Vintage Crochet: A Motif from My Mother

April 30, 2011| LindyBeir| 0 Comment | 1:34 pm

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I inherited my mother’s stash of crochet thread several years ago. The stash filled two large plastic bins with lids and I simply placed the bins in with the rest of my stash. From time to time, I have pulled a ball of thread from one of the bins, but I never really inventoried the contents.

Recently, my MIL asked me to help a woman who had contacted her looking for help in locating off-white crochet thread that might match what she had. The woman was trying to finish up a crochet project that had been started by her mother, but not finished. So, I went to the stash and pulled out all of the off-white crochet thread (about 10 balls). I gave the woman all of thread and it looked like there were several balls that closely matched her project.

While I was doing pulling the balls from the stash, I picked up a ball of green crochet thread and noticed that there was something tucked inside the ball…

I pulled it out and found this:

Pretty, isn’t it? Now why my mother tucked this little doily into that ball of crochet, I have no idea — but it was a pleasant surprise. I am guessing about how old this bit of crochet is — the ball of crochet thread it was tucked into is at least 20 years old, so it’s at least that old and I suspect that the pattern it was made from is even older.

So, I set about trying to recreate this motif. Mom’s is on the left and mine is on the right. It’s pretty close, but I am redoing it a couple of times more to make certain I have the stitches correct. I will be publishing the pattern when I’m finished, so check back here in a week or two.

And Now, a Little Bit about Crochet…And Now, a Little Bit about Crochet…

I have been very focused on knitting for the last couple of years. Which means I have done very little crocheting and I have never written about crocheting in this blog.

It’s one of those things, I suppose, when you are someone who does both. I seem to have times when I just am not motivated to knit or not motivated to crochet – or I am very interested in knitting, but not crocheting or visa versa. Eventually I come across something that will whet my creative appetite and I will feel a strong urge to go find my supplies and begin working on a project in the craft I have been ignoring.

The crochet urge has bitten me once again! Never mind that I have four knitting projects currently in process – one of which is the baby blanket for my coming grandchild – I find myself needing to satisfy this urge to crochet again. So, I now have five projects in the works – Yep, I added a crochet project this weekend.

DresserScarf_1 I have decided it is time to take up the task of re-creating two or three vintage crochet edgings from dresser scarves I have from my mother. These dresser scarves were made from cotton percale or muslin fabric, embroidered and then finished with a hemstitched hem and a crocheted edging. I am only beginning to appreciate the amount of work that went to into the making of these items and I will explain more in coming posts. Right now, I am tackling the task of developing written explanations for how to do a hemstitched border and then begin a crocheted edging using that border. I will post information about this once I have it worked out and I plan to have it available on my website. Also coming will be the re-created pattern for the vintage crochet edging.

Progress on Re-creating the Vintage Crochet EdgingProgress on Re-creating the Vintage Crochet Edging

CrochetEdging1_Rd1
I have made progress on re-creating the Vintage Crochet Edging from my mother’s dresser scarf. I have determined that the edging is made using double crochet stitches in a filet crochet type pattern. It is only three rounds.

For this project, I am using muslin fabric that I have cut into a rectangle that is approximately 20 inches by 15 inches. I have done the hemstitching around the edge and made a single crochet foundation around the fabric by single crocheting through each hole in the hemstitching. The foundation was crocheted using white crochet thread, size 10.

CrochetEdging_Rd1_2
The first round of the crochet edging consists of a mix of 2 double crochet, chain 5 and 3 double crochet stitches around the edge. For this edging I am using an aqua size 10 crochet thread. It is progressing nicely as you can see from the photos

Lastest FO: Crocheted Pickup Truck for GrandsonLastest FO: Crocheted Pickup Truck for Grandson

Yesterday I finished a crocheted pickup truck for my grandson. He is 5 months old and almost to the point where he will be playing with soft toys, rattles and items that he can chew on.

This little truck measures about 7 inches long by 3 inches wide and is about 3 inches tall. At the request of my son, I did NOT put a little bell inside of it — but I thought about it! It was an easy pattern to crochet and it went together very quickly.

Details: I purchased the pattern from Stacey Trock’s Fresh Stitches website and downloaded it directly from there. I used Knit Picks Shine Worsted for the truck body and Peaches and Cream in black for the tires and the pickup bed. You crochet the truck body and cab in one piece, the front is crocheted separately as are the lights — which are sewn in place before you stuff the front and attach it to the truck body. The tires and the pickup bed are separate pieces and you stuff the body as you go. It’s soft and squishy, but you can actually put something in the pickup bed as it has depth.

I think my grandson will enjoy his first red pickup truck. 🙂