Autumn Wreath :: Ta-dah!

[Arachnifauna]

Posted by Linda M. on October 24, 2016 at 9:20pm

Oh. My. Goodness. Me. I am so so so so so so so SO EXCITED to be sharing this wreath with you today. So very, VErY excited. This has been such a tremendously joyful project, and my friends I have to tell you that the finished wreath is waaaaaaaay better than I ever imagined it could be.

Now please Resist The Temptation to Scroll Down!!!!! Hahahaaaa....do as you're told now, and I'll try and hurry through to the all important Ta-dah moment. I did take a lot of pictures mind you, this is a hugely photogenic project and I've taken full advantage.

I started working on my Autumn wreath about a month ago, in mid October. You may remember a flurry of colourful, leaf-strewn Autumnal posts in the Attic at that time?

A few weeks later, I took a  break from the leaves, acorns and toadstools and worked up the stripy wreath base, using nine colours of Drops Big Merino (colours 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15).

I used a 35cm "half round ring " for my wreath base, you can find all the wreath making details in this post.

One of the things I most enjoy about wreath making is getting inspired by so many new ideas and patterns. It's exciting looking for inspiration and I've loved building up the many components that make up the finished design. I've loved thinking about it and planning it, but above all I've loved actually making it. Some of the patterns I used were designed by other talented designer-makers I found on the internet....

....and some of them I designed myself.

I also used one of my favourite books for some of the leaf designs (100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet). This book is a fantastic resource for wreath making, there is a huge amount of inspiration within the pages. The patterns are pretty good, but in all honesty it is the page layouts that I really find inspiring. If you click on the above Amazon link, you can take a peek at some of the pages to see what I mean. The front cover is also pretty fab, look...........

WOW!!!! I just adore that cover, isn't it lovely?. It inspired me to take lots of photographs of my own crochet bits n bobs before it all got stitchety-stitched down onto the wreath. I make no apologies for the tonne of photographs I'm about to share with you, I had an absolute ball with my camera yesterday, and I'm excited to show you.

So......................if you're ready.......

.......please let me present to you......the Autumn Wreath

[ d e c o n s t r u c t e d]

Enjoy......................

ONE Stripy Wreath Base (info in this post)

THIRTY TWO Little Leaves (pattern here)

FIVE Double-stranded Leaves (same pattern as above, but using two strands of DK yarn on a 5mm hook)

THREE Irish Leaves, with embroidered detail (pattern from this book )

THREE Oak Leaves (pattern from this book)

THREE Twirly Twists (these are SO simple to make, just work a chain of any length, then make 2tr's into each stitch across, it'll twirl all by itself)

TWELVE Weeny Balls (find the pattern somewhere half-way-downish in this post)

FOUR Spotty Toadstools (the one on the left is from this pattern, the other three are my own experiments)

FOUR acorns (my own pattern, similar pattern here)

NINE Michaelmas Daisies (pattern here)

THREE Autumn Flowers (no pattern, sorry, they were experimental one-offs!)

TWO Sunflowers (pattern from here, with a slightly different centre)

ONE devilishly cute Hollie Hedgehog (more info about her in this post)

So did you add all those numbers up?

1+32+5+3+3+3+12+4+4+9+3+2+1?

That's right.....82.

Eighty Two individual pieces make up my Autumn wreath.

Let me show you..............................

Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Want a better look?

Ok! How's about I spread them out a bit for you?

Flowers, leaves and acorns.......

....toadstools, balls, leaves, twirls and one cutey-patooty little critter.

Oh the Joy of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY♥HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At first, I thought it was madness to unpin it all just to take photographs. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew it would be so worth it. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed doing it, I really had a huge amount of satisfying, heart-skippy fun. The above picture is one of my favourite images EVER.

After the joy and the happiness and the prancing around with the camera was over, there came a considerable amount of hard graft. I spent an aaaaaaaaaaage pinning the whole lot back together again. Incidentally, I can highly recommend these pins, they're called T-pins and are especially designed for blocking and crafting activity in general. Find them here.

It has to be said that stitching together 82 pieces of small crochet is a bit of a pain in the back end. It is laborious and tedious, no other way around it. I'm not sure what advice to give about this really, other than grit your teeth, stay positive and crack on. One thing I've learnt is not to stitch things down too thoroughly. If you over-attach, it all ends up looking a bit flat. You need everything to be secure, and you need some very neat, invisible stitching, but you need the bits n bobs to look as if they have only just landed.

As well as the crochet I made, I also wanted to add in a bit of artificial Autumnal pizzazz. I thought that possibly a few bits of non-crochet would look good, so I searched around and found these wonderfully real looking artificial berries. Even though the leaves look very plasticky, I was amazed at how real the berries looked.

In the end, I wasn't too sure about the berries and kept changing my mind about them. Yes or no? Add them in, or leave them out? In the end I went with it, and think they look good. I simply cut the little clumps of berries (five in total) free from the plastic leaves and stuck the wired stalk straight into the polystyrene base. Easy.

Hollie Hedgehog was the very last thing to be stitched in place. I felt pretty bad sticking a needle into her bottom, but it was a necessary procedure. I am sooooooo pleased with her, she looks wonderful sitting in her wreathy bower.

So.

It's time.

Time for the Grand Ta-dah.

I am Very Thrilled with this creation of mine.

It has made me happy on so many levels. It's been a true pleasure (excepting perhaps the stitching).

Here it is then.................................

Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-daaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, yes, it is so worthy of two rounds of applause. Do you like? Does it make you feel all warm and cosy and fill you with fuzzy-feel-good, or is that just me?!

I am very, very, very pleased with it. In fact, I absolutely love it. I look at it and every single thing about it makes me happy.

I'm pleased that I could finally take down and dust off my Easter wreath, gosh that was long over due! For a month or so now, my new Autumn wreath will take pride of place before the Christmas wreath comes out to play again.

I just love how this wreath has come together in such a vibrant celebration of Autumn.

The combination of it all mixed together is very pleasing to look at. Yes, it's full (more is more, right?!), but oh I love it for that. It's exuberant, joyful and bursting with creative, seasonal feel-good.

That little hedgehog just makes me ridiculously happy. Awwwww, Miss Hollie, you are such a sweet heart!

I think it's safe to say this has been a hugely successful project. It has been a pleasure to make, and I've really enjoyed how it's made me connect with Autumn and appreciate the goodness of the season this year. That's been pretty special.

So.....what's next? You were wondering that too, weren't you?! I'm already dreaming up some sort of Winter wreath idea, something to fill the gap between Christmas and Easter. I'm thinking icy blues and cool greens, delicate snowdrops and snowflakes and frosty berries. A robin, or perhaps a little mouse? My Creative Mind is alive and kicking it seems.

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[Arachnifauna]

Thanks..I thought so too.my daughter in law loves hedgehogs