Fiber Monday

 

In Which A Breakthrough Has Been Made!

I have been agonizing for the last few weeks over what I should do about having some sort of skirt or side-guards for my Ren-Faire costume. I've tried using motifs from an umbrella design, artfully connected filet crochet, straight up lace panels, building an entire skirt from scratch, etc.

But this week I cracked the code!

Leaves.

I just want a bunch of leaves.

Well, not just a bunch of leaves, I'm not PricklyAlpaca...

I want to make thigh pouches with leaf flaps.

Why this specific combo? Well, I'm going to be wearing a very dark green tunic with some dark red embroidery, and I'll be wearing this tunic (which doesn't quite cover my back pasture as it were) with a pair of tan jeggings I've had for years.

Jeggings, especially for rotund persons such as myself, do not generally have functional pockets. I will be wandering about with friends in September and will need at least one hand free to grip my partner's hand like an excited toddler holding a juice box. The other hand will likely be occupied with any purchases and/or water. Thus I need a place to store my valuables - phone, wallet, keys, etc (I'll need my keys because they have a bottle opener on them, and if we find any fun sodas anywhere, I'd like to be prepared).

But I also want a 2nd pouch for rocks and/or other fun things I find.

So I'll need 2 leaves + 2 pouches. The pouches will be a little narrower than each leaf, but longer, and each will be probably an inch or two deep. Since the pouches themselves will (presumably) be simple rectangular shapes, I'm not going to look for a pattern for them. Also finding a pattern that would match the leaf pattern would be a pain, so yeah. Homebrew, baby.

Now, what I needed for this week was an actual leaf pattern, so I set out looking for one. I found it here, from Sylwia SzB on Ravelry and Robootkomania. I used the leftover red thread from the interminable and on-hiatus mushroom bag I was working on last year (yikes has it been that long?!), a Boye size 7 steel hook (maybe 1.75mm?! I legitimately do not know), and a lot of elbow grease and worked up my first of two leaves:

And yes, it is fairly small, all things considered.
That's a laptop keyboard, so do with that what you will.

The color is a much darker red in person, but it is what it is, when it comes to photography. There's a reason I don't call myself a photographer.

Regardless, the leaf is about the size of my tiny hand (I'm told I have very stubby hands), which means that I'd be able to shove my hand in any pouch that it flops over to shut. I'll probably add a loop to the tip of the leaf to act as a button hole.

As for the pouch itself, I'm thinking I'll use the excessive amount of white thread I have. It's easy to find and relatively affordable by comparison to the colored threads. I'd love to find a way to dye the thread dark brown, so I might look at what I have available to do a natural, non-toxic dye bath. If worst comes to it, I'll just have ridiculous white pouches. Next worst: see which watercolors will stain the thread without leaching.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to having these pouches done... because after the actual pouches themselves, I'm gonna have to figure out how to get them to stay on me. I'm reasonably sure I can figure it out before September.

Even though it's already almost July some-freaking-how.

When I finish the leaf pouches, I'll get someone to take pics of me wearing them.

Hopefully those'll get posted before the trip lol!

As for tonight, I've got a second leaf to whip up and some pouches to plan. Do I want them to be three piece patterns or five? (front+back+flap all in one with two sides or front, back+flap, two sides, and a bottom?) We'll see.

I hope everyone else's crochet plans are going well!

And I hope you all...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC