There's no sound for these videos, but I was asked how I do it by a couple of people, so hopefully these go some way to showing that.
Single colour bosnian crochet is just a slip stitch through the back of each loop.
Single Colour Bosnian Crochet:
Single colour shepherd's knitting is just a slip stitch through the front of each loop.
Single Colour Shepherd's Knitting:
The next video is for bosnian crochet with two colours, for Ross who asked a few days ago. This is just one way to do it. I have also tried doing it purlwise, where I crochet from the back of the work in the old eastern style and "float" the colours at the back rather than "carrying" them (which is like extreme trapping in knitting) as I do in this video. I had a bit of trouble keeping the video centred, but hopefully it's viewable.
Basically I just pick up whichever colour I need from the front or back of the other colour so that it traps the colour that needs to be carried behind the work.
Bosnian Crochet in Two Colours:
Showing posts with label bosnian crochet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bosnian crochet. Show all posts
Friday, October 1, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Hooks, shepherd's knitting, and a wonderful package from Tajkistan
On August 7, I started this post and then put it on hold until today (September 6 - don't let the blogger date above mislead you). :-P
At the time I was busy spinning and dyeing one of my Mergelland fleeces, and making a hook for my long-planned Tajik socks.
Hooks
First the hook which I made according to Flosiepoo's Pen Tutorial:
The wood for my hook is from the dead branch of a purple beech tree which I found whilst out walking one afternoon.
To make the hook, I first printed out Flosiepoo's "slim" template to scale and then cut it out. Then on a sunny June morning I sat outside with a small hacksaw, stanley knife and two different grades of sandpaper, plus a nail file. I hacksawed the branch to about 12.5cm as instructed in the tutorial. Then I whittled the hook end roughly into shape, and then the handle. As I whittled, I would keep putting Flosiepoo's cut-out template over my shape to check how close I was to the template. I'd say the whole process took 4-5 hours. But if you undertake something like this on a fine day, it's a very relaxing process.
Later, over the course of a week, I did a lot of swatches to test the hook. What I discovered was that my actual hook was way too sharp, so I had to constantly modify it as I swatched. In the end it looked a lot more like Flosiepoos hook, and a lot less like the commercial Swedish smygmaskvirkning hooks that I see all over the net. These, for example, are useless:
Anyone who has one of these hooks and disagrees should post me a youtube video of themselves actually using such a hook in a project before I will believe that these sorts of hooks are of any use.
If the hook is too sharp, it will constantly snag the plies of your yarn, which is very annoying. Also the heads of those commercial Swedish hooks are way too wide. The aim of the head shape is to allow you to enter the flattened slip stitch relatively gently, without snagging or splitting the plies of your yarn. The shaft of the hook is what does the work to stretch the stitch open for the subsequent pullthrough, so there is no need for such a wide head at all.
Anyway, for those who like the hook but not the thought of making one, Flosiepoos may soon be selling some of her mother's handmade hooks on Etsy, so keep an eye out for that!
Shepherd's Knitting
I've also been washing Mergalland fleece, and spinning, and dying, all for the purposes of making a Tajik-style proto-sock. Tajik socks are unique among Central Asian socks in that they utilize crochet, and/or a combination of crochet and knitting. Tajik socks are created with the use of shepherd's knitting/shepherd's stitch or "schaapherderssteek" as it is known to oldtimers here in The Swamp (that's "The Netherlands" for the benefit of non-Aussies).
Here is my proto-sock when I began:
And here it is as I progressed a little further and began knitting:
The sock is a bit further now and I'll post pictures when I finally get it done (I have no idea when that will be since I have 3 other more urgent projects on the go at the moment).
OK, so what is this "shepherd's knitting"/shepherd's stitch? Well, basically it's slip stitch crochet through the front of the loop, as opposed to "Bosnian Crochet" which is slip stitch crochet through the back of the loop. It's one of the simplest stitches there is but you can do it in spirals and in colour in order to make socks - which is what the women of the Pamirs (in what is today "Tajikistan") do with great skill. From what I have read, the technique became known as "shepherd's knitting" in ye olde days because the fabric produced looks a little like it is knitted rather than crocheted. I can sort of see this when you do it in one colour, but if you start doing it with colour motifs, the motifs have a definite slant to them, so it's more recognizeable as crochet.
