Grandma Vera's Crocheting

Here are a few things Grandma Vera crocheted. An Afghan she made as a wedding present for me and one of her handkerchiefs. Grandma was a whiz at all things crochet. She could whip up sweaters, scarfs, hats, afghans, dollies, whatever she wanted, all while watching TV.



She made attempts at showing me how. I know the basics but did not seem to have the patience required.


Of course now that I've seen some patterns for jewelry made by crocheting, I'm more interested in revisiting this craft. These are some of the free patterns that caught my eye:







Crocheting w/ beads

Wire crocheting

necklace

This one isn't a free pattern, but I really like it -- and I think it's well worth the $7.00 for this pattern and 3 other styles that come with it.

The Art of Shuttle Tatting

Tatting is a vintage craft used to make a type of lace. A tatting shuttle facilitates tatting by holding a length of wound thread and guiding it through loops to make knots.

To make the lace, the tatter wraps the thread around one hand and manipulates the shuttle with the other hand. No tools other than the thread, the hands, and the shuttle are used, though a crochet hook may be necessary if the shuttle does not have a point or hook.

My Great Grandma Fannie used a shuttle to tat. She made lace for edges of handkerchiefs, dollies, and pillowcases. One of her handkerchiefs is pictured to the right.

While the finished product looks quite complicated to complete, many websites promise it isn't so hard to learn. You can find several sites to learn tatting, complete with step-by-step photos.

A beginner's guide to tatting.
Instructional video on YouTube that is very good.

By far the coolest thing to inspire me to learn to tat is JEWELRY. I'm always a sucker for unique jewelry. I found several free patterns online.

tatted necklace and braclet set

tatted earrings










tatted earrings