Crochet Garden

 One of the first things I saw, when I started looking at crochet on the internet, were pictures of wildly colourful, beautiful, amazing pieces which I found out was known as Freeform Crochet.

    My heart sang when I saw them and I longed to be able to make something of that ilk.

    These last few months I have been working on a piece which I have absolutely loved doing. I have called it a Crochet Garden and I did put a few pics up some time ago, showing the work in progress. Over the christmas break, I have finally managed to get it to what I feel is its finished state. The last stage was sewing in many, Many, MANY ends which I had left long in case I wanted to join other pieces on - that took ages!

    Anyway, to me this piece is a representation of the beauty and exuberance of nature, which we try to encapsulate in our own gardens. Everyone's garden is unique and reflects the individual personality of each gardener. Some are formal, restrained and colour-co-ordinated, others are wild and windswept, so my 'garden' also reflects my love of colour, shapes, creativity, crochet and even my connection through spirit with the enlivening energy of Nature.

    In my garden is every shade of green I could find, all linked as spirals, the form of growth, the shape of snails and of ammonites and found carved on ancient monuments as a symbol of life, death and re-birth.

    The flowers are both simple and complex, flat and very three dimensional. Some are based on living botanical plants, others are mere whimsy or flowers of the imagination.

    There are many variations of roses, these are, to me, the archetypal garden flower. Forming one edge of the piece is my version of a very large foxglove in a variety of shapes of purple and lilac. These are native wild flowers, lovers of woodlands and wild places, but also found in our gardens. They are the flowers of fairies, nature spirits, the 'folk's gloves' and also of apothecaries and healers, the plant is beautiful but can be deadly too.

    You may notice at the side of the large foxglove is a smaller, dark version. This is the hidden shadow, found in the deepest woodlands.

    Also in my garden is a circular spiral pool, for tranquility and reflection, and nearby hidden amongst the greenery, leaves and acorns is the Green Man himself, the spirit of Nature who is both the giver of life to the plants and part plant himself.

    You may also be able to spot butterflies and bees, here and there amongst the flowers and leaves.

     This is a garden to delight the eyes and heart, a place where you can look and look again and still find something new. It is a place of colour to lift the spirits. Some of the flowers you see from above, others from the side, this was never meant to be a photographic representation of a garden, or a plan, it is a surface with curves, raised hillocks, bells and trumpets. Move your head slightly and there will be a different view, a new perspective.

    What is my garden? Is it a blanket? Is it a shawl? Is it a work of art?

    It can be any and all of these things.

    I don't care, I just love it.