Who Ever Thought Crocodile's Could Be So Beautiful?

So ever since I started exploring and checking out more about crochet I have been in love with one particular stitch: The Crocodile Stitch.  Every single time I see this stitch I ooh and awe over what it was used to make whether its a pair of baby booties, a shawl, a hoodie or gloves I tend to go pin happy over it on pinterest.  Well last Thursday I purchased a book with only projects for that stitch in it called: "Crocodile Stitch Fashions" By: Lianka Azulay.  I don't think I could pick out a favorite project in the book because I love them all, but I can share my experience with the first project I tried.

On page 24 is the Crocodile Stitch Cloche and attached to the hat is a simple and beautiful flower.  I also found a free tutorial for just the flower here at Bonita Patterns Blog.  So after finding this book I bought some beautiful variegated yarn to try it out with.  9 different skeins to be exact.  Okay yeah it's probably a little bit overboard, but I have ideas for all that yarn and I promise to share what it turns into as I use it this summer.  Since Thursday whenever I have a few free minutes I have been making flowers.

I have to say that I was quite surprised with how some of my flowers looked when I finished.  You can never quite tell how it will look with variegated yarn until you actually make it.  And several of them didn't turn out anything like I had expected.  Like this blue flower to the right for example.  I would never have guessed that the light blue would be out towards the tips on most of the petals; or how the black and white one had its colors on the same side of each petal.  I had really expected them all to mostly look like the pink and purple flower below with lots of little patches of color sprinkled throughout the flower.

I began and once I had finished the first petal I started to worry.  The center was hanging open and it didn't look anything like the lovely stitches I had been drooling over.  I even asked my dear husband what he thought because I didn't want to fail at my favorite stitch.  After stressing about it I took a deep breath and decided that if I can pull out an entire granny square to redo it for not turning out right then pulling out one flower should be no big deal.  After all its less work and less yarn then a granny square.  With my new found resolve I forged ahead and completed the rest of the petals.  The more of the petals I crocheted the better and more beautiful the flower looked.

Once I finished I took the time to stretch each petal a little and evenly distribute the stitches along each side to help them shape a little nicer.  You can do this by pinching the tip of the petal and sliding the stitches along the chain they are stitched around.  Once this was done I played and pressed each petal a little bit to help them overlap each other and lay nicely.  Eventually when I had them laying how I wanted I stuck a heavy book on top of them overnight to help them learn their shape a little bit.  This worked wonders and helped when it was time to attach all the fancy centers to them.

My daughters caught me attaching the centers and instantly asked if I was making these flowers for them.  So Sunday morning I let my daughter Seriah pick one she wanted to wear to church.  I got a whole lot more then I bargained for, because what I thought would be a simple headband with a flower clipped to it turned into a ponytail and a bouquet of flower hair bows.  It turned out cuter then I had thought it would and she was happy so no harm done.  She has always had her own sense of style though because from the time she was old enough to voice her opinion I was no longer allowed to help her pick new shoes.  Her teenage years could prove to be quite interesting.

Finally I finished off my flowers with hair clips.  The beautiful nature of these flowers though allow for such an array of choices.  You could use a hair clip, or a hair barrette, you could attach them to a shawl clasp, or a brooch pin.  I actually really like the pin idea because it would allow you to dress up a purse, hat or suit coat.  They would make lovely center pieces for wedding receptions, or a special dinner.  Or even fun party favors for a little girls birthday party, baby shower, or bridal shower.  The possibilities are endless.  I would love to hear and see any ideas you have on ways these gorgeous flowers could be used to enhance the world around us and the things we do.  So please leave me a comment with your ideas.

Since I have begun to work on further developing my talents and endeavoring to share the love of crafting with you I have decided not only to share my thoughts but to share some of these lovely flowers too.  I have listed them on my family's Etsy site where you can order them already finished and ready to use.  So head on over and check out what we have available right now at: Our Cozy Creations.

I foresee a bunch of these lovely little flowers in my future as I plan to figure out if and how you can make crocodile stitch multi-layered flowers too.  How fun would that be?  So check back and see what other crocodile projects I come up with as I explore this new passion of mine.