Embellished Swatch Part 1

I worked a swatch in Crimped Row Stitch #2 using the extra stretchy cast-on. I didn't use a larger needle, but it blocked beautifully.

When I said in my previous post that I saw embellishment potential in the cast-on, I was looking at the large spaces between the clusters, shown by the green arrows. But a smaller space behind the lowest strand in each cluster, shown by the pink arrows, is revealed by sliding a tapestry needle under the strand and gently pulling it away from the knitting.

Now, except for standard fringe, embellishing was not as straightforward as I had imagined. Searching for ideas, I found many awesome web sites. They concern themselves only with embroidery on fabric, but some of the techniques can be extrapolated to knitted items. Two sites that stood out to me are Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials and Beading Arts.


But I digress. I added standard fringe in two colors in the center of the swatch using a lark's head knot. I am absolutely always forgetting which way to pull the fringe through the edge to get the smooth side of the knot (circled in the photo to the right) on the outside of the work. It's a fussy detail, of course, but I like it much better that way!








 My instinct is to insert the crochet hook from the front of the work. This may be correct for actual crocheting, but it's not optimal for adding fringe. The hook has to be inserted from the back. I'm hoping that now that I've done a diagram of it (to the right), I will remember it forever. Time will tell.



More and more lately I've found myself wanting to add embellishments to my designs. So, next up will be some simple ways of adding beads. Until then . . .