment was going to work.  Then I used some liquid polymer clay (the kind that's used for image transfers) and coated the vessels.  I only coated the inside of the cotton vase, since it was large enough to allow my whole hand inside as I was working.  The two acrylic pieces I ended up coating the inside and the outside, since they were small and the liquid was kind of hard to control.  I was surprised, and a little disappointed, at how the acrylic yarn fuzzed up as I rubbed the liquid polymer clay in. Then I sealed them into a foil packet and baked them at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.

The two acrylic pieces ended up very hard and inflexible. Very vase like.  I was delighted!  The cotton piece looked like crochet on the outside, with a smooth translucent coating on the inside. Again I was delighted! The cotton vase turned out just like I had hoped, it was going to be my magic trick.

Unfortunately, the dark green piece had not been completely sealed, so water just poured out of it like you would expect from a crocheted vase.  But the other two, my light green bud vase and my cotton crochet magic trick vase, were watertight and ready for use.  So I went out to the garden and picked some roses.

I think this is just the beginning.  I am looking forward to experimenting with larger forms, and now that I know what to expect, I think I'll be working on these exclusively with cotton.  I'd like to try a completely coated cotton piece, and I want to try some more decorative multicolored pieces. But, for now, I would call this experiment very successful.
xoxo