I am a firm believer in a creative practice, by this I mean the pursuit of varied creative endeavours each informing and enhancing the other. In my case alongside my exploration of Botanical painting is my love of textiles, and within that another varied practice ranging through experiments with natural dyes, weaving, embroidery also creating and writing original crochet patterns.
The pattern writing came about as a result of having a young man with requests like " Mummy I want a bobcat to cuddle", I found there was no such pattern available so I set about creating my own. I discovered I loved the process of both the crochet and designing and writing the patterns. I also discovered I was able to sell my designs on http://www.ravelry.com/ and so Pinchyfinger Patterns was born.
Two pocket coin purse.
In the last month I have had a little break from painting and have been having fun creating and writing new patterns. It has also been a chance to use some of my naturally dyed yarns.
I have published my coin purse pattern and am currently working on my crocheted Lego man pattern. Pictured below are the prototypes. I made the red one first but I felt that the proportions were not quite right, so I made the green and maroon one, widening the body slightly, he is also made with a bigger hook that's why he's bigger. I really wanted the toy to have movable arms and legs like a real Lego toy, getting the legs right has been a challenge. I will make a few more tweaks before publishing the pattern.
Turmeric dying the yarn for Lego man's head and hands.
The Turmeric dyed yarn is the perfect 'Lego' yellow. I will need to dye up some other colours to make the final toy for photographing for the pattern.