Crochet Stone Necklace

I bought these stones 3 years ago with the intention of making them into a necklace. After a lot of procrastination and not knowing exactly how I wanted to go about it I have finally brought this idea to life. My original intention was to use macrame to wrap the stones but my macrame skills are very basic so I ended up opting to use free form crochet.

From top to bottom the stones are amazonite, chrysocolla and dumortierite. I used cotton from my grandmother-in-law's stash that she let me raid.

Open Toe Socks

During my recent art residency in Queenstown, Tasmania I had some time to collect and experiment with plant dyes from a range of plants in the area. I created a colour range inspired by the landscape as well as a couple of extra colours before I ran out of time and had to come back to the mainland. While I'm working on the shawl with the colour palette I named 'The Colours of Queenstown', I thought I'd quickly knit up some open toe socks which have been on my to-make list for quite some time.

I love having bare feet but as you would expect, my feet get cold in winter, so I envisaged making a pair of toe-less socks to wear around the house. The socks are made from wool so they are extra cozy and have the added benefit of allowing me to practice yoga without slipping around, and to easily slip my thongs on for the walk to the compost heap to empty the bucket.

The red brown yarn for these socks was dyed with eucalyptus, hawthorn berries that I gathered on a drive to Hobart, and ash and iron mordants. I wasn't quite happy with the dye I extracted from the hawthorn berries so I threw it in the dye pot again experimenting with some eucalyptus and mordants until I was happy with the colour. The lighter brown is just eucalyptus leaves, a different species however, to the red brown dye.

Experimenting with plant dye is something I've dabbled in a little over the years and feels a lot like witchcraft. Knitting socks is one of my favourite things to do, every time I turn the heel it feels like magic and I can't quite believe how simple it actually is. I enjoy connecting with these ancient crafts almost lost to industrialisation and fast fashion, and love that I can create functional art with these skills.

Stone Necklace

I bought these stones over two years ago with the intention of making them into a necklace. It took me two whole years of pondering before I knew how I wanted to go about it, but I love how it turned out so it was worth the procrastination.

I crocheted around the stones with cotton from my grandmother-in-law's yarn stash that I was lucky enough to raid when we were visiting her in America awhile ago. I hung the stones on some hand twisted string I made from lengths of chain stitch crocheted cotton and silk I picked up at a garage sale cut into strips. And finally, I added some wood buttons from an old broken bracelet as decoration and to hold the three lengths of string together. 

I'm wearing my necklace over the top of the Cowl Vest I made two years ago, it has been one of my most used cozy accessories over the past couple of years. I like the effect of the necklace layered over the top of it.

Stash Scrap Scarf

 I haven't made much for myself lately, most of my creative work has been on things like dishcloths, cute little toys and a blanket I'm making from re-purposed yarn from an installation artwork I collaborated on last year; so it has been a while since I've had anything to share.

                          

My yarn stash is full of beautiful little remnants from past projects and I've been attempting not buy much yarn until I use up more of my stash so I dug up a few colours that complemented each other and I made my first ever knitted scarf. I thought the combination of different yarns would lend itself well to using a bunch of different stitch patterns to add texture and make the project more interesting. All that yarn I used was either wool or silk/wool blends. Some of the yarn brought up beautiful memories of the lovely things I made from them originally, so this ended up being a really special little project.