Spring Is Coming Soon...

... I promise. I write this as I'm looking out my window at an inch of snow on the ground. Last week we had 60 degree weather. I know it's coming and I already have my real flower, veggie and herb seeds in the dirt in a seed starter greenhouse. But I don't have to wait for beautiful flowers. Just look at what I found! It's a book about crocheted flowers. It is called Crochet Collage Garden by Chris Norrington and it just came out a few days ago.

While you're waiting on your book to arrive you can get some free patterns from the book by signing up to Bookmarked Hub .com and it's free to sign up. That should hold you for a while. That's what I did. It only takes a short amount of time to make several of these. They go really quick.

It is written for UK crochet instructions. You have to translate it to American terms outside of the UK. A treble crochet is a double crochet in USA terminology.  So we use the equivalent of DK yarn over here where DK yarn is not easy to find locally. In America it's a weight #3 yarn we call light worsted yarn. My ferns and flowers are made with a #2 equivalent weight yarn. I usually split my #4 worsted into 2 ply because I can and it keeps me from having a thousand different weights of yarn skeins in every color of the rainbow. You should use what you have. You could have a bouquet in no time at all. 

What I really like about the patterns is that they are quick to work up. If you've ever worked on a large project you know it helps to break up the monotony with quick projects here and there. I fell in love with the fern pattern. Once I caught on, it flew quick and like most of the patterns, you don't need to refer back to them once you have one under your belt. And there are diagrams for all the patterns plus written instructions so you should be able to figure it out. 

You will want to block your work especially on the ferns. You can also use a spray fixative or stiffener if you want. If you are going to display them out in the open like in a picture where you can't wash them by hand when they get dirty or dusty you might want to do that to help dustproof them.

You are going to love this book. I've been struggling with a creative block since the first of the year. I just didn't want to make anything and that is so unlike me. My creative block is over and I have my cro-jo back! I think I will be busy this spring. Gardening, planting, painting, cleaning and making these flowers. Happy crocheting!