Needlework Tuesday: Learning the ins and outs of something new

 When I am stitching, I find it easiest to stay in my comfort zone and work with materials I know and with techniques I've used before.  This week I branched out and am using 2 inch strips that I cut from an old sheet.  I was going to throw the sheet in the garbage, so why not give it a try.  First, I cut the sheet on the bias using scissors.  Not going to cut the whole thing that way, so I folded it with the bias edge lined up, and used my rotary cutter and matt and had it reduced to strips in a matter of minutes.  The ended of each piece were already cut on an angle making it easy to overlap and stitch together on the sewing machine.  I am using a 9mm crochet hook and started by following a pattern for the flat base.  It wasn't really working, so I decided to add increases as required.  It is mostly round.

When it measured about 13 inches across, I switched to doing the single crochets only in the back loop. After I completed that round, I switched to double crochets.  It is hard going working with the cloth.  I had to play around with the best way to hold the hook so as not to tire my hand.  I can't stitch too long without a break, but it is progressing.

At this point, it looks like it's make a nice cat bed, but since I don't have a cat, I'll keep going with the plan to make it a basket for my current knitting project.  I'm glad I gave this a try though I don't know that it will become a favourite technique as it is harder on my hands.  It might work better with a different size or style of hook.   I'll have to shop for a larger hook and see how it feels.

 Taking a break from the brown basket, I felt I had better finish these dish cloths.  While I like the look of them, particularly the two colour one, they have a lot of spots where they need to be tacked down.  If you don't take them down, then they'll shift all over the place in the wash.  I think that once they are washed and the shrink, they will make pretty hot matts.

 I spent more time sewing down buttons.  It is still exciting to see how each button added changes the look.  So far I am at 172 buttons.

Here's a close up of the one leaf point that is full.  might be space yet for a bead or two later.  This is such fun, not instructions nor a pattern to follow, just my own instincts.  My kind of needlework.

Most of use tend to follow instructions or patterns when we are learning. Some of us veer off onto our own path once we have learned the basics and some of us only follow patterns.  Nothing wrong with either approach.  As long as it's fun and no one gets hurt, then follow the approach that works for you and enjoy.

Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you.

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