Covered Stones - The Second Collection

Now that the United Colors Baby Blanket is finished, I've already got some ideas for the next big project in mind. I'm still trying a few things with colors and patterns, but as soon as the idea takes shape, I'll share my plans with you :)

Meanwhile I'd like to show you my second collection of covered stones (for pictures of the first collection look here and there).

Let's start with a small and cute one:

It's the smallest and most simple one I've made so far, I just crocheted a net with dcs and chs and added a fabric butterfly from a table decoration set :)

For the next one, I started with a Japanese Flower (as seen on Lucy's attic24) and, again, finished the stone with a simple net-pattern. And of course I had to add a button :)

Take a look at the next one, do you recognize the pattern?

It's the quite popular Starburst Hotpad pattern. I've seen a wonderful version of the Hotpad on Marions bunte Handarbeitswelt and followed her link to the original pattern. A flower is a flower is a flower - and why not use it on a stone?

I think most of you know Edie Eckman's fabulous book Beyond the Square, don't you? It's a great source of inspiration for motifs and I used it for the next stone:

This is motif #17 from the book. It's quite an elaborate pattern with many ends to weave in, but I think it was worth it. I've made the motif with white and then continued with a light green and made up a pattern as I went on.

The only thing that bothered me a little about that stone, was that there's no real contrast between the stone and the yarn. Most of the stones I've got are light grey or light brown, so for the next one I've decided to work with black yarn:

 

The motif in the middle is a very easy flower (visit The Yvestown Blog). 

For today's last stone I've changed the strategy: Usually I start with a motif in the middle and the rest is just a simple pattern to close the stone. For the next one, I've focused on the pattern itself, so there's no flower, button or other eyecatcher in the middle:

I've got the pattern from a german crochet magazine. Those magazines are usually full of doilies - I've never made a doily in my life, but it seemed the perfect pattern for what I had in mind :)

That's all for today. I've made two other stones, but the style is completely different from the ones I've showed you today, so they'll be part of another post soon. I hope you like today's pictures and maybe this post (with the links and ideas) is helpful to you, if you'd like to crochet around a stone and don't really know how or where to start :)

Have a nice sunday everyone!