Forays into freeform crochet

and boy is it fun! I like the ways crochet allows you to think on your feet, or with your fingers as the case may be, and layering stitches, different yarns and even fabric just makes it that much more interesting for me. And on the pragmatic side, when I hurt or have energy only to sit in my comfy chair with work on my lap, interesting is what it's all about. Distraction helps immensely, and making something tangible is satisfying even when I'm feeling miserable. And there's little better than stretching my brain around making something new, something nobody else has come up with.

So this capelet is wool, alpaca, silk, mohair, and some manmade fibers. (The resolution on the larger image you get by clicking on it is pretty good, so you can see a lot more of what's going on.) The very dark green fabric is sueded silk, strips left over from a sewing project and crocheted with a huge (Q) hook. It's got this wonderfully soft feel to it, and it's warm too. I think alpaca may be my newest favorite substance (after silk, anyway!). It's so soft, and it holds its warmth and looks great too. The knit piece at the bottom is actually still on the needle which is tucked under one of the lumpy areas. It'll have a curved contour on the bottom when it's complete and better integration into the whole, but I wanted to see what it looks like. It's got a couple of leaves on the upper left, and there will be more leaves applied when the body is complete, and maybe some viny things. Overall the capelet is probably about 2/3 done, and the challenge may be to not clutter it up in the remainder.

Crazy quilting my way

I've always loved crazy quilts--the rich silks and velvets, the hoarded scraps of special occasions, the irregularity of the pieces and the ways women fit them together to create a pleasing harmony without the rigidity of other pieced quilts. Texture, too, and contrasts gleefully embraced.

I'd begun working with silk because
nothing in the fabric universe takes color like silk, plus it's got all those wonderful light things it does, depending on the weave and
probably other factors as well.
Dupioni silk with its slubs and other irregularities, the soft creaminess of raw silk,
the amazing play of colors in velvets as they move. And the feel of them all, and their drape, the flow as they move. Yum!

So while gleefully piecing crazy quilt handbags and other things I started collecting squares
that somehow went together,
and then got sculptural since that's my inclination.

Setting up

Gee, creating a blog was not at all on the radar for today. I'm sewing,

in between having to hit the couch--it's a cool and very damp day here and the fibro is in full spate. So between aches and pains and fatigue, sewing was the only thing I thought was going to get me off the couch. But I had to post pics of my current work-in-progress! It's consuming me, and it's not like anything I else I do or have done, except maybe that it's got elements of everything else I do in it.

This began life as fabric for an obi (I think), which I won at an auction. This is one panel, which is quilted onto several other layers. The cranes are trapunto, and there's some beading on the flowers, maybe more to come.

So the left side and top are not at all finished. The existing corner is just sitting in place and may get rethought yet, as I finish the other two sides. You can't see how dimensional the sides are, but they're stuffed and beaded with onyx, with the bead stitching compressing the tubes into irregularity and the semblance of braiding? Rope? They're about an
inch and a half thick when they're attached. Then there are the stuffed silk and Venise lace borders, in an olive green and a coppery orange with the lace overlaying them. They're about half as thick as the tubular frame parts.

The corners are crocheted wire with more onyx and some great freshwater pearls. The one that's showing has then been set in two concentric beds of pleated/gathered silk.

This is very baroque, not at all my usual style, and puzzling because of it. But the formality of the Japanese fabric seems to demand it; it's not at all what I thought I was doing with this piece when I started it. Odd, the way that works.

More from Diane aka ExcessRUs as I finish this bit of insanity!