So anyway, today I decided to finally finish this post because I received a long-awaited package from Tajikistan, which contained two precious items. The first of these, is a booklet/brochure called “Falling Star” by Parpisho Qimatshoyev, and the second is a Pamiri hook (I have been told that these are best referred to as Pamiri since the people of the pamirs consider themselves to have been assimilated by the Tajiks).
Falling Star
This is probably the only publication in existance at the moment which contains images and a few graphs of the Pamiri motifs which appear on their socks. It is not exactly a "book", but instead a 29 page brochure, but it's absolute gold - at least to someone like me who is always on the lookout for beautiful previously unknown Central Asian motifs to incorporate into my crafting. The brochure is written entirely in Russian as well, so unless you are Russian, or curious enough to try google-translating it (yeah, I'm mad enough), it's not the sort of thing you'll be able to sit down with and read with a nice cuppa and some bickies. But my reaction upon looking at all of the pretty photos was "OMG - so beautiful... Wow" followed by drooling and wishing that I could speak Russian. :-D
So without further ado, here is what the cover looks like:
Also in the pic above, you will notice the unique Pamiri hook, which is used to crochet socks. This doesn't come with the book. And here's a cloesup of the hook itself for those curious about how it compares to smygmaskvirkning hooks or Dutch hooks:
Also a sneek peek at one page inside the book - one with pictures of the Pamiri hook used for shepherd's knitting:
At the time I was busy spinning and dyeing one of my Mergelland fleeces, and making a hook for my long-planned Tajik socks.
Hooks
First the hook which I made according to Flosiepoo's Pen Tutorial:
The wood for my hook is from the dead branch of a purple beech tree which I found whilst out walking one afternoon.To make the hook, I first printed out Flosiepoo's "slim" template to scale and then cut it out. Then on a sunny June morning I sat outside with a small hacksaw, stanley knife and two different grades of sandpaper, plus a nail file. I hacksawed the branch to about 12.5cm as instructed in the tutorial. Then I whittled the hook end roughly into shape, and then the handle. As I whittled, I would keep putting Flosiepoo's cut-out template over my shape to check how close I was to the template. I'd say the whole process took 4-5 hours. But if you undertake something like this on a fine day, it's a very relaxing process.
Later, over the course of a week, I did a lot of swatches to test the hook. What I discovered was that my actual hook was way too sharp, so I had to constantly modify it as I swatched. In the end it looked a lot more like Flosiepoos hook, and a lot less like the commercial Swedish smygmaskvirkning hooks that I see all over the net. These, for example, are useless:
Anyone who has one of these hooks and disagrees should post me a youtube video of themselves actually using such a hook in a project before I will believe that these sorts of hooks are of any use.
If the hook is too sharp, it will constantly snag the plies of your yarn, which is very annoying. Also the heads of those commercial Swedish hooks are way too wide. The aim of the head shape is to allow you to enter the flattened slip stitch relatively gently, without snagging or splitting the plies of your yarn. The shaft of the hook is what does the work to stretch the stitch open for the subsequent pullthrough, so there is no need for such a wide head at all.
Anyway, for those who like the hook but not the thought of making one, Flosiepoos may soon be selling some of her mother's handmade hooks on Etsy, so keep an eye out for that!
Shepherd's Knitting
I've also been washing Mergalland fleece, and spinning, and dying, all for the purposes of making a Tajik-style proto-sock. Tajik socks are unique among Central Asian socks in that they utilize crochet, and/or a combination of crochet and knitting. Tajik socks are created with the use of shepherd's knitting/shepherd's stitch or "schaapherderssteek" as it is known to oldtimers here in The Swamp (that's "The Netherlands" for the benefit of non-Aussies).
Here is my proto-sock when I began:
And here it is as I progressed a little further and began knitting:
The sock is a bit further now and I'll post pictures when I finally get it done (I have no idea when that will be since I have 3 other more urgent projects on the go at the moment).
OK, so what is this "shepherd's knitting"/shepherd's stitch? Well, basically it's slip stitch crochet through the front of the loop, as opposed to "Bosnian Crochet" which is slip stitch crochet through the back of the loop. It's one of the simplest stitches there is but you can do it in spirals and in colour in order to make socks - which is what the women of the Pamirs (in what is today "Tajikistan") do with great skill. From what I have read, the technique became known as "shepherd's knitting" in ye olde days because the fabric produced looks a little like it is knitted rather than crocheted. I can sort of see this when you do it in one colour, but if you start doing it with colour motifs, the motifs have a definite slant to them, so it's more recognizeable as crochet.
