crocheted orange flags

 

almost weekend!

 

do you follow the world cup? i do a little but many people in my neighborhood follow the dutch team more fanatical. their gardens and balconies are adorned with all sorts of orange decorations, including plastic garlands with orange flags. this pretty white cat lives two doors away and on the background you can see the orange decorations in ‘her’ garden. 

white cat

 

 

i won’t show you a picture of the garden on the left, because my neighbors can hardly stand upright there by all their decorations:)

 

crocheted flags

a few years ago i hooked a version of cotton yarn, 11 orange flags, one for each player of the team. see the original blog post here. but below there are some new pictures to see: 

crochet orange flag

crochet orange flags garland

crochet orange triangles garland

 

 

recently my friend alessandra has posted about this type of crocheted triangles and the variations she has made. in her post you will find the link to the original charted pattern, so if you like to make your own version of this garland here is the link to the explanations. 

 

orange

the next match of the dutch (orange) team will be a little thrilling and i will certainly sit in front of the television with my crochet work and support them. will you also watch matches of the world cup?

 

joining: creative friday at natural suburbia

 

 

wish you an enjoyable weekend !!

orange garland by elisabeth andrée

practice crochet stitches to make a garland and more

on request i made a tutorial for a project that is not very complicated, so it is suitable for beginning crocheters and anyone who likes to join. i assume that you can make all the basic crochet stitches and the magic loop, but practice makes perfect, right 🙂   this tutorial is intended to practice and based on that to make cute little things.  

during this project, you practice the following:

• the magic loop
• threads neatly weaving in

• stitches (terms in american english):

  • chain = ch
  • slip stitch = ss
  • single crochet = sc
  • half double crochet = h dc
  • double crochet = dc
  • treble = tr

• you will make:

  • triangles
  • squares
  • heart-shaped motifs
  • an edge

 

used materials:

for crocheting these motifs, i used an average cotton yarn and a crochet hook size 3 mm, but you can use another type of yarn.

let’s start with the first triangle

see for a great tutorial how to finish your crochet work neatly: seamless + symmetrical 

 

make as many triangles as you want, i have made a total of 24

 

the making of the garland

for the garland you just have to crochet a lot of chains. i counted all the chains at the beginning and end of the garland and between the triangles. if you do not like to count, just use a measuring tape.

 

in this tutorial there are two ways to attach the triangles.

 

method 1.

you make slip stitches or single crochets along one side of the triangles, in the back loops only. see photo.

method 2.

i find it more fun when the motifs dangle. for this i made a single crochet in the middle dc of a corner. see photo. 

 

and in this way you can turn your little triangles with many chains into a nice garland.

_

 

small variations

1. sharper corners

if you want to have your triangles sharper corners, you can replace the middle of the five dcs by a treble. how to make the edge, i’ll tell you later in this tutorial.

 

2. heart-shaped motif

of these triangles you can quite easily make a heart-shaped motif.

see note ***  

triangle to square

this triangle you change in an instant to a square.

see note ***  

making the edge

see note ***  

note ***

you can make a ss but it is better to cut the yarn and weave in the ends the same as explained in the making of the first triangle. see the tutorial of sarah london: seamless + symmetrical  

larger motifs

both triangles and squares you can make larger by repeating row two. you start row 3 and all subsequent rows the same as row two, you just make – the bigger your motif gets – each time more stitches between the corners. you make a corner by crocheting 5 dc into the middle of the 5 dc of a corner of the previous row.

blocking

if you crochet larger squares and triangles, they can be a bit bumpy. how to bring them beautiful into shape, you’ll read in this spray-blocking tutorial. 

this is the end of the tutorial. hope you like it! see you next time!  keep crocheting!    

old pictures, new bunting

earlier this week i told you about the inspiration i got from dottie angel’s garland. last summer something similar happened when i looked at sarah london’s website. there were the pictures of her granny garland. it reminded me of curtains my mother made in the seventies and eighties. i only found one photo which shows you something of her work. i think the photo was taken between 1978 and 1980 (not sure) and yes that’s me in that yellow thing with my mum and dad, but look at the curtain not at us.

i was inspired and i figured out how to make meshy things and this is my version of triangles on a string.

are you inspired too? 

each how-to-learn-crochet-book explains this method of reduction and increase,
so hopefully you’re the lucky owner of such a book. 

pattern to buy: http://sarahlondon.wordpress.com/p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s/  (pdf)

enjoy your weekend!

 

 

bikini bunting

last summer these triangles were one of my creations

   

_

_

 

while i attached the triangles to a crocheted string the comparison with bikini tops came to me. there are many stories to read about girls who went swimming in a crochet bikini and….and then the boys with their knitted swimwear…curiously -to my opinion- there are people who like to crochet bikinis and other swimwear. if you are one of them (not me, not even with double sided tape or velcro) here are the links to two original pattern from the 70s en two new ones from drops design.

 

bikini patterns from the 1970s
(web.archive.org – website can be slow)

groovy/B-773.html

groovy/mt4-bikini.html

bikini patterns drops design 

• Tripoli by DROPS Design
• “Retro-Style bikini voor de zomer!”
• Bikini en zonnehoed