For the past couple of weeks I’ve been making crochet shapes for submission to the International Diploma in Crochet.  As you know, these kinds of things are not necessarily my cup of tea, however, I can understand the reasons for making them.  I’ve learned a lot about the logic behind creating shapes and appreciate this will be useful for me in the future – particularly when it comes to creating free form pieces of crochet.

The shapes I made included and Octagon.  For this piece I decided to break away from my usual choices of muted neutrals and looked for inspiration in nature.  It so happened that we had a vase of daffodils in the apartment at the time which were perfect.  I tried to mirror the colours in the daffodils and this also gave me an idea as to how to use the octagon I had created.  It looked really lovely as a doily underneath the vase.

 

 

 

 

The second shape was a hexagon.  As with the octagon it needed to include interesting features and so I created the loops to link the rows together.

And finally, triangles.  Three different triangles based on trebles.  I really enjoyed making these – they were the final three shapes that I made and I think by this point had a better understanding of how best to create the shapes.  I also loved the colours – I was back to my favourite neutral shades.  The right angled triangle has also given me a good idea for a project which needs to be an asymmetrical design.

 

 

I heard back from Crochet Design really quickly and I have all of the submissions passed with really high marks – so I’m extra specially pleased with them!  The octagon has been placed back under the vase as it is quite nice to have the odd piece around our home.  This has really given me the incentive to continue as I’ve now submitted half of the sample pieces,  but still have a number of projects to complete.  I have lots of ideas and designs, but still need to turn them into actual pieces.  I suspect, as ever, that I might be making things more difficult for myself than they need be, but I’m loving it!

For now I’m going to focus on the asymmetrical design, which will require me to learn a few new techniques.  In the first instance I am going to try my hand at Irish Crochet and am looking forward to finding out more about the technique.  I really love the use of colour in more modern pieces and it seems the ways in which it can be used are endless.