This crocheted vessel by Juliane Anderson was one of my favorite things to photograph for CraftSanity Magazine issue 2. The colorful mix of roving and yarn come together to form a wonderful coiled structure that is doubles as functional art and handmade eye candy. Don’t you love the colors?!

And the wonderful thing  about this design is that the pattern (on page 40 of issue 2) doesn’t get any more complicated than single crochet. Once you get a feel for crocheting around the roving, it’s easy to customize the pattern to make vessels of varying shapes and sizes.

The vessels above are examples of what you get if you if you follow the pattern as written. But the designer has created many variations using the same basic technique including the one to the left.

When I catch a break in the action, I’d like to crochet a cozy vessel for Justine to sleep in. Of course, her constant napping seems to be going well without a fancy new bed. Oh, the sleepy life of a cat. She came downstairs for a 2:30 a.m. snack just as I was wrapping up work on my Michigan map dishcloth pattern this morning. (More about the dishcloth later.)

Anyway, if you live in West Michgan and want to check out the crocheted vessels in person, head over to the Threadbender Yarn Shop, 2767 44th Street Southwest in Wyoming, Michigan. I just dropped off the last sample vessel yesterday and restocked the shop with issue 2, so you can go snag a copy if you wish. Call ahead (616-531-6641) to reserve your copy by phone.

If you live farther out and don’t have access to a corporate jet, you can order a copy as a PDF in the side bar of this site or get print copy here.

Ok, I better get on with the next item on today’s to-do list. I will be back later to post the winner of the friendship bracelet maker, so stay tuned!