I was sick and travelling a lot over the Christmas holidays. And both those things are not very conducive to sewing. So I thought that it was about time to teach myself a more portable craft that can be done lying down in bed watching TV or sitting on a plane or train. Crochet to the rescue!
My first foray into crochet was inspired by a project in making magazine (issue 3, January 2011), a copy of which the lovely blogger Suzy sent me.
The instructions were pretty confusing for a beginner crocheter despite some accompanying (but rather confusing) drawings and explanations of the necessary crochet stitches. Alas, I had to enlist my dear trusty crafting friend, Youtube; and sure enough I found ample demonstrations of every imaginable crochet stitch possible that even a complete beginner can understand.
The result: a cute little cherry brooch!
I love this brooch and once you have figured out how it works it is easy and quick to make. And sure enough these little cherry brooches might go into mass production here at The Naked Seamstress HQ, because seemingly every female friend or family member wants to have one of their own. My usual response would be: "I'll show you how to make one yourself." But then again birthdays will be creeping up on me soon and present ideas are usually pretty exhausted after Christmas.
If you do not have this issue of making magazine and want to make one for yourself, you can peruse of many a youtube video to teach you various leaf shapes and cherry sizes. You will also need to improvise a bit on the sizing depending on the yarn or needle you are using. Had I followed the instructions in making magazine to the letter I would have ended up with a cherry the size of my right boob. So do be careful that the cherry size is to your liking. Here are some youtube tutorials that I found useful:
For the cherry:
Happy crocheting everyone!