Saturday 9 January 2010

Lacy Crochet

I have been messing about with some new crochet techniques lately and thought I'd try my hand at a bit of lacy crochet. I bought the book 'KYUUTO! Japanese Crafts - Lacy Crochet' last year and have been trying to get my head around following a diagram instead of a written pattern. Once mastered, I'm sure this will open up a whole new world of fabulous Japanese crochet patterns.

So, as you can see above, each stitch is represented by a symbol on the diagram, fairly straight forward? hmm, I'm not too sure...I didn't progress further than the 3rd round when I tried out this lacy doily (see top photo). This is what the finished item should look like(photo taken from afore mentioned book):-

It was an enjoyable challenge to work with the fine crochet threads I've had in my stash for a year or so now, picked up for pennies from my local Charity shop. I also used a 2mm hook from my new set of hooks my Mum gave me for my birthday last year - fiddly, but I love the delicate results - must try harder next time, I'd really like a hand crocheted doily for my dresser!!

5 comments:

Heather said...

Aaah..... these are so pretty..... those colours are a wee taster of what's to come with springtime. Just lovely. H xx

YarnRoundHook said...

Why don't you try translating from the chart into words, so round 4 would go

"3ch, 1tr in sl st, 1 tr in next tr, [2ch, 1tr in next tr, 2tr in next tr, 3ch, 1dc in 5ch space, 3ch, 2tr in next tr, 1tr in next tr] 5 times, 2ch, 1 tr in next tr, 2 tr in next tr, 3ch, dc in 5ch space, 3ch, join with sl st."

Having said that - it doesn't actually look much easier does it?!

Northern Hi-Lights said...

Victoria - of course! I hadn't even thought of doing that! one of the reasons i got in a pickle with the chart was because I kept losing my place every time I looked away from the page - Thanks for that. Elaine

Unknown said...

wow..this absolutely fun loving..can yo post a full image of that pattern..its lovely

Marta said...

And for me reading written patterns is rocket science!
Here in Portugal we are much familiarized with diagrams and for me they are so much easier.

One thing you can do is to make a pencil mark each time you need to stop, that way you know always where you are.

By the way, the samples are great. You are doing just fine :)