So anyway, today I decided to finally finish this post because I received a long-awaited package from Tajikistan, which contained two precious items. The first of these, is a booklet/brochure called “Falling Star” by Parpisho Qimatshoyev, and the second is a Pamiri hook (I have been told that these are best referred to as Pamiri since the people of the pamirs consider themselves to have been assimilated by the Tajiks).
Falling Star
This is probably the only publication in existance at the moment which contains images and a few graphs of the Pamiri motifs which appear on their socks. It is not exactly a "book", but instead a 29 page brochure, but it's absolute gold - at least to someone like me who is always on the lookout for beautiful previously unknown Central Asian motifs to incorporate into my crafting. The brochure is written entirely in Russian as well, so unless you are Russian, or curious enough to try google-translating it (yeah, I'm mad enough), it's not the sort of thing you'll be able to sit down with and read with a nice cuppa and some bickies. But my reaction upon looking at all of the pretty photos was "OMG - so beautiful... Wow" followed by drooling and wishing that I could speak Russian. :-D
So without further ado, here is what the cover looks like:
Also in the pic above, you will notice the unique Pamiri hook, which is used to crochet socks. This doesn't come with the book. And here's a cloesup of the hook itself for those curious about how it compares to smygmaskvirkning hooks or Dutch hooks:
Also a sneek peek at one page inside the book - one with pictures of the Pamiri hook used for shepherd's knitting:
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Bosnian crochet in Colour
This maybe the only post that I make this year because of my infrequent blogging habits, but I have been inspired by a couple of posts on Ravelry, the most recent being this one.
By shear coincidence, over the last couple of weeks I've been experimenting with Bosnian/slip stitch and other forms of crochet. My chief interest though is in Bosnian or slip stitch crochet which I blogged about a couple of years ago (in another rare post). Over the last year or so I have been collecting images of crocheted socks from Central Asia which utilize this simple but much ignored crochet stitch. Much as I would like to post images here, I am going to refrain because it would probably be a violation of some form of copyright.
Instead, here are some images of my own. These are test swatches that I crocheted using colourwork slip stitch crochet and motifs I have seen in eastern socks:
The above is slip stitch (aka Bosnian) crochet through the back loop carrying three colours.In the following image the black and white section is slip stitch crochet through the front loop in two colours.
I am hoping to one day crochet a pair of Tajik-style socks in this manner, so just doing a bit of experimentation for the time being.I have also made myself a couple of crochet hooks for the purpose. Here is a picture of one of the hooks:
It doesn't have the thick handle like on pjoning hooks, but the head of the hook is relatively flat so it slides nicely into the slip stitches which tend to lie rather flat. I am thinking of putting a nice fimo handle on it, but it seems ok to use as is. I made this hook from a "twig" from our privet (or maybe even box) hedge that my husband pruned earlier this year.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Revelation and Inspiration: Crochet!
Yes, this is supposed to be a blog about knitting, but today I am going to post about crochet. Crochet is not something that I do (although my Mum did try to teach me many moons ago). And boy do I wish I had listened more then. Ah well, we live and learn.
Do you crochet? If so, then you may already get a lot of this stuff that I am about to talk about.
If you do not crochet (and I am in that boat), then I am going to urge you to get yourself a crochet needle and have a go. There are a lot of useful videos on Youtube, and a really great how-to website where you can learn to do the basic stitches by watching videos:
http://nexstitch.com/Tutorials.html
So, what has gotten me all excited about crochet? Well, it's PGR, of all people. A few weeks ago, I got myself a copy of the revised edition of Knitting in the Old Way (finally) and this is what has set me off! The last chapter in the book is about crochet-enhanced knits, and of course, because I don't crochet, it took me a bit of research to work out what the hell she was talking about. In this post, I would like to share with you some of what I have learned, and hope that it inspires you and makes you dance around the house, shouting "OMG!!! OMG!!!"and salivating madly! Just to peak your interest, let me begin with an image that is sure to have the desired effect:
To read more about the above sweater, check out the Finnish Ostrobothnian Museum's website .
This sweater utilizes not just knitting, but large swathes of crochet, and it is the reason why people who only knit (people like me), or people who only crochet, should expand their horizons. Because in the end, it is all about the fabric that you produce. And boy is this a BEAUTIFUL fabric!
