More Lacy Trims

Still making trims with a floral theme but ran across a couple of lace patterns. This little pattern was so demure with little hearts encircled into a lacey edge, they almost look like flowers in a basket. Cute, cute, cute.

And this one caught my eye because of the feminine lacey look. It's little fans!

My favorites are the plain trims and the florals but I also like the motifs. I guess they're all my favorites. All of them can be made into string crochet or you can use a larger hook and heavier yarn for bigger projects. Use them any way you can think of. That's the beauty of crochet, it is so adaptable and versatile for any project you can imagine.

Teddy Bears on Swings

I've been wanting to make these for a while but didn't have the right colors of string to make them the way I wanted to. So I made the first ones tan and pink instead of brown and red. I had so much trouble finding red crochet cotton #10 around here and they were all out online too. What's up with that? Does everyone sit at home and crochet red things all at the same time??? So I made the first set with the colors I had.

I eventually did find a darker red at Walmart so I just got that but I wanted a lighter, brighter red so I got some embroidery thread to use for the swings. The good thing about using embroidery thread is that you can take off one or two ply of it to make it the thickness you need to match the crochet cotton. I've got to have the right shade when I want to make something. That explains the zillion balls of thread I've collected. LOL

So the first thing you do with this pattern is make the bears. It's about one bear for every inch and a half that you want to make of trim. Then you just crochet the swings around them and add the seats to finish them off.

I love these little guys! You really need to stiffen them with stiffener or white glue to make them lay flat and you can slide them around a little on the swings to position them better than I did. They look great anchored to a baby blanket instead of dangling where they would get all twisted up though. You could use a strip of them close to the edge of a towel just for baby and they would be adorable.

Dreaming of Summer

I've done skipped right over Spring! I ran into a few YouTube videos of string crochet. I discovered that I absolutely love this work, but I prefer diagrams or written instructions over videos. Everybody is a YouTube star these days so.... anyway - I had to make this little mermaid! She's pretty big. Too big for a border on the stuff I work on but she does fill a page. Just one finished mermaid done in number 10 cotton string is 5" by 7" so she will fit into my books. She's a beautiful decoration!

Actually, if you are an advanced crocheter, you don't really have to anchor her at all. You can modify the pattern to leave off the rock and the base and just make her free standing so you can position her vertically for the front of a book. Hmmm.... that's an idea. How would you love to open up a handmade book with crochet trimmed pages and find her in it? I can think of a few different ways to use her besides trim work, can't you?

I really like the motifs you can make with string. They are a little too big for a border I think but they are so cute I can't resist making a few. I crocheted the blue base onto a chain made into card stock so I can remove it from the paper if I want to attach it to fabric later.

I love the work that goes on with the YouTube channel by "lace star" named Puntillas Estrella". So go look for her channel. Even if you don't speak Spanish you can follow along. She does a lot of colorful and exciting shapes into her border work and you can follow along by starting and stopping the video as needed.

I'm also still using patterns from books and I've discovered more trims and border patterns from out of print Japanese books (from 2003) whose last printing was in Chinese. It really doesn't matter what language they are written in as long as they have diagrams you can read. Crochet is pretty universal like that.

The main difference in crochet is between the instructions printed in the US and the ones printed in the UK. The UK uses different terminology for the same stitches.

Beautiful Trims for Pages

So this is what I've been working on. I got hooked (no pun intended) on crocheting these string trims while I was working on my books. I thought I would decorate the fronts and maybe down some pages with these trims made of string. I really like the way they look. I crochet them on paper or card stock, block them for stiffness to give them body and then attach the trim to card with washi tape to keep them nice and flat until I'm ready to use them.

I love to crochet so it was an easy jump for me to go smaller with string instead of yarn. I don't think I have the patience to sit and do a bunch of doilies, but I love working these edges in small sections. I can get one or two done in a day if I'm not too busy with other things. It's instant gratification where crochet is concerned.

I started to work out a few patterns and I haven't crocheted in so long that I did not know they use diagrams now a lot. So I had to learn how to read the diagrams and I like them too because I don't have to mark up my pages while I work, I can just look at the diagram and tell where I'm at.

I'm making some little 7 inch sample runs of these patterns. I got these patterns out of a book by Caitlin Sainio called "75 Exquisite Trims in Thread Crochet".

Some of the patterns are absolutely adorable like the dolphins jumping in waves and the teddy bears on swings. I'll get around to a lot of them before I'm done. This is how my projects get sidetracked. Can't say when I'll get back to my handmade journals now but these trims are perfect for sewing down the edge of a few pages in them for a wow factor.

Five by seven inches is the standard book page size for most of the books I make. I know some people decorate pillow cases with these edgings but I get to use all my stuff in my handmade books and if you just want to do a smaller project like a page edge, it's perfect beginner stuff to practice. T

The cotton string comes in a wide variety of colors. I use Artiste from Hobby Lobby. They have so many colors to choose from, probably around 50 or more. I wish I had gotten red and a few browns but it will have to wait until next trip because I'm wanting to make some teddy bears on swings so bad. I guess there's nothing keeping me from making them bigger out of yarn for practice... hmmm.

Some of the patterns are complicated so you really have to watch the instructions close to get them right. But once you make a trim, you got it. It's much easier to make these on a stiff edge like a piece of card and then tear them off the paper to sew them in place. Or if you want you can just glue the paper to the edge of your page.

I've figured out a way to chain through a line of holes in card and then crochet on that, so when I remove the paper, my edge will hold its shape. It's hard to crochet in an ungrounded string chain that twists and turns every which way. But you can crochet an edge on anything you can poke a hole into.

I'm in love with those little elephants. I want to make some pink ones!