Wired Flowers.—Flowers may be made in the same way, each petal being treated as a leaf; five or six are then tied together to form the stem, and French or bullion knots added in another colour—to give stamens and pistil for the centre.
Fig. 70.
A Useful Cord (Fig. 70).—Fig. 70 makes a very good finish for various purposes; it is a chain made with double stitch. Begin with two chain; put the hook into the first chain; pass the thread over and draw it through in a loop; pass the thread over again and draw it through the two loops on the hook; put the hook into the left side of the stitch just made; pass the thread over the hook and draw it through; pass the thread again over the hook and draw it through both stitches; continue in this way till length required has been worked. This little cord will be useful for bags, edgings for coats and jumpers and many other articles.
Tricot (Fig. 71).—Fig. 71 represents another type of crochet, sometimes called Victorian or Tunisian crochet or simply crochet tricot. It makes a firm, close, yet elastic piece of work, and is specially suited to the making of children’s slippers, scarves, bonnets, reins, braces, collars, hat bands, etc. It is always worked in rows—never in rounds—and a long straight hook with a knob at the end is necessary as all the stitches on the advancing row are kept on the hook and worked off on the return row—these two rows complete the stitch, which is worked on the right side backwards and forwards.
Fig. 71.
Tricot crochet is commenced with a chain the exact length and finished off with single stitch.
A Tricot Collar (Plate IX.).—The collar in Plate IX. is worked in Knox’s linen “cord” floss thread. Make sixteen chain and work three rows of double stitch to keep the ends from curling up as they would do if the tricot stitch was started right away. For the tricot, the loop row is worked thus:—Put the hook through the first stitch; pass the thread over and draw it through in a loop; put the hook through the second stitch and pass the thread over; draw through in a loop; continue in this way to the end of the row, when there should be sixteen loops on the hook. Put the thread over the hook and draw it through one loop; pass the thread over and draw it through two loops; keep on repeating this, passing the thread over and drawing through two loops until there is only one stitch left on the hook. These two rows complete the stitch. In the next row, the loop row, put the hook through the hole between the first and second stitches; pass the thread over and draw it through; pass the thread over the hook again and draw it through the first of the two loops on the hook; repeat to end of row, always putting the hook into the hole between the stitches; count the stitches at the end of the rows, as it is quite a common mistake for a beginner to increase or decrease by missing or making stitches.
The collar is finished with a row of single stitch right round, a deep picot fringe to the ends with flowers worked in Knox’s linen “cord” floss thread in delicate tints edged with silver thread and placed in groups to give weight, interest and finish to the whole.