Edited 14/04/2008:
Now, in this post, I am going to talk about the form of crochet that is used in that sweater, and also a simple form of crochet which PGR refers to as "bosnian crochet" / "shepherd's knitting".
"Bosnian Crochet" and "Shepherd's Knitting"
First another link to a website where you can see other examples of the types of fabrics you can produce with this Bosnian crochet. It's the website of Sylvia Cosh and James Walters:
http://www.crochet.nu/scjwc/work/bosnian/index.html
These guys make no distinction between the terms "bosnian crochet" and "shepherd's knitting", it's just all "bosnian crochet" to them. And I kind of like that.
If as a non-crocheter (like me) you googled these terms "bosnian crochet" and "shepherd's knitting", you would end up in confusion, banging your head against the wall and swearing profusely. Sure, there is a lot of information on the internet, but there is also a lot of twaddle (aka unintentional MISinformation). What you need to know is that this form of crochet has nothing to do with Tunisian crochet, as some internet websites will quite emphatically try to tell you, so get that in your head right away.
American readers may know this form of crochet as "slip stitch crochet", BUT it's not slip-stitch under the chain head as is apparently traditional in "western crochet". Instead, it is slip-stitching into the back (upper) loop of a chain head (what PGR calls "bosnian crochet"), and slip-stitching into the front (lower) loop of a chain head (what PGR calls "shepherd's knitting"). Crocheting slip stitches in this manner described by PGR, occurs the in many countries including those of Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, and Central Asia.
Also, in some countries, they use an altogether different hook than the one western crocheters (and knitters) are used to seeing for bosnian crochet and shepherd's knitting.
In Norway, this form of crochet is known as "pjoning", and in Sweden it is known as "smygmaskvirkning" or "smygmask" or påtning. Here is an image of the special type of hook that is used in this type of tradional crochet in Sweden and Norway:
I also found this interesting scan of a page which recently apeared on a discussion board on ebay in relation to these special types of hooks:
As you can see, the whole hook is flat (as opposed to cylindrical), and it has a pointed end, as opposed to a rounded end.
If there are any Dutchies out there who are passing by this blog, there was also apparently an item in a Dutch magazine from the 1800s called Pénélopé, which showed such a needle:
So perhaps there was a chance that this form of crochet (or "haakwerk" as it is called here in The Swamp) is a forgotten part of Dutchie textile history?
At any rate, there is a free crochet pattern on the Garnstudio website for a pair of mittens, using bosnian crochet and shepherd's knitting (aka "slip stitch crochet). Also, on the Sylvia Cosh/James Walters website, you can try out this PDF pattern for a cute little neckpurse thing.
Colourwork
As you saw on the Finnish Ostrobothnian Museum website, there is some beautiful colourwork crochet. It turns out that this colourwork crochet is done with "single crochet" (as Americans call it) or "double crochet" (as UK English-speakers call it). And in working out how this is done, my google travels led me to a most wonderful and interesting group of crocheters who do what they call "tapestry crochet", which seems to encompass all forms of crochet where the maker is using stitches to crochet motifs. The "tapestry crochet" in the Finnish sweater is done using different coloured strands of yarn in single crochet (aka double crochet if your an Aussie or English).
This lady in particular, who does tapestry crochet really flipped my switches, and she has a great tutorial there too on how to easily hold and crochet the colours:
http://crochetcodex.blogspot.com/
Wow. Just WOW!
Also, check out Carol Ventura's Tapestry crochet blog:
http://www.tapestrycrochet.com/blog/?p=23
Note that Bosnian Crochet can also be done in colour too, and not just a single colour.
Update 14/06/2010
Here are some more links about "Bosnian crochet":
Do you crochet? If so, then you may already get a lot of this stuff that I am about to talk about.
If you do not crochet (and I am in that boat), then I am going to urge you to get yourself a crochet needle and have a go. There are a lot of useful videos on Youtube, and a really great how-to website where you can learn to do the basic stitches by watching videos:
http://nexstitch.com/Tutorials.html
So, what has gotten me all excited about crochet? Well, it's PGR, of all people. A few weeks ago, I got myself a copy of the revised edition of Knitting in the Old Way (finally) and this is what has set me off! The last chapter in the book is about crochet-enhanced knits, and of course, because I don't crochet, it took me a bit of research to work out what the hell she was talking about. In this post, I would like to share with you some of what I have learned, and hope that it inspires you and makes you dance around the house, shouting "OMG!!! OMG!!!"and salivating madly! Just to peak your interest, let me begin with an image that is sure to have the desired effect:
To read more about the above sweater, check out the Finnish Ostrobothnian Museum's website .This sweater utilizes not just knitting, but large swathes of crochet, and it is the reason why people who only knit (people like me), or people who only crochet, should expand their horizons. Because in the end, it is all about the fabric that you produce. And boy is this a BEAUTIFUL fabric!
