HOOK: Thread Crochet

Crocheting with thread was something that kind of daunted me when I first started crocheting. I was concerned for my tension, my grip, my eyes. But one day my mother-in-law gave me a set of old steel crochet hooks and I tried using one of them with some embroidery floss to make a granny square.

I found it wasn't really too hard to work with. And as long as I have good lighting over my chair, I could work for long-ish periods of time without the small work being hard on my eyes. 

Later in the summer, I was looking for ideas to make Barbie dresses for two of my nieces' birthdays. Since Barbies are small, a lot of clothes for them are made with thread. This is what I made:

Those were really fun! And as long as the ends were woven in really, really well, I didn't have to worry about little hands unraveling the dresses as they pulled them on and off their Barbies.

I found the pattern for this doily in a crochet magazine, and made it for a college girlfriend's wedding gift. The picture in the magazine showed it done in pink and white, but this friend isn't really a "pink" sort of person, so I did it in a lovely dark red and white.

I am of the opinion that one can never have too many bookmarks. And, of course, lots of them are crocheted out of thread as well. This leaf bookmark was made for my pastor.

As I've been exploring the sheer variety of doilies available online, I've found a lot of "crinoline girls" and other doilies that are different motifs that are then stitched together to make the final piece. My mom fell in love when I showed her a picture of this crinoline girl doily, and I made it for her for Mother's Day this past spring. It won Grand Champion in the crochet category at the 2016 Le Sueur County Fair, too.

My pastor's oldest daughter got married in early October. As long as I've known her, she has loved strawberries. In addition to strawberry-themed washcloths and dish towels I made for her shower gift, I made this beautiful strawberries-and-cream doily for her wedding present, with 3D strawberries all around the edge.

Blocking this was rather tricky, and the edge was a little ruffly, but I like to imagine her using it as a table top decoration.

At the wedding reception, I spied a large wall hanging of the Lord's Prayer. When I looked closer, it was done in thread and was incredibly beautiful. Filet crochet is something I've been planning on teaching myself at some point, and I decided that point was now. I found a perfect pattern at Free Vintage Crochet.com, and started learning. This is one of those crafts where the final effect is far greater than the work involved. There are only two stitches in filet crochet: chain and double crochet. I took this picture when I was 3 rows in, and it's going to be huge! I'm on row 12 now, and it's looking fantastic! My goal is to finish it by Easter, have it framed, and give it to my church.

I also made some Christmas ornaments for Claire's classroom Christmas tree this past week. They were a little small, but really cute.

I'm assuming I'll be doing a lot more thread crochet as time goes by. I have built up a huge stash and don't want to see it go to waste! Plus it's fun :)