New things

I've been all consumed with ongoing projects lately which is great, I am enjoying them all immensely - using great yarn and mindless back and forth or round and round hooky - no thought required. I do like a challenge though and a good pattern to follow, seeing all the numbers work out into something fun.

I needed a break from the mammoth task of edging and decided to have a bash at filet crochet!

It's something I have wanted to try for a long time and there's no time like the present! I read up about it first as the principle of it is very simple, I just needed to know how to get started. Wikipedia says that filet comes from the French word for mesh. This makes sense as all you are doing is working from a  grid with open or 'mesh' spaces and closed spaces. The grid really can be of anything and you are only limited by your imagination. However I didn't really have time for imagination, I was too impatient to get started and see how it all works to draw up a design. I found a simple Home Sweet Home grid on an image search and printed it off to get started.

Traditionally these peices are made with fine white cotton yarn. I wanted something a bit brighter than that and this was only a test run, so found a 50g ball of a green wool/acrylic mix. I soon discovered the reasons white cotton is used, it isn't elastic at all (my wool was) so it lies nice and flat with no puckering (mine is a bit curly). It clearly shows up the design too (my wool is a bit, well, wooly so the design isn't as clear). I had thought of trying to change colours so the images stood out more but this proved too difficult for a beginner at this to master so I gave that a miss after one failed attempt, a job for another day.

Fine white cotton would also make this up a fair bit smaller! It is pretty massive and I've only made the bottom. Unfortunately it ate through my 50g of wool and I have run out here, not even at the end of the row. I could carry on with a different colour for the lettering part and then another colour for the top but I don't know that I will. It was fun to learn something new but I could really do with planning out what I want to make first and make sure I have the right amount of proper yarn. I would also have to work out how to make it more cheery, bright borders and embellishments might be the way forward. Still it's good fun learning new things isn't it? My Tunisian crochet hooks still haven't arrived but that is something new for me to do later this week I hope :)