Crocheted Earring Obsession

 Another Creative Journey

Crocheted Earrings No. 5 - Purple Pillar Glitz

AS I've described on my Etsy page, I have this stitch pattern book. Yeah, it's one of those giant encyclopedia looking things that contains every stitch one could ever possibly desire to make. I love looking at these giant books. I get ideas and become inspired. That's when I start to regret that my crochet hobby is such a time consuming effort. I wish I could just make a list of everything I want to try and have it done in a weekend. However, it doesn't work like that. Instead, after spending hours and hours drooling over this book of stitches I finally decide on ONE pattern and there goes 2 weeks of my life. This is also due to the fact that I cannot stick with any one type of project. Not only do I need to make a scarf with this new stitch pattern I've picked out, but I also want to make ornament covers with crochet thread, hats, and gloves. So, I end up putting too many irons in the fire (I truly enjoy that phrase which I learned from a co-worker of mine) and I've only managed to work my way through ONE stitch pattern in this GIANT book. I can't help thinking about all of those stitches that have yet to be brought to life. So, I get all excited about making another scarf, but that's still only ONE more pattern I'll have completed and another 2 weeks go by. I needed to do something about this. I couldn't let all of those beautiful stitches go by the wayside. So, I developed my own personal take on crocheted earrings.

MY first design idea was really simple. It is essentially just a swatch of the pattern. I thought they would be fun and unique. However, I realized that if I only made these "swatch" earrings, things could get sort of boring. So, with ModPodge and crochet thread at the ready, I dug down deep in my creative chambers and came up with some alternative designs.

Crocheted Earrings No. 3 - Periwinkle Chip Glitz

MY next idea was to create a spiral. My stitch book starts out with a few really simple patterns using single crochet. I didn't want to create a whole Swatch Earring out of single crochet, but I also felt sort of like I was cheating if I skipped over a pattern. I'm determined to utilize EVERY SINGLE ONE. So, I decided I couldn't call myself a crafter if I didn't take advantage of this challenge. In order to make something interesting and exciting out of good 'ol single crochet, I used some metallic crochet thread, starched it in a spiral, and BAM! I would totally wear these on an evening out! This is the next problem with having an Etsy shop. I never make anything for myself anymore, :D. SO, hopefully these earrings will go to someone who is just as excited about wearing them as I am!

Crocheted Earrings No. 2 - Silver Spiral

IN creating the spiral style, I had the idea for a tubular design. I was thinking sort of like paper maché wondering what I could use as a mold that I could "pop" when the starch solution was dry. I tried some things out and finally found something that works. These tube designs are fun and possibly my favorite.

Crocheted Earrings No. 3 - Vanilla Pillar

Crocheted Earrings No. 5 - Purple Pillar Glitz

Crocheted Earrings No. 3 - Periwinkle Pillar

THE above is the FINISHED product, but there was definitely quite the journey to getting there. I have a few reject earrings that were first attempts and didn't quite make the cut. The whole process is probably rather amusing to someone who actually knows what they are doing. For your entertainment, we will start on that journey...

FIRST, I had to do some research on starching. I didn't know the first thing about it and was worried I was going to need to purchase a lot of special supplies for it. I'm the kind of person who has the ideas to make these sort of things at 10 p.m. and no ability to wait for a supplies run to complete the idea. SO, I was determined to do some research and make do with whatever I happened to have around. Luckily, I found a website that provided a comprehensive list of all possible starch solution recipes with reviews. I found one I could use right then, at 10 p.m. I used the Crochet Memories website to find all of these recipes. I got my crocheted earring and started dipping!

MY next issue was that I didn't have any rust free pins to use to stretch and shape the earring to be dried. Because of my inability to wait and procure the correct materials... I used safety pins. LOTS of safety pins. I found it interesting that I managed to have an entire bag of safety pins on hand, but no sewing pins. My crafting stash is apparently a very eclectic assortment of things.

NOW came the hard part. What was I going to get to be my mold for the tube earrings? This is what I chose and it was a HORRIBLE mistake! All of these starching solutions for crochet are basically glue. You get a watered-down version of some glue, slather it all over your project, wait for it to dry, and pry it off of whatever it is now stuck to, because it is undoubtedly stuck to something. I mean, it's glue, right? WELL, I had the bright idea to use my crochet hooks. It seemed like a perfect fit. The hooks were just the right size for my earrings. What I didn't think about was that when the glue dried the earrings would then be successfully and mostly likely permanently adhered to the crochet hooks. So, ignorant to my mistake and rather pleased with myself for getting this far in my project, I laid them out to dry, had a little giggle at the amusing picture of all of these safety pins jetting out of the Styrofoam, and went to bed.

AFTER a quick removal of safety pins I found that the swatch earrings came out pretty much as expected. I was happy with the degree of stiffness and with a little practice and actual sewing pins figured my next attempt will end up more uniform. 

HOWEVER, I get to the tube earrings and I become aware very quickly that I've created a glued crocheted mess on the end of my crochet hooks. Awesome. I end up having to grab some pliers and wrestle the things off of the hooks. It took some doing, but they finally came free. Needless to say, I did some rethinking in the execution of this design...

FINALLY, it was off to the jewelry station to attach all of the findings and figure out if these things were actually going to work. I learned some things about where to crochet the chains to hang the findings from. What I pictured in my head didn't really end up working out. I needed more jump rings than expected for this first batch because once I hung the fish hook, the earring was facing the wrong way! However, that is all part of the testing process.

NOW, I have a clearer idea of what to expect, fixed some bugs, and am making strides towards successfully completing a project using each of the stitches in my stitch book. Though right now I only have three designs dubbed my "Chip Earrings," "Pillar Earrings," and "Spiral Earrings," I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I'm up at 2 a.m. again trying to work with the wrong materials to glue something else together and ultimately come up with a new pattern!

I'M not typically the type of person to come up with artsy original ideas and am, therefore, really proud of this one. Most of the time I'm putting a spin on something that already exists or running with a concept I've seen and tweaking it a little. I feel like I can legitimately call myself creative knowing that these designs truly were not influenced by anything I've ever seen before. Now, that isn't to say these don't exist anywhere else. They very well could. I am just excited to have gotten there on my own, whether or not it was a technique already in practice, :). 

I'D love to hear about your original designs and your creative process!

Thanks for reading,

~Paige