Stumbling Into Discovery: Venetian Lace

Looking at one thing led to another, and a site where motifs  and their symbol charts were displayed: http://www.otiskyprstu.ic.cz/minidecky.htm

One in particular caught my fancy and I made it as part of my do-something-daily for National Crochet Month and the Party , Crochet Along (CAL) in Freeform (FF) at Ravelry.

Seems it caught the eye of another crocheter, too.
http://gmaellenscraftycorner.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/crochet-diagrams-i-figured-this-one-out-now-what-to-do/

When I shared my effort, a couple of partygoers mentioned Venetian Lace.  Knowing an opportunity to learn when I see one, I did another google surf of images and saw what I would describe as file squares framed by picoted arches. I had tried picot arches last year, after becoming infatuated with them last year from a Duplet magazine.

Here’s a link to an about.com article from 1999 that tells you how, step by step, to make Venetian Crochet: Patterns For 1915 Motif, Collar and Lace Edging

http://crochet.about.com/library/n061999.htm.  The modern directions give you clues, but it still goes astray in terms of sequence of events.  I gave up on the sequence as written ,and made the loops, then covered them, using this process for both levels and made a Venetian Square:

 Loren Gaggini, one of the wonderful creators on Ravelry, very kindly shared this gorgeous image of a piece made by a family member. 

She writes "It was cool to see an (almost) duplicate in the magazine: Crochet Traditions, Fall 2012, p. 48-49 titled “A Vintage Venetian Border”. The article is not credited but the source of the original pattern is: “An Embroidered Teacloth, with Border in Venetian Crochet” by Anna Hapgood, originally appearing in the December 1916 issue of Needlecraft Magazine. Whitney Dorband is credited with crocheting the sample in the photo on p. 48"

Heart, Fruit, Houseplant Leaves

Last year I worked on a second  collection of crocheted leaves. If there is any way to characterize them, they all have an openness of form  and combine  filled and empty spaces in different ways. They are what folks call graphic, they are yarn drawings.

I don't know why I didn't  finish editing, testing and presenting them. I think I became both busy and discouraged. I'm generally busy  but encouraged, I'll pile another thing on. Prudence Mapstone's Hearts and Flowers endeavors reminded me of heart chains. The heart chains reminded me of leaf chains and this reminded me of heart leaves -- heart-shaped leaves or leaves that double as hearts.

I took the time to key in my fruit leaf -- it was a from a discussion on how to  interpret a leaf. I named my interpretation fruit leaf, because it looks like a fruit.

The houseplant leaf is so named because it reminds me of the one of the huge plants that grew in my grandparents' parlor.  I'm working on charts for them as well.
This is a bit of a challenge for the fruit leaf, but good practice for the brain.

Tags: blog tour, cgoa, Crochetville, project night night, tour through crochet country - See more at: http://crochetville.com/national-crochet-month-a-tour-through-crochet-country-begins/#sthash.rmhgQzXr.dpuf