Once again the Interweb has arrived like a deus ex machina to solve everything.
Thanks to resources such as the Antique Pattern Library and the University of Arizona's Digital Archive my questions about Irish Crochet have been solved and I'm going great guns. In fact this new world of old world techniques is the reason I've been neglecting the blog. Now that I understand the concept of padding cord-that is the ratio of p.c. to working thread*, and the malleability of these cords (sliding the work along the cord to create organic shapes)-I'm a little giddy with the possibilities. Also, brushing up on Victorian Lit helped, as one of the main stumbling blocks in reading these vintage patterns is the fact that sentence structure is right out the window. The logic is different. It's like crocheting William Morris' News from Nowhere vs. working his charted needlepoint.
Recommended reading includes the Hardouin Crochet series (en francais) and DMC's Victorian Publications, made available at www.antiquepatternlibrary.org I'm going to try and type up some tutorials myself with modern sizes and terms (and linear thought). I will at least post some photos of finished motifs to better illustrate what I've learned...b/c I assume you're all interested.
*I'm currently using multiple lengths of #10 crochet cotton if working the motif in #30. For larger motifs (read: huge) in dk weight mer.cotton I've purchased 'real' cord which I work over as a single strand. Plus I'm racking up the Canadian Tire money.
Soundtrack: "Baby Elephant Walk", Henry Mancini ....fair isle misadventure to follow...
2 comments:
Ooooh! Do you think you will ever offer a class? Quite interesting. I must say, there are some things that just cannot be done with knitting, and I really want to improve my m4d chr0chet sk1llz!
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