Entrelac Crochet Bag

Hi All,

In this post, I had listed what all stiches I wanted to try. Days flew, Months passed, except for the diagonal crochet I could not attempt on anything.

But Entrelac became lucky. I wanted to try it for quite some time and came across this pattern and this project in Ravelry.
A blanket is a too big project and so my plan was to make a small piece which can used as cover or some display piece.
I was familiar with the Tunisian Simple stitch and did not know the Knit Stitch. I tried a small swatch with both the stitches and there was some tension issues.So I went on googling more about Tunisian Entrelac and came across this video of crochet Geek (Teresa Richardson) introducing Entrelac Crochet.

It used only TSS the one which I know and so I started making my sample. It was easy and you should concentrate only on the beginning and the ending of the row, especially it matters where you begin the row either in the top or side of the diamond.

I used this video for finishing the side triangles as I could not understand it from the Blanket pattern.

I made 2 similar looking pieces ,joined them with long strip of crochet(tunisian again) and then sewed to the sides and extending it for handle.
Hand sewn the zipper, as I have other ideas for lining the bag and will take time.

Thanks All
See you soon with another project.
Sangheetha

Crochet Bower Bird

Hi All,

Here is my version of Crochet Bower Bird.
If you see, 80% of the patterns from this blog will be from Attic24.
They are colorful, simple to understand and attract you immediately.
Believe me they are very easy to make but they also need assembling which is little time-consuming and boring.
It happens with all the decorative items and especially when there are many colors. So needless to say the many joins and the slow finishing.
That is what happened to me with this bower bird. The pattern has 4 pieces sewn to make a bower bird.
Very easy things, one large strip of crochet, ( I missed few stitches and spend half a day thinking whether it will make any difference after stitching.I could have ripped it back and made 2 strips in that thinking time)
One simple heart,( which is nothing but 2 teeny tiny hearts sc’ed together),
two small stars stitched together ( I forgot how I did the stars) and a
teeny tiny ball ( this is really fun, I’ll be making more of this)

Regarding the pattern, I’m very sorry that it is not released. How I made it then? By seeing the Crochet Bower Bird of Attic24 in closeup and taking notes.

For the Bird pattern,I took closeup look of the pictures the body, wings and the tail.Later converted them to sc’s and dc’s and made it. But I made a mistake, while joining, I must have joined few stitches of the circle and then joined the belly part, instead the belly started right from the nose.( sounds weird now, but I had no doubts while sewing), so my birdie is nicely fat and plump.

About the beak, my daughter kept mentioning it as tongue. She is only 3 yr old, so I was teaching her that it is Beak and not tongue and now when I see the pics, it actually looks like the bird has put the tongue out 😀 LOL.

The process was simple but took time and lots of cutting, stitching, hiding yarn bits etc.
I used an embroidery hoop for the ring and stitched the long crochet piece.I stuffed the bird, heart, stars and the balls with polyester stuffing.Then stitched the bird to the ring. I was doubtful about this stitching first, but once started, it got over soon. Then arrange the heart, stars and balls as per my wish and sewn them in place.
I used beads in my Happy Flower Decoration , but they make the small crochet pieces turn( Don’t ask me how), so this time, I did not use much and directly attached the pieces.

There is another bird pattern which is kinda similar to the bower bird (sewn version) which you can have a look before trying out.The pattern and the projects looked familiar,after googling, I found Attic24 lucy herself has tried it out here.
Good Luck if you are venturing to create one.

I made this with the Laura Knitting Cotton. I’m becoming a fan of this yarn, especially for the stiffness and neat look it gives for the finished project. I have made decorative items with Acrylic, even after washing, starching and ironing, there will always be a curled look either front or back. But with the Laura knitting cotton, the look of the finished product is different.
Another thing is with the colors, the colors of Laura Knitting Cotton runs. So if you are making it, make the individual pieces, soak in water, apply fevicol or other starch mix and then sew together. The sewing is little tough after u apply fevicol as it makes the crochet more stiffer. But if you are using a tapestry needle( the one with blunt tip), it will be easier.
The photos are taken in outdoors with less flash, so the colors u see are the colors of the yarn.

Ravelry Project Page:Bower Bird.

Thanks for reading
Cheers,
Sangheetha