Tips and Techniques in Thread Crochet
by Elizabeth Ann White
Creating Your Own Crochet Style
Do you have a favorite crochet designer? Many of us do. Perhaps you are drawn to Katherine White's use of color, or the way Patricia Kristoffersen intricately combines her stitches. You may even be able to spot a new design from your favorite without seeing the name listed in the credits. We are all attracted to designs which speak to our own creative sensibilities.
By selecting patterns that we are drawn to, we are beginning to express our own personal style. But by adding our own special touches, we can create an item that is uniquely ours. Instead of making a doily in the cream color pictured in the magazine, try using your favorite shade of lavender, maybe working the last round in purple. It can be fun to experiment with unusual color combinations; crocheting a small doily in turquoise and red can make a big statement with a mimimum amount of effort.
But color is not the only way to express your personality in crochet. Adding design elements to existing patterns is a great way to give them your personal touch. Perhaps you are drawn to butterflies; try appliqueing a small crocheted butterfly to a plain doily. Have you ever tried crocheting with beads? Next time you make a favorite pattern, work in tiny pearls or glass beads to accent the stitches. You will be surprised at what a difference they will make in the finished doily. Even something as simple as weaving a pretty ribbon through the stitches of a round or two can give a doily your own special style.
You might even want to create a collection of your special doilies for your Etsy shop the way clothing designers do, perhaps changing them out with the seasons or for the holidays.
But no matter how you change or enhance a pattern, remember to always work the stitches evenly and do all the finishing work. Make sure all the ends are neatly worked in and the doily is blocked to its best advantage. Professional workmanship is a vitally important part of creating your own personal style. Your customers will thank you for creating items that are not only beautiful, but which are of the highest quality.
Set your personal standards high, in both quality and beauty, and you will soon be creating items that will have customers returning to your shop again and again!
Thank you to Elizabeth Ann White for contributing this article for the blog of Thread Artists of Etsy. The blog author respects contributing writers and gives them full editing control of their articles.
