Jennie Atkinson’s Crocheted Choker
Lagerfeld keeps Chanel clothing modern is by pairing knits and woven clothes with fabulous accessories.
As a knitter, I used to focus on just garments until I started watching Chanel fashion shows. It soon became plain to me that the fabulous boots, belts, bags, bracelets and baseball caps elevated the clothing and linked it to current fashion trends. This opened my eyes to the fact that creating fashion isn’t just the clothes. It’s the art of assembling clothes, accessories, makeup and hairstyle together into an overall “look”.
The Chanel Paris Soeul accessory collection was particularly notable for the gorgeous choker necklaces worn piled on top of each other. I pined to create the look of a stacked choker, knowing that even if I ever had the money to pay several thousand dollars for each Chanel piece, I wouldn’t! I mean it is awesome the way Chanel costume jewelry is painstakingly made by hand, using a variety of interesting materials such as resin, pearls, lace and enamel, but the prices are SO high. Besides, as a handcrafter, I feel I should be able to find a way to make my own interesting accessories. It took me several years to find a pattern I really liked that created a stacked choker-like effect—the Crocheted Choker by Jennie Atkinson [http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-choker].
I used Rowan’s 4mm Swarovski crystal beads in white and topaz, and then green glass seed beads for this necklace. As a crochet neophyte, I did have to take several lessons in order to complete the necklace, but I am very content with it!
Jennie Atkinson is a teacher of fashion history and her choker pattern has a wonderful Victorian feel, doesn’t it? I do love this piece but I still pined for the pink gorgeousness of the Paris Soeul bracelets for summer.
So I used some variegated pink Berroco ribbon yarn to make two Crochet Braid Bracelets by June Gilbank.[http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-braid-bracelet]
I paired the two bracelts with a metal/enamel piece I owned that is a museum reproduction to give the same effect I saw in the Paris Soeul show, in which multiple bracelets or chokers were piled on top of each other. I used a small amount of one ball of Berroco Zen colors yarn to make the two bracelets.
I strongly recommend using ribbon yarn to make bracelets like this. It is stiff enough to create the bulk you need for a firm accessory. The pattern requires a spiral pattern of crochet stitches and when I tried to make the bracelets again using Rowan kidsilk haze yarn with beads, the resulting fabric was so fuzzy that I couldn’t see any of my stitches and I gave up in despair. The Berroco Zen, on the other hand was a dream to work with, and I would definitely use it again to make jewelry! The pattern is very simple and each bracelet only took me, a beginning crocheter, half an hour to make.