Irish Crochet

One time I was browsing my favorite blogs, I saw a link to some Irish crochet works. They were so beautiful, I just had to try. I started roaming the net for patterns and yarn. It was actually quit difficult. I found some patterns, but they were all named Irish crochet. So when they arrived, I ended up buying two of the pattern in three different formats. One electronically (see here for a link), one as separate booklets (I do not remember where I found them), and one book including both booklets (see here for a link).

These two booklets were, however, absolutely beautiful, and the patterns was in a league of their own compared to the other patterns I bought (all pictures are based on patterns in the first booklet). This is a good book both for beginners and more advanced crocheters. The instructions are relatively easy to follow and the pictures are informative and beautiful. However, be aware that the notation is somewhat unusual. For instance, in the patterns a single crochet is called a double crochet, and a double crochet is called a treble crochet, and so on. Thus, it is good advice to read the pages describing the stitches before beginning, even for more advanced crocheters.

I also had difficulties finding fine enough yarn. The pattern called for yarn size 100 (which is as thin as sewing tread), but the finest yarn I could find in my local shop was a size 10. I tried to find fine enough yarn on the internet, but yarn size 40 and onwards had to be ordered specially. They only had size 30 and thicker in stock, and size 30 came only in white. The thinnest yarn available in colors was size 20. (A good net shop for purchasing fine crochet yarns is Royal Yarns.)

Since I had trouble finding such thin yarn in colors, I decided to practice using yarn size 10, and then try to crochet using my cotton quilting thread. The white flowers are crocheted using yarn size 10, and the colored flowers are crochet using quilting thread and a 0.6 mm needle. The difference in size between using yarn size 10 and quilting tread can be seen from the picture to the right, where the orange flower is crocheted using Yli Yli quilting tread.

I will use the motifs crocheted using quilting tread to decorate a folder to store my crochet needles in. The white motifs will be used to decorate a bag for my ongoing crochet projects. They are not finished yet. To make a complete Irish crochet, the motifs need to be joined together with a mesh of loops, into the desired shape. For illustrations of this joining of motifs, see here and here. If this is a success, I will make a Irish crochet dress for my daughter.