Monday 20 October 2014

Crochet flower lights

This project was inspired by the crocheted flower fairy lights over at http://crochetbytukta.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/bell-flower.html. I made some small changes to the original idea (crocheted a stem and gave the flowers different petals which glow in the dark - crazy, I know, but I love it!). In case you want to try some of this yourself, here's a quick overview.



I used a string of 20 LED fairy lights, glow in the dark (fabric compatible) paint and 3 different pale colours for the flower petals (off white, yellow & pink) and one grass green colour for stem/sepals, all DK yarn combined with a 3.5 mm hook.

I started by crocheting around the wire connecting the LEDs. The technique is the same as for crocheting around a rope etc, e.g. for a tutorials see http://stitchesnscraps.com/2013/07/29/asymmetrical-cowl-step-2-crocheting-around-the-rope/


Next, I followed Tukta's pattern for the sepals and created a variant on her flower (grey text is Tukta's original):

6 sc in magic ring (6 st)
inc x 6 (12 st)
sc, inc x 6, (18st)
sc around (18st) for 4 rows
6 times (sl st, [in same stitch: sc, hdc, dc, dc, tc, tc, dc, dc, hdc, sc], sl st) (18 st)

Or, less fiddly but also slightly less symmetrical, drop the sl st at the end and just skip that stitch (it should be hidden quite well under the newly formed petal). The flower on the right has been done using the first, symmetrical approach, the flower on the left (my preference) shows the quicker way skipping the stitch.


Once finished, I painted some glow in the dark paint on the rim of the petals. In the picture below, you can see the off white colour of the paint easiest on the pink flowers. In addition to the paint being less visible on pale colours, the glow also gets reflected more for the optimal effect(dark surfaces would absorb more).


Finally, assembly time!


Trying out the lights...


You'll have to take my word for the glow in the dark effect. My camera can't capture it but it's quite visible to the naked eye in a sufficiently dark room.

As the cold dark winter approaches rapidly, my little flower LEDs can serve as a reminder that spring and light are never far away...