Wednesday 3 June 2015

Lily Pond CAL - Block Five

I am more than a day late writing this post, so I apologise if you have already visited a few times and not found my blog post in relation to the new instalment of the Lily Pond CAL project. Things have been incredibly busy here as we have been packing our remaining back orders now that the yarn for the crochet along has come back into stock. The last few kits have now been dispatched and we can breath a sigh of relief after the long wait since our initial yarn order sold out in no time back in April.

We have endured what has seemed like a series of unfortunate events in relation to our CAL kits over the last few weeks - first the yarn shipment was delayed when the manufacturer put 3 shades on an even slower cargo ship from Turkey to their destination at Stylecraft in Yorkshire and then at the beginning of last week 3 full boxes of yarn went missing between the Mill and here in North London. It felt at times like we were never going to get all our yarn kits out, so it is a lovely feeling for us to have now waved them all off on their journeys around the world. We have plenty of kits back in stock, so if you have yet to get one you can purchase one from our web site - our yarn kits include a sew in label and access to an exclusive bag project.


So, to get to the point of this blog post- you can now download pattern set 5 from the Stylecraft web site by following this link to the pattern.

As I am sure I have said before, I design all my motifs from scratch and don't use existing patterns from source books and so I am never sure exactly how things are going to turn out when I start designing them. Sometimes I have a theme in mind or an idea for a shape, but often my design process is very organic, with me allowing the crochet itself to inspire me for a theme. The Lily Pond Flower, featured in this set of patterns, was the first piece to really give me the idea of the Lily Pond theme and it was only after making this piece that I started to look Monet's paintings and other Lily pond inspired projects such as quilts and paintings.

I have started a Pinterest page named 'Lily Pond CAL' which has many of the Monet images I used as inspiration as well as other things I have found in relation to the CAL. If you haven't looked at Pinterest before, then be careful as it is easy to loose hours browsing the pages and pages of lovely images and ideas!





The Lily Pond Flower
The pattern for the flower is pretty straight forward and if you have already made the smaller lilies which feature in Block 3 you will already see how easy it is to create a frame work for your crochet by making chains behind existing petals. I advise that you don't attempt to make these flowers without having made the flowers from set 3 first as it can be a little tricky to get the hang of where to insert your hook at the back of the work. It is also my advice that you make the flowers in batches, perhaps completing each of the four flowers to the end of the first set of petals (end of round 4) before then working subsequent sets of petals. Working in this way ensures that all your flowers will look the same and hopefully means that you will make fewer mistakes.

To help you see the detail of the steps I have posted the images used in this pattern below:


The Flower at the end of Round 4


At the reverse of the work insert your hook through the back of a stitch between 2 petals in order to start the framework for the next set of petals


Join the yarn by working one chain, then work a dc (US sc) into the same st


The image above shows the work from behind once the chain framework is complete


The Flower at the end of Round 6


 As before, insert your hook through the back of a stitch between 2 petals 


Join the yarn by working one chain, then work a dc (US sc) into the same st



The two images above show the process for the next set of petals


Unlike the previous layers of petals, the light pink layer has a cream edging - I put this in to give some definition between the last set of pink petals and the mint layer which is made over the next 3 rounds.





I adore the motif at this point and think it would make a great corsage or decoration 




The final framework is put in place in the same way as the others by working behind the previous set of petals






I really hope that you enjoy working through this set of patterns and apologise again that my blog post is more than a little bit late! I have been working on some new designs which I am really keen to show you, so hopefully I will get the chance to blog over the next week or so. With a bit of luck life will quieten down a bit now that the yarn kits have been sent away and maybe I will be able to clear all the yarn boxes out of my conservatory and finally get to spend some time in the studio - the weather is supposed to warm up at last over the next few days, so I can think of nothing nicer than sitting and crocheting in my haven at the end of the garden - fingers crossed!