Falling in love with Crochet once again

Yes, it has happened. Something I thought I'd never go back to, Crochet!

I did crochet as a teenager, self taught using a Stitchionary. I wasn't very good at it. The yarn I used really wasn't the best but it's all I had. The problem was that I wasn't happy with the feel of the finished projects and after 10 years or so, gave it up in my mid twenties and moved on to sewing for my kids.

Last week, my girlfriend became a grandma for the first time. A gorgeous little girl born 1 minute to midnight on March 31st. Almost an April Fool's baby. Right then and there, I decided to knit a welcome to the world jacket for the little princess. I found a very nice pattern for the jacket but did not want to use ribbon since I find it's fussy and inhibits the wash n wear you need for baby clothing.

I substituted said ribbon for flowers. I searched high and low for some really nice knit flowers and leaves but most of what I found had to be felted. Since I don't have wool in my stash, that was out. I figured maybe I could find something nice in crochet. Shouldn't be too difficult to do and I have much better yarns now than I did as a teenager.

Searching through Ravelry's patterns for flowers, I found some I liked, but still not THE flower. I then turned to the internet, typed tiny crochet flower pattern and the 3rd site listed on the page was Attic24's. I clicked on the link and it brought me to the prettiest little flower patterns that I had ever seen. Also included with the flowers was leaves! simple ones, no fuss, no muss. So off I went looking for a crochet and some yarn small enough to do some flowers for the jacket.

She also had a pattern for a double petaled flower which I really liked and found the perfect spot along with a leaf to keep it company. I wanted to add a bit of weight to the hood and that was the perfect spot for that flower and leaf. Something pretty to look at from the back.

The flowers and leaves came out gorgeous and were the perfect addition to the jacket. I even used 3 of them as buttons! The leaves still need to be appliqued, but you get the idea.

I have to say that her blog is amazing, she has the simplest instructions, lots of very good photographs of how to do specific crochet stitches. She also lives in the sweetest village in the UK I've ever clapped eyes on judging by the photographs she posts. It all seems so quaint, reminds me of idyllic pictures you see of an era gone past. Add to that living in a 100 year old Victorian house and there you have it.... my dream.

I'm also going to give her ripple tutorial a go since I love the way it makes the colors pop and no holes!

So all this just to say, go check out her blog!!!!