Alice and chains

Of all the craft that I see on folksy , the work that for me comes really high up on the "wow" scale is that produced by the yarn crafters. I have absolute admiration for anyone who can take a strand of yarn and turn it into something so beautiful. Folksy is awash with beautiful gentle shawls, funky modern knits, purses, handbags, toys... the list is endless. So much skill and time goes into these pieces - and I love the fact that in almost all cases, something functional is also a work of art.

I have been unsuccessfully trying to learn to crochet for quite some time. I can just about manage a granny square, but anything more than that is beyond me. My wrists complain after a few stitches, I get tangled up in wool and I can't get the tension right at all. With crochet, I have met my match.

I wasn't going to show you my latest disaster because as I was experimenting with this OH walked past and asked me why I was knitting a strand of seaweed. When I got up the following morning he'd pinned a paper fish on it. I came to the conclusion a while ago that following a pattern takes more skill than I have and as everything I crochet looks like Medusa on a bad snake day, I might as well embrace it. So I have a ball of acrylic yarn and a 4.5 mm hook.

This is my seaweed strand. I made a long foundation chain (I honestly can't remember how long it was) then I looped it back and put a single stitch into each loop. Occassionally, I chained off another short random length and looped it back to make the branches. I also occassionally skipped a stich and added a single chain here and there to make some little bumps and so it wasn't as regular as it should be. I want it to look like a thorny creeper and they aren't renowned for being straight and smooth.



I've added some details in a second colour of yarn, again in an irregular fashion. I've twisted and turned the stand so I can pick up stitches from all sorts of parts of the strand, occassionally chaining over the top to change sides.



These are felt leaves, I've just cut them out freehand from a felt sheet. The green thread is from a box of random old haberdashery supplies I found ages ago.



I'm just going to stitch the leaves onto the ends of the chains and add some details with the thread.



I made these ages ago and they have been sitting in my craft box ever since. When I mean ages, I mean over three years.



If I link my two ends together, I can sew one of the roses onto the join.



And this is the final product.



I'm not sure I'll ever have the courage to wear it as it's quite in-your-face as far as alternative jewellery goes, but it was a fun experiment.