Day Two

I am a crochet-a-holic!  I have chronic health issues so my life has compressed quite a lot.  To keep me happy and mentally healthy I crochet.  I love to work with cotton, bamboo, soy, silk and other natural fibers.  To flex my creative muscles, I started "Impromptu Crochet".

To briefly explain Impromptu Crochet, I start with a single motif for a tunic or hem border for a cardigan.  For a cardigan, I then begin to crochet bands of different stitches.  I have 3 or 4 on my etsy site, LoyesThread.etsy.com.  More complex and time consuming are the tunics.  I begin pinning pieces to my dressmakers form.  Yesterday I made the chest motif and a couple of small pieces.  Today I made more pieces and began to shape them

Sometimes I use a piece of cardboard to hold the  pieces while I stitch them together.  Generally I use chains of 2 - 5,  The dressmakers form allows me to shape a piece to a specific size.  At the point in the picture I have about 6 hours in the piece.  Today I will finish the front and back of the upper body.

 The back is always different than the front because I like it that way but you could make them similar.  I have made a dozen tunics this year and I use Aunt Lydia's size 3 cotton crochet thread because it is lovely to work with and has a great drape in a finished garment.  Also I purchase a lot of thread when I can find it on sale and/or get free shipping to keep the costs down.  Usually a sleeveless tunic requires 6 or 7 balls of threat at 150 yards each.  This color is warm blue and is a client fav.  I have made a couple with 1/2 sleeves as custom orders but personally I like the sleeveless.

Okay, time for a glass of iced tea and back to work.  Please feel free to contact me through my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/loyesthread if you have comments or questions.  Check back for tomorrow's update and more pictures.  I will post every day until I post the finished tunic in my etsy shop.