Modern Lace-Mountain Gold

In our "Modern Lace" posts, we will feature current trends in Irish crochet, and new or inspired uses for traditional techniques.  Our first post is by Fatima L., who has designed the gorgeous necklace below.

“Mountain Gold” is one of five crochet jewelry patterns that I designed to explore the idea of the small crocheted motif and simple hand sewing. The motifs in “Mountain Gold” are sewn together to become an adornment for the neck.

I am quite fond of combining sewing with crocheting, something that I learned through reading antique publications on Irish Crochet. I find that sewn joins have useful rigidity and can be adjusted to desired flatness or curvature of the crocheted fabric. While there are specific sewing techniques for seaming such as whip stitch and mattress stitch, I often improvise, taking into account the direction and tension of sewing and the effect these have on the fabric.

The leaves in “Mountain Gold” are similarly inspired by Irish Crochet motifs, in particular, the leaves employed in Lula M. Harvey’s “Wild Rose Design.”

“Mountain Gold” may be found at http://crochetology.net/2011/04/mountain-gold


The Priscilla Irish Crochet Book, A Collection of New and Original Designs with Stitches and Lessons for Working by Lula M. Harvey, published in 1912.

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/catalog.htm