Friday 13 July 2007

Hidden projects

Tidying up around here means that you find all kinds of neat things. Projects that you have hidden tend to just show up. I came across this yesterday, and I had to show you.
This is a Christmas tree garland. Its old pattern from Leisure Arts magazine dated sometime in the early 1990's. I made my mother-in-law one, and I loved the way it looked on her tree. One day my Christmas would look like that too, I vowed. Its really very simple.

Get a cheapie string of beads and you crochet around them. Its 4 rows, maybe 5, in whatever weight thread works with your beads. It looks benign, but after hundreds of thousands of feet of beads, you start getting a wee bit testy. There is a time when you will be certifiably bored to tears with it, but if you can hang on, if you can just get past that long row and its very simple pattern, you will be astounded by the beauty of it.

The look of this lacy decoration is not going to suit everyone. and for much of my life, it wouldn't have suited me. There was the Kids handmade decoration stage, which was my favourite of all, but over time, they have become to fragile for use. There was the gosh-darn-it-I-have-nothing-on-my-tree-without-the-kids-decorations stage, a cold and empty looking tree, that led me to determined correction for 2 or 3 years. It's finally arrived at the dear-heaven-this-amount-of-Christmas-tree-balls-is-surely-nuts stage. Somewhere along the way, I collected 2 huge tubs of balls, one silver, and the other red, along with my favourite jewel toned ornaments. Christmas tree ornaments have become just a bit of a problem for me when the sales are on right close to the holiday. A couple of years ago, I caved, and I now have 2 trees.

One is red and silver balls and bells and white crocheted and tatted snowflakes. That is the tree that lovely beads belong to.

Why would I find these beads in a drawer of my coffee table in the middle of summer? If I put them away with the rest of the ornaments, then they would never be blocked. I've already revealed my starch issues, so I feel ok about showing you the way it really looks.



but someday...

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