Attic24

Crochet Fashion

 

Following on from my last post, it was really amusing reading all your comments about the 1970's crochet fashion. But awwww you did disappoint me with the Granny Square Bikini, I was so damn sure you would be begging me for the pattern, that it would become the new trend in Blogland ;o)

Maybe not eh.

It did get me thinking about crochet garments though, and how I'd love to make something wearable one day. But it's a risky business, making crochet clothing. I'm aware that there's a veeeeeeeery fine line between stylish and naff, between nasty and nice, and I'm not sure I'm quite subtle enough to sit on the right side of that fine line.

I mean, one could go so Horribly Wrong with Granny Square garments.

Could end up a hideously expensive mistake if one was not veeeeeeeeeeery careful indeed.

However.......I think if one got the colour palette right (think muted, vintagey tones rather than garish brights), then it could work. Could work out veeeeeeeery nicely indeed.

Have a look at these pages from the latest Country Living magazine :: a fantastic new fashion series which showcases real people and the everyday clothes they choose to wear. This month it's the turn of florist Liz Wallace. 

 

There she is look, doing a spot of recreational painting......AHHHAAAA!!!!!! Did you do what I did and zoom your beady eyes straight in to that picture of her and fixate on her amazingly gorgeous crochet cardie??? Did you??? Did it give you palpitations, make your heart skip a beat? Oh, that was just me then....

 

....when I first caught sight of this image I yelped out loud with joy, it was instant love-at-first-sight. Heart flutters and palpitations for sure.

Isn't it fabulous????

I desperately searched the magazine article for more information, and there it was in the small print  :: "Patchwork Crochet Cardigan, £360, Odd Molly"

So straight to the internet went I, searching out Odd Molly.

Odd Molly is a collection of very unique clothes and accessories, you can browse through their current Spring collection by clicking here.

There are a few crocheted garments, these two are my faves and are pictured on page 2 (click here to see, they're second row from bottom)

What do you think?? I think they're absolutely beautiful, inspiring, gorgeous, amazing.

Really really.

A huuuuuuuuuge step up from the bikini, poncho, tank top and hostess apron of yesterday.

Hmmmm....me thinks I might just HAVE to make some sort of hooky garment for myself at some point in my future. You know, when I've nothing better to do.

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Stash-busting

Helloooooooooo!!

Remember me??

I'm the one who used to have six child-free hours a day to please myself, six child free hours a day in which to write, bake, crochet, create, read, browse, shop and potter...oh how I miss my leisurely Pottering! Yeah, I do miss my "old life" somewhat. But I'm certainly not complaining. No, not complaining at all. In my "new life" where my child-free hours have become Baby-full hours, things are good...Little B is really a delight, an easy sort of a baby for the most part, but somehow so completely and utterly absorbing and time consuming even when asleep. Which he is right now. Asleep. Ahhhh yes, here I am at 8.30pm, love-love-loving the sudden peace and quiet in the Attic24 house with all three offspring off in the Land of Nod. Bliss.

So before I also take myself off to my snuggly bed, I really did want to come and say hello, to chat to you a little about some hooky stuff. Yes....I have finally begun to crochet again, yippeeeee!!!! Last Thursday I did indeed make it along to the lovely cafe to join my knit and natter group, and it was bloomin great I tell you. I had soooo missed it! Little B was super and managed to stay asleep the whole time which allowed me to crochet my little heart out. Bliss.

I'm officially Stash-busting at the moment. Truthfully, I really, really, really want to buy a heap load of new yarn and launch myself into a new big blanket. Really I do. But with a fair pile of Baby Cahsmerino still knocking about after the Baby Granny blanket was completed, I don't feel like I can justify buying any more yarn just quite yet. So stash-busting it is for now...just before Christmas I had a look at my BC yarn and figured I had enough to make another small baby blanket. I've taken my inspiration from the above book which I've got out on loan from the library :: it's an oldish book, I think late 70's or early 80's, and despite the veeeeeeeeeeery dated look of the photographs, there is a lot of good stuff in these pages.

 

See the baby blanket up above there, top right? The white and pastelly one with the little duck? That's my inspiration. Want to look more closely??

Here you go..........

Hmmmm.....doesn't look very "me" does it?

Waaaaaay too pastely and wishy washy.

But....I LOVE the design idea, the way the little squares are tipped over onto their sides to work as diamond shapes and then fitted into the zigzags of a chevron :: BRILLiaNT!!!

Let me at it!

With MY colours!!!

So this is where I'm up to so far :: these two bands of chevrons-and-squares will form the top and bottom edges of my little blanket.

The squares were made up first and stitched together. Then the chevron rows were worked into the edges of the squares, top and bottom. It's not an easy pattern, it took me a while to work it out and get it right. But I do think it's come out really well.

The middle of my little blanket is going to be made up of just squares, a patchwork of little diamond squares in all the colours I have left. I'm just working my way through my stash, making as many squares as I can with the yarn I have left, stacking them in neat little piles and hoping there's gonna be enough.

I'm loving making these little Solid Granny squares, they're great to do, easy to slot into the itsy bits of time available in my hectic days.

One after a feed and before dinner.

Two after dinner and before bath time.

Little by little my stash is being Busted and my piles are being Built.

Thought you might appreciate seeing a few more pages from the book...............

Aren't the pictures funny??! They're sooo dated, yet I can't help but love them.

A granny square bikini look....oooohhh could be just the thing for the Summer!

Oh and lookee here, a crocheted Hostess Apron, how charming!

Actually, I really do LOVE this design. No no no, not the apron as such, but the design of combining squares-in-rows with stripes is FAB, don't you think?

The squares used for this apron are called Wagon Wheel Granny Squares, and are really quite lovely...I tried one out look.......

 

Think this is gonna be the inspiration for my new blanket.

I can call it the Hostess Blanket.

Just as soon as I've finished Stash Busting I'm on it.

As soon as.

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