beck's blog

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Starry, Starry Night; Arabic Peace Table runner

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(Please click on the photos to enlarge them).

This project started out by my seeing a vintage filet crocheted chair back cover of palm trees and camels.
I saw it for sale on etsy and I thought it looked really cool. (I didn't buy it though).

Well, then one day I was looking for old filet crochet patterns on e-bay and I came across an old pattern book from The Spool Cotton Co., Copyright 1938, called Decorative Ensembles to Crochet. Book # 125. It had the graph pattern to crochet the chair back cover and two palm tree arm rests as well.

Well, of course I had to get it.

So then I thought, instead of just having the two camels looking one way, I could take a picture of the pattern, upload it to my computer, flip the image, and have the two camels facing the other way too. This way I could make a nifty table runner. So that's what I did.

But as I was planning this I thought, gee, look at all the space in the middle where the sky will be. Wouldn't it be nice to put something in there. So, I googled around for something meaningful that would fit.
Well, lo and behold, right on Ravelry, a fellow crocheter had already posted a free pattern that was just what I was looking for!

Maria Merlino has designed this Salaam Peace in Arabic Script filet crochet pattern.

I had to ditch the butterfly which would have been way out of proportion with the camels and trees, (can we say Mothra?) LOL!

So, I copied the pattern, flipped it and copied that, then I had to glue the two patterns together with my trusty glue stick,
Then I penciled in the Arabic script, (which as Maria explains is abjad for the word Salaam, which translates to Peace).

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This first photo is without the flash. The second one is with the flash.

I used all Omega cotton Sinfonia yarn. I really love this yarn and have used it in many of my projects. But I will tell you that I was so frustrated with the blue. Warning! With the blue color; DYE LOTS MATTER! LOL!

I started crocheting from the bottom. As you can see that is a lighter blue.
Well, when I ran out and had to buy more, I noticed right away that it was darker.
So I thought, that's ok. It's the sky.
Well, right near the end, I ran out again and had to go back to Hobby Lobby for one more skein. (Thank goodness that's all I needed because it was the last one!)
So, then I noticed that it was the lighter color again. Aaaaahhhh!.
Plus in the middle when I was trying to use up the lighter blue and switch to the darker it made a streak of lighter blue across the sky.
Clouds, haze, mist, whatever. It's crocheted in there forever.

I used variegated brown yarn for the camels and so they look all stripe-y. I think the Variegated citrus color worked great on the palm tree trunks and script.

And if all this wasn't enough, I decided to use a whole package of sequin stars to dress up the sky. I used a needle and thread and just beaded each one to attach them all.

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This photo shows the back. You can see how I had to tack down all the white thread that I used to attach the sequins. I don't want anything to snag on any of the thread.

Let's see. The size of the runner is about 44 inches by 21 inches.
I used a size H cabled afghan hook. I usually use a size J hook for tunisian stitching but this yarn is much thinner and so I used the smaller H hook.

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