Wool For The Wall

• Posted on 1st August 2012
• in Events, Knitting
• by catherine

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This is for a competition being run by a lovely local yarn shop Beaker Button. They are raising money for a local Riding for the Disabled group. If you are thinking of entering get your skates on. the details are here and they have extended their deadline to, I believe, about 13th August, but you’d better check with them.

This shop has GORGEOUS yarn and their own buttons which they handmake. They also run workshops to learn to make all sorts of beautiful things. ( No, I’m not being sponsored…!)

So, the competition entry had to be a yarn based and be 50 x 50 cm in size. Hearing ‘yarn based’ immediately made me want to knit AND crochet AND make felt, because I’m overambitious like that.

I made a knitted square, in a holey pattern I came up with (and will be using for scarves in future…) with a crochet edge. I used lots of different yarns together ostensibly to create a ‘hedgerow’ effect, but also because this is what I happened to have at home. It was quite satifying using up balls I’ve had sitting around for a while. I then made some felt flowers (tutorial to come later) and sewed them on with beady stamen centres.

Then of course I had to get really carried away and create a beaded butterfly. This took WEEKS and I was a bit unsure about then giving it away, but I felt it added something to my little knitted hedgerow so I took a deep breath and sewed it on quickly before I could change my mind! I found the chart for the butterfly here. It’s in what might be Greek (Or Russian?) but I just used the picture anyway. I taught myself Peyote stitch (Yes, yes I know…. TOO much time on my hands) and then it was simply a case of spending the next three weeks making the wretched (but oh so pretty) thing, whilst trying to keep two tiny sets of hands out of my beads.

It was a bit of a wrench parting with it, but Beaker Button are making throws out of the squares and selling them to raise more money for the Riding for the Disabled Association at the Michelmas Fair, so I might just have to go and buy it back….

Tags: beading, butterfly, felt, flowers, knitting