Tuesday, October 05, 2010

twine.


While I like knitting, I lately have been trying to re-learn crochet. Crochet is something I grew up with - my grandmother was always knitting afghans or table runners, and I learned a lot from her. After many (many) years away from it though, I have been in need of practice, beginner patterns, and...more practice. A local blogger friend made some book recommendations not long ago for learning crochet and this week I picked them up from the library. Two of the books had patterns and samples using kitchen and/or butcher's twine. You probably have all seen this before, but it was new to me! Of course I had to go out and get some immediately. And I must say I have had a great time crocheting with it. I have been doing simple crochet squares for coasters, and I love how easy it is for me to see my stitches with the twine, how much more even my not-so-nimble-with-the-crochet-hook-yet stitches are, and how I am not worried about ruining it doing the crochet/tear out of learning. I also like that it looks very modern, clean, simple and stylish. Yes, twine.

I'm using the coasters to get my fingers going and everything figured out and even/straight, and then I want to try a pattern for folding baskets using thicker butcher's twine. Very cool!

9 comments:

Sam said...

They look lovely. I've used twine for produce shopping bags, and I(eventually) plan to make baskets, but I hadn't thought of coasters - great idea :-)

Sam x

Zachary and Jennifer said...

I like the look of the twice too. Very cool!

Jennifer

Anonymous said...

So cool! I bet it'd be fun to try dyeing them in some funky colours.

denise said...

Mel - That is exactly what I was thinking too! :) I like the clean look, but keep thinking, oooh, this would really hold color well!

Sam - I saw a pattern using it for produce bags...don't know if I'm that nimble with the hook yet, but can't wait to try!

Stephanie said...

Very pretty!

And Red would be very nice in your house.

Jodi Anderson said...

Really, I just want to crochet all the time. I'm so hooked, no pun intended.

If any of the books have been held up because someone had them checked out, they should be in now. (All the ones on that list were checked out by me from the library and most were madly overdue, no longer renewable. Oops.) :)

Francesca said...

Really pretty, Denise. I also leaned to crochet from my grandmother, but then knitted only for years, and had to re-learn crochet from books! I love it, and I don't think I'll ever tire of crocheting.

Emily Landmann said...

Denise, I'm wondering which book has the twine patterns? Would like to give that a go. :)

denise said...

Emily - The two are::

Simple Crochet, Erika Knight
and
Uncommon Crochet: Twenty-Five Projects Made from Natural Yarns and Alternative Fibers, Julie Armstrong Holetz

:)