Edited 14/04/2008:
Now, in this post, I am going to talk about the form of crochet that is used in that sweater, and also a simple form of crochet which PGR refers to as "bosnian crochet" / "shepherd's knitting".
"Bosnian Crochet" and "Shepherd's Knitting"
First another link to a website where you can see other examples of the types of fabrics you can produce with this Bosnian crochet. It's the website of Sylvia Cosh and James Walters:
http://www.crochet.nu/scjwc/work/bosnian/index.html
These guys make no distinction between the terms "bosnian crochet" and "shepherd's knitting", it's just all "bosnian crochet" to them. And I kind of like that.
If as a non-crocheter (like me) you googled these terms "bosnian crochet" and "shepherd's knitting", you would end up in confusion, banging your head against the wall and swearing profusely. Sure, there is a lot of information on the internet, but there is also a lot of twaddle (aka unintentional MISinformation). What you need to know is that this form of crochet has nothing to do with Tunisian crochet, as some internet websites will quite emphatically try to tell you, so get that in your head right away.
American readers may know this form of crochet as "slip stitch crochet", BUT it's not slip-stitch under the chain head as is apparently traditional in "western crochet". Instead, it is slip-stitching into the back (upper) loop of a chain head (what PGR calls "bosnian crochet"), and slip-stitching into the front (lower) loop of a chain head (what PGR calls "shepherd's knitting"). Crocheting slip stitches in this manner described by PGR, occurs the in many countries including those of Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, and Central Asia.
Also, in some countries, they use an altogether different hook than the one western crocheters (and knitters) are used to seeing for bosnian crochet and shepherd's knitting.
In Norway, this form of crochet is known as "pjoning", and in Sweden it is known as "smygmaskvirkning" or "smygmask" or påtning. Here is an image of the special type of hook that is used in this type of tradional crochet in Sweden and Norway:
I also found this interesting scan of a page which recently apeared on a discussion board on ebay in relation to these special types of hooks:
As you can see, the whole hook is flat (as opposed to cylindrical), and it has a pointed end, as opposed to a rounded end.If there are any Dutchies out there who are passing by this blog, there was also apparently an item in a Dutch magazine from the 1800s called Pénélopé, which showed such a needle:
So perhaps there was a chance that this form of crochet (or "haakwerk" as it is called here in The Swamp) is a forgotten part of Dutchie textile history?At any rate, there is a free crochet pattern on the Garnstudio website for a pair of mittens, using bosnian crochet and shepherd's knitting (aka "slip stitch crochet). Also, on the Sylvia Cosh/James Walters website, you can try out this PDF pattern for a cute little neckpurse thing.
Colourwork
As you saw on the Finnish Ostrobothnian Museum website, there is some beautiful colourwork crochet. It turns out that this colourwork crochet is done with "single crochet" (as Americans call it) or "double crochet" (as UK English-speakers call it). And in working out how this is done, my google travels led me to a most wonderful and interesting group of crocheters who do what they call "tapestry crochet", which seems to encompass all forms of crochet where the maker is using stitches to crochet motifs. The "tapestry crochet" in the Finnish sweater is done using different coloured strands of yarn in single crochet (aka double crochet if your an Aussie or English).
This lady in particular, who does tapestry crochet really flipped my switches, and she has a great tutorial there too on how to easily hold and crochet the colours:
http://crochetcodex.blogspot.com/
Wow. Just WOW!
Also, check out Carol Ventura's Tapestry crochet blog:
http://www.tapestrycrochet.com/blog/?p=23
Note that Bosnian Crochet can also be done in colour too, and not just a single colour.
Update 14/06/2010
Here are some more links about "Bosnian crochet":
- A recent post of mine regarding Bosnian Crochet in colour.
- A very loooong thread on ravelry relating to "Dutch pennen", as the author of the above tutorial calls the special hooks used to slip stitch.
- Another ravelry thread in which I reply to CrochetInsider about socks crocheted in colour, later leading to this article.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
