Bill and Ted in Tunisian crochet

 

Early this year, there were three things that I wanted to explore in Tunisian short rows: Spirals in all shapes, actual, non-abstract pictures (more or less) and swinging a complete text or sentence.

I guess the last part needs some explanations: When starting with swing knitting, I did some of the Swing Knitting Workshops from Heidrun Liegmann.

In part 4, she explains several ways on how to compose your own knitting melody. One way is the phone-method: You chose a word or a name and type the letters in your phone, for example LOVE = 5683. Then, you are supposed to use that throughout the whole project, otherwise it might get too chaotic.

But I wanted to know, is that really the case and would it be possible to swing a whole text or a sentence? And, as you can't read it from the stanzas on the finished project, the picture that they form should somehow correspond with the text so that people can at least guess what I'm writing?

Then, on the Bill and Ted group on Facebook, a most excellent dude posted a picture of his new car sticker: The silhouettes of Bill and Ted with the famous "Be excellent to each other". 

I knew immidiately, that was the perfect project to try all three things mentioned above:

The silhouette seemed to be an easy first picture, when you see Bill and Ted the first sentence that comes to mind is "Be excellent to each other and party ond dudes" , the timetravel fits perfect with a spiral and swing is music.

It took me several attempts and some frogging, but finally, I managed to do my very own Bill and Ted spiral in Tunisian crochet.

When posting photos of the finished piece to the Bill & Ted group on facebook, I was just hoping for some likes and nice comments, and then i got totally overwhelmed: Not only that I got a like from the official "Bill & Ted 3" - account, they even shared my post on their own official account. I'm still over the moon !!!!

Unfortunaley, I didn't take any notes, so, there is no way that I can write a pattern of this.

But fortunately, I came across Printler, where you can now purchase art prints of  Bill and  Ted and all my other crocheted "paintings".

Currently, there is a Black Friday discount of up to 40 %. 

Addicted to spirals

 

You might have guessed it already when looking at the colomn on the left: I'm addicted to spirals.

My favourite pattern in swing knitting is Red Fruit Jelly by Birgit Fitzke .

When I started combining swinging and Tunisian crochet, I just had to try and see if I could also do a spiral with that technique - and it worked. 

After doing a square , I wanted to try different shapes of spirals.

First, a triangular spiral. At one point, it looked like a heart and so, I decided to try and see if I could swing- Tunisian-crochet a heart -shaped spiral.

It took me many, many attempts, but finally, I managed to do the first heart that I was really happy with. 

Next, I wanted to know if I could change the outer shape of the heart into a rectangel.

I tried several   methods on how to move the position of the corners until I found the right one. That made the final piece a little bit messy and chaotic which reminded of my own sometimes chaotic lovelife, and so, I named it "Chaos". 

Below, there is a little making of. Prints of "Chaos" can be bought from Printler . Don't miss Black Friday week with a discount of up to 40 % !

Painting with Tunisian Crochet and how it began.

Exactly three years ago, I was on a beautiful safari through some nationalparks in India. For my travel project, I could not decide between swing knitting and Tunisian crochet, so, I  ended up combining two of my favourite techniques. Once I had found out how to work Tunisian short rows without holes, I became addicted to that "new" technique and crocheted several shawls.

As most crafters, I'm a horder when it comes to yarn, I just can't throw anything away, no matter how small of a leftover it is. In mid -2020 I had the idea to collect all leftovers longer than 10cm/4 inches on one ball and, when it is big enough, turn it into a "painting". (Everything shorter than 10 cm /4" goes into the stuffing of my amigurumis). The first painting was "Dream". Here, I only used knitting yarn.

But for "Avalon", I decided to experiment materialwise: Sewing thread (four strands held together), ribbons and gold cord from those yummy X-mas-chocholates were added to the leftover ball.  

The interesting thing about these paintings is that I never know how they will turn out in the end and when it comes to finding a name,  I simply chose what the finished picture reminds me of. 

Should you have see anything different in my pictures, I'm totally fine with that and it would be really, really great if you would share that with me.   

Should you wish to purchase prints of my crocheted art, please go to my Printler Gallery . Currently there is a discount of up to 40 % . 

Back to Blogging

 With so many exciting things going on recently, I decided to pick up blogging again and give my long neglected blog a new design.

Recently, I extented my bussiness a little bit:

Amigurumi patterns for lefthanders:  the first one, The Grim Reaper and his Owl, has just been published on Ravelry, Etsy and Crazy Patterns.

Simply chose the shop that you like best and click on the icon on the right hand side => , that will take you to my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or CrazyPatterns.

If you click the picture of the Reaper on the left <=, it will take you directly to te Reaper in my Ravelry store. 

 

Artprints of my crocheted pictures are now available from Printler. 

Thanks to Black Friday Week, there is currently a discount of up to 40 %. 

To get to my gallery, just click on the Printler-icon on the right hand side of this blog. =>

Or, if you prefer a shortcut, the picture on the left hand side <=, this will take you directly to the picture you like.  

Hugglets Winter Bear Fest 2018

I'm extremely delighted to introduce three brand new designs for Hugglets on Sunday, to see them and all my other creations in the fur, please visit us un hall 1, stand 30.

 This is Lady Amatia, a little unicorn, measuring 10 cm/4 inches from head to hoof, she has a wired spine running from head to tail and her legs are both jointed and wired for many different poses.

 Here, we have little Sandro, 7,5cm / 3 inches, standing, from head to paw.

And, finally, Viserion, the famous ice dragon from Game of Thrones. He measures 10,5cm/ 4.2 inches when standing on his hind legs and 22cm /8.8inches from nose to tail when fully stretched.
He is made from hand-dyed and -paintzed mohair, wings are hand-painted , as well. His legs are both jointed and wired, he has a wired spine running from head to tail and his wings are completely wired, too.

Das Dutzend ist voll

Ich muss mich selber immer noch kneifen, aber es ist wahr, am letzten Wochenende habe ich auf der Euro-Teddy in Essen sage und schreibe meine 12. Europameisterschaft gewonnen, mit Ribs und Rob, und ja, ich habe sie nach den Herren Ribery und Robben benannt, wobei der kleine Arjen natürlich auch auf den Namen Mr. Wembley hört.

 

Und wo ich schon mal dabei bin, die kleine Sunshine ist für den Excellence in Bear Artistry Award nominiert und würde sich riesig freuen über Unterstützung beim Online-Voting.
https://www.bearartistry.com/public-vote/

Preview for Hugglets

These are just some of the bears and friends who will be with me at Hugglets next Sunday. As always in September, you'll find us in hall 1, stand 48.