Summer Strawberry Necklace and Earrings

(fwoooooo, fwoooooo, fwoooooo…)  Time to blow the dust off of this poor little blog and sprinkle a little fun around

A few weeks ago, an envelope full of goodies from Rings & Things arrived in my mailbox.  Among other things, there were seven lampwork glass strawberry beads in the mix.  I was mulling over what I was going to do with them, and then I stumbled across this Sun Necklace Pattern on Ravelry.  Using a very similar layout, I put together this necklace and earring set:

For the chain and findings, I wanted something darker than silver, more of a gunmetal tone.  This chain is a smaller gauge than the one in the Sun Necklace so there are more chains between each piece.  The breakdown is: clasp, 60 chains, lampwork bead piece, 30 chains, lampwork bead piece, 31 chains, jump ring, 31 chains, lampwork bead piece, 30 chains, lampwork bead piece, 60 chains, closure tag.  From the jump ring at the bottom of the necklace, there is a crochet blossom.  At the bottom of the crochet blossom, a jump ring attaches another lampwork bead piece.  The necklace has 5 of the seven beads that were sent to me.  I used the other two strawberry beads to make earrings:

Each strawberry bead is set on an eye pin with a green glass seed bead at the bottom and a red glass seed bead at the top.  For the crochet motif, I wanted something less like a sun and more reminiscent of a strawberry blossom.  I originally worked up a flower in antique white, but it just seemed to stand out too much, so I switched to scarlet.  I’m including the directions for the blossom I created for this necklace.

Summer Strawberry Motif:

Materials:

Size 10 crochet thread.  Aunt Lydia’s Crochet Cotton in Scarlet was used in the sample.

Size 2.25 mm steel crochet hook

Optional – seed beads

Directions:

Ch 5.  Sl st in 1st ch to form a loop.

Round 1:  Ch 3.  Dc in loop, ch 2.  [2 dc in loop, ch 2] 5 times.  Sl st in 3rd chain of beginning ch 3.  Sl st in next dc and in ch 2 sp.  (12 dc, 6 ch 2 spaces)

Round 2:  *Ch 2, dc, 2 tc, dc, hdc in ch 2 sp.  Sl st in 2nd dc from previous round and in ch 2 sp.  Rep from * 5 times.  Fasten off and weave in all ends.

Optional embellishment:  sew seed beads to the center of the blossom.

Note – this flower can also be done in other yarn weights.  Just make sure to use the hook size that is recommended for the yarn selected.

—————————————-

Wishing you a berry sweet day!

About these ads