Curtain ties and colourful twine

Hello! I thought you might like to see the beginnings of my attempt to make curtain ties for the small person's nursery.  Husband very kindly painted the top half of the nursery a very pale blue, then painted a pale green on the bottom half with a wavy line between the two, so it looks like green hills on a blue sky. Sounds a bit headache inducing, but it looks rather sweet. Anyway, he's just put up some green spotty curtains with yellow ric-rac my lovely sister made for baby a little while ago and he's asked me to do some curtain ties so that the nursery is Officially Finished (he is something of a mono-tasker in the same way that Caitlin Moran is something of a feminist).

I had a bit of a think and came up with the idea of doing a long tie that would be secured to the wall in the middle and tied in a bow around the curtain. To keep in with the outdoorsy theme I thought it would look rather nice to add some leaves, a couple of flowers and perhaps a little ladybird or two. I started by doing a nice long chain, turning the work and then doing a double crochet stitch in each chain. On this row I made intermittent leaves, sometimes by themselves and sometimes in pairs (to do this I made 9 chain stitches then working back towards the foundation row, I missed 3 chains then made a slip stitch, single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, half double crochet and slip stitches.) Once completed I simply carried on doing double crochet stitches along the foundation chain.

I always overestimate how long I need to do lengths of chain stitches and end up with miles and miles of projects to complete- my Project of Doom actually started life as a scarf but was soooo loooong it seemed logical to turn it into a blanket (note to self: THIS IS NEVER THE LOGICAL STEP). So at this point I now had  just over a metre of fairly boring looking pale green cord with stunted little leaves.  Not really the whimsical vine-thing I had in mind, so to make it a bit more interesting I did a row of slip stitches in a darker green spiraling up and around the cord.  I think this gave it a bit of movement and made the right/wrong side of the work look less defined (I thought this might be a good idea seeing as this would be hanging and twirling around, and an obvious wrong side might look a bit stupid).  I filled out the leaves by crocheting along the foundation row with a mirror image of the original stitches.

I had soooo nearly finished when husband said nonchalantly 'why don't you just do a shorter cord with a loop on one end and a flower on the other?



<breathe>



WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

THAT IS SUCH A GOOD IDDEEEAAAAAAAAAAA and I just did SO MUCH CROCHETING!! Noooooooo!!

So after having a teeny tiny mini meltdown about how it's unfair for him to even have ideas about yarny projects let alone good ones, especially without asking me (so unreasonable!!) I stopped being a nutcase and had a crack at this much more sensible Plan B. I made a loop out of 15 chain stitches and did enough double crochet stitches into the loop to make a firm ring. In a darker green I did a second row of single crochet around the ring, making the stitches by going around the post of the previous stitch to make an interesting texture.  Next, I added 45 chain stitches to make a much shorter cord (with a couple of leaves, I just can't seem to help myself) and a couple of leaves to stitch a large flower to at the end of the cord. A second row of slip stitches in a darker green make it a bit more interesting and finished off the leaves.

Yes, it did take approximately 79 less hours.

I've recently learnt post stitches and they're so useful! Check out the texture!

Which do you prefer? I did the first one in a cotton yarn which makes it look a bit prettier, whereas the second one is made in bog standard acrylic yarn and feels a lot more sturdy and sensible. I think I (secretly) prefer the first one but I have a sneaky feeling it'll be a lot less efficient at actually holding the curtains back. I tell you what: I'll finish off each one according to the original vision and see which looks and performs better when in-situ next to the curtains.There can be photos and voting! A curtain tie hunger games if you will. Although that does make you wonder how a curtain tie would kill another curtain tie. Strangulation? Sneakily pushing it's rival out of the window? I think I may have the premise for a new teen fiction trilogy.

Moving on from curtain tie hunger games (I think it's best for everybody) just look at this colourful garden twine!

Doesn't it look like it's straight out of the 1940s? I bought it a little while ago from a little hardware stall in the local market. There was yellow, orange, red, green, purple, pink and blue and I wanted ALL OF THEM. But that would be an awful lot of twine. So I got blue and pink (pregnant at the time, can you tell?!) They're going to be my next project - I'm thinking either a real string bag, or some crochet pots for the nursery. Definitely something practical.

I love how bright they are! Talking of bright....

I'm loving these fab gerberas! They're making my kitchen feel all cheerful. I love sunny flowers. We had sunflowers at our wedding, they just look happy. Well I have many curtain ties to finish and stage in an elaborate death fight so I best crack on! Also the baby has a cold and we have a minor snot-armaggedon situation going on here so have a lovely Friday night and speak soon!

Bye!
xx