60's style Crochet Beachwear

I have been reading with interest several Celebrity type pages as they are containing lots of crochet. It seems to be the latest thing for the red carpet celebrities to  turn up wearing something crocheted or knitted. The magazines always confuse the two skills. As you know I love anything that looks vintage or from the 60/70's era so I am so glad that it is becoming fashionable and trendy once again.

A lot of the styles I couldn't wear any more due to age and weight but I do love making things like this for my younger slimmer friends.

This is for my friend Julie to wear on her holidays in Turkey. I am still not happy with the shorts. I have taken a few rows off the length of the shorts already but they still look quite 40's in their style. I couldn't try then on the mannequin properly so I am hoping than when Julie tries them on they will spread out widthways which will shorten them. This mannequin has no hips so doesn't have the womanly shape that Julie does.

I like the top as a bolero/shrug style to wear over a dress and am considering making something similar myself to wear over my Summer dresses as I am so sick of wearing trousers and sweaters all of the time. The pattern that I used is a vintage Twilley pattern that actually has Shakira (married to Michael Caine) as the model wearing the beach set. I should have draped something coloured underneath this top so that you could see the pattern stitch clearly. White on white is not a good idea.

All that is missing now is a headband. I am making matching headbands for each outfit that I make as she likes to wear them on her holidays to keep her hair tidy without having to blow dry and straighten it every day. Yesterday I took delivery of 4 small packets of different coloured small sequins which I will use to trim the flowers on the headbands.

For Christmas about 3 or 4 years ago I was given an amaryllis bulb in a pot that came from Marks and Spencer. . The first year it flowered 3 separate times, the second time it flowered just the once. The third time all it produced was leaves so I put it in the porch when the leaves died down and forgot all about it. I didn't water it over the winter so imagine my surprise 2 weeks ago to find that it was budding again. I brought it indoors and watered it and this is what happened.

Sadly the joy has been a bit short lived. I got up yesterday morning to find that the stem had bent over so far that it had snapped off . I have got the flowers in a pint pot of water and they have continued to flower but it's not the same as if they were still on the stem. I hadn't realised that the stems are completely hollow so the weight of 3 flowers must have been too much for the stem which was bending further every day.

I think amaryllis are so beautiful. Just look at the beautiful shadings on this flower.

This is what I am working on at the moment. It is from a pattern which I think is Russian in origin. I got it free from Ravelry. It is a pop over beach dress for Julie. I am struggling with the pattern somewhat as I am not used to completely following patterns with only symbols and very little in the way of instructions. I managed to sort out that I started off with 10 circles for the  dropped waistline and then this is the back which is crocheted upwards as is the front. It will have very large armholes as it is meant to be worn over a tube top of a swimsuit. I have now finished the top half and am ready to start crocheting downwards to make the short skirt part. I doubt if anyone who wasn't good at ammending patterns would be able to attempt this. I think that had it been for me and not an order I would have given up on the pattern a long time ago.

The yarn looks plain on here but in the light it is a mix of silver grey, grey and black all with a shiny metallic finish. The yarn came from Turkey. I also had a delivery of some more gold metallic thread yesterday from Ice yarns as I have another order for a gold lurex dress. Not the same pattern as the last one I made. I do prefer to make things as one offs wherever possible so that they will be unique to the person that I have made the dress or top for. That is what makes crocheting them so special. Knowing that you can walk into a room and no-one will have the same outfit on as you do.

Today I am going to the Manchester Art gallery. I am meeting my friend Rachael from Art Yarn who is holding a knitting session in the Gallery linked to the We Face Forward  exhibition that is running there at the moment. I am looking forward to seeing the exhibition and meeting up with friends old and new for an evening of knitting (or in my case crochet) in pleasant surroundings. I haven't been there since my younger niece got married there 3 yrs ago. Because I was at a wedding I didn't get much chance to take a proper look around. Shame on me. Having so much art to view locally and not taking advantage of it. It is one of those things that are on my pending list.

Today the sun is actually shining although there isn't much warmth in the day. I hope that you are having a great day and are staying happy and healthy.