About Me & My Artistic Expression (or Thread Obsession)

When I was a small girl, every Sunday afternoon my mother took us kids to visit my Grandparents. While my mother and grandmother chatted at the kitchen table over coffee, I wandered through the company rooms of the house admiring all the fancy workings that adorned the furniture. Every table top was covered with at least one fancy working. Towels were trimmed in lace, as was every hand cloth, pillowcase and tablecloth. And every week this fascinating display changed!

In my Grandparents home my Grandmothers "private" area was in the basement right next to the cloths washer and across from a very large stove. While my grandmother sat waiting for the cloths to wash and the oven to bake, she would create her fancy workings. As a little girl I would sit on the floor at my Grandmothers feet and watch her knit or crochet. This is how I learned . . . . by watching. To this day I still knit backwards.

What fascinated me as a child remains a passion of mine today - some 40 years later. I naturally gravitate towards century old patterns and have a fondness for Victorian and Celtic designs. I draw a great deal of my inspiration from nature, which is probably why I'm so hooked on Irish Crochet. I also recently I began creating some of my own designs and will some day put them to patterns. I work with a variety of fibers in creating my work such as cotton, bamboo, wool & linen - and lots of color!

In this blog I'll talk about things like fiber, crochet tips and techniques, and share my knowledge in the crafts history. Resources are immense with the internet, but I'll list my favorites here too.

My greatest passion is crochet, but I do still knit from time to time.

You can browse through an array of my creations at:

Artistic Needlework: www.etsy.com/shop/ArtisticNeedlework

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Artistic-Needlework/101214780007413

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/ArtisticNeedleW/

Posted by Artistic NeedleWork

Crochet: Time to Put Away the Yarn & Get Out Thread!


Time to put away the yarn and get out the thread! Seems all I've done this past winter is knit and crochet scarves and gloves. I love making my BostWick Lake Scarf and FingerLess Gloves, but its time to pack up winter and welcome SPRING! Nothing says spring like flowery, frilly doilies in a rainbow colors.

New Doilies at Artistic NeedleWork on Etsy

Today, while I was working on several old and new doily patterns, I started thinking. My first thought was, "why do I even bother turning on the TV when all thats on is crap!" So I got up, shut off the TV and turned on some music. Emmylou Harris . . . thats much better. Now back to my needlework. I'm just starting an Irish crochet design (center above). Its a pattern from 1915 which is written in what some might think is a different language altogether, but really its just that the directions are very vague. Very vague. Ya might as well toss the directions and simple go by the picture. Anyways, its a very daunting project, one I've completed before, but one that will test my skills and patience nonetheless.

Lots of people say to me "I could never do that" (create a doily). My response to that statement is always, "well if you can crochet, you can"  If you can crochet, you can create a doily or any crochet lace for that matter. It just takes practice. So while I was getting starting on the first few rounds of my Irish design I decided to write up a blog post . . a tutorial of sorts on the Irish Crochet Doily, Getting Started with Thread   . . . but mostly a post of helpful hints on crocheting with thread.

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