TIS THE SEASON FOR VEGETABLES

I took some time off from beading to knit this cute fruit cap for Seth, the latest addition to our extended family.  I combined patterns by Ann Norling and Michele Sabatier for my version.  Ann's pattern calls them fruit caps but the yarn I chose makes it look more like an eggplant cap. I actually chose the eggplant color because it was closest I could find to the maroon color of his dad's favorite college.

 I wrapped the hat in a conventional wrapping paper but it didn't look very special so I got creative.  First I crocheted some mini-vegeatbles.

crocheted vegetables from left: cherry tomatoes, eggplant, corn,  and mushrooms

I found a lot of crocheted food patterns at Crochetpatterncentral.com.  For my purposes, Sheepdogsfleece had some patterns for cherry tomatoes, corn, and mushrooms that provided a good starting point for my experiments.  I couldn't find an eggplant pattern the right size so I made up my own.  Here it is:

Crocheted Eggplant

Small amounts of worsted-weight yarn in purple and green

Fiberfill or cotton balls

Size F crochet hook

Eggplant Body

Round 1)  With purple yarn, make a magic adjustable ring and put 5 sc in the circle

Round 2)  2 sc in each sc (10 stitches)

Round 3)  *1 sc in next stitch, 2 sc in stitch after that* 5 times (15 stitches)

Round 4-10)  Work 15 sc around.  Stuff eggplant as you go along.

Round 11)  *1 sc, 1 decrease* 3 times (12 stitches) 

Round 12) Work 12 sc around

Round 13)  *1sc, 1 decrease* 3 times (9 stitches)

Round 14) *1 sc, 1 decrease* 3 times (6 stitches)   Fasten off and sew hole

                       together.

Stem

Round 1)  With green yarn, make a magic adjustable ring and put 3 sc in the

                       ring.

Round 2)  2 sc in each stitch (6 stitches)

Round 3)  2 sc in each stitch (12 stitches)

Round 4)  *1 sc, 1 increase* 6 times (18 stitches).  Slip stitch to 1 st stitch

                      and fasten off.

Sew wide end of stem to the eggplant body

After I finished crocheting the vegeatables, I put the hat in a brown paper bag, strung the corn, cherry tomatoes, and eggplant on twine and ribbon, and put 2 holes through the bag.  I then tied a knot in the twine and ribbon.

The front of the present

For the back of the present, I made a tag that said "Fresh Produce from the Recklies Farm, Brooklyn, NY".  I then strung the tag on the twine and put 1 mushroom on each end of the twine and ribbon and tied it shut.

The back of the wrapped present

I sent the package on its merry way and am now waiting to hear how Seth (and his undoubtedly overworked parents) likes his new hat.

MY BEAD CROCHET CLASSES, EDISON, NJ

Side by Side Necklace

Turkish Delight bracelet

I am busy making up kits for the two bead crochet  classes that I will be teaching at the Innovative Beads Expo at the New Hersey Convention Center, 97 Sunfield Ave. in Edison, New Jersey on July 14 and 15 (yes, this weekend).

Saturday, July 14 will be the Side by Side Necklace from 10:30am-1:30pm.  The price is $60 plus $35 for the kit.

Sunday, July 15 will be the Turkish Delight Bracelet from 11:30-2:00 am.  The price is $60 plus $35 for the kit.

If you register for any of the classes at the Innovative Beads Expo before 5:00 pm EST on Wednesday, July 11, you can save $10 on the registration price.

Even if you can't take any classes, it should be a fun shopping experience.

MY WORK IN LOVE OF CROCHET

I am going to get the unpleasant post out of the way first because I have a much more fun one after that.  As a number of you have pointed out, those are indeed  photos of my bead crochet jewelry without the proper design credit  in an articled entitiled Turkish Delights in the latest (Summer 2012) issue of Love of Crochet.

This article was published in Inside Crochet and now it has mysteriously cropped up in another magazine.  So let me point out for those who missed it the first time around that the orange snake on page 12 is my Ziggy Snake necklace and the bracelets shown on page 13 are my Side by Side design.

     The bracelets in the photo on the top of page 14 are my Turkish Delight designs and the snakes shown underneath are from my book Bead Crochet Snakes: History and Technique.
     I wrote to the editor of the magazine asking why they were using my photos without attribution and got a short answer saying that they would publish a correction in the Autumn issue.
     As Yogi Berra said: "It's deja vu all over again."