#132 When Embroidery Meets Crochet

Did you know you can use crochet as the foundation for embroidery?

On their own, crochet and embroidery are amazing crafts, each with a flair that makes them unique. But together, it's a gorgeous combination. I was blown away when I learned about Andy from O&Y Studio, a talented maker in this community who blends her crochet and embroidery skills as well as love of flowers into one gorgeous and unique project. 

Whether you know how to embroider or not, in this episode of The BHooked Podcast you're sure to be inspired by Andy. She tells us how it's possible for anyone to embroider on crochet as well as a few tips to get you started. I learned so much from her. I know you will too!


About The BHooked Podcast
Brittany's primary goal is to inspire you and help you grow in your craft with The BHooked Podcast. Through her own stories and the stories of each special guest, you'll discover tips and tricks to improve your crochet and knitting skills and find inspiration to achieve your hobby goals. When you want to kick back and learn from yarn industry experts, grab some yarn and turn on The BHooked Podcast. There's never a shortage of all things crochet, knitting or yarn.

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Transcript

Brittany 0:00

You're listening to The Be Oaked Podcast, Episode 132, with Brittany. there. Thank you so much for joining me in episode 131 of the Be Hooked podcast, the place where we love yarn, we love to learn, and we truly believe yarn can do more for us than just make pretty things. Now we tend to focus on crochet and a little bit knitting here on the podcast, but I always love bringing in a guest that has a completely unique perspective. So a way that they use one of these crafts, knitting or crochet, and maybe they mix it with something else or maybe Maybe they just have the same medium but I'm super excited about today's episode because it's completely unique to anything that we've had before. Embroidery has always had a small place in my life, but it's never been something that I have ever been able to do. My grandmother was really big into embroidery. She always embroidered these beautiful pillowcases. And I just remember that growing up as a child having pillowcases with these beautiful flowers embroidered on them. So I have a lot of really great memories associated with embroidery. But for whatever reason, I just haven't invested the time to actually learn this skill. So when I learned about Andy from O&Y Studio and saw that she blends embroidery with crochet, my mind was blown. And I knew I had to have her on the show just to see where that inspiration came from, to learn a little bit about embroidery so that maybe I could start that. Maybe I could give embroidery a try. Put something unique on one of the projects that I've already made. So if you crochet and you also embroider, you've got to get connected with Andy. She is so much fun and I think the two of you would have a lot in common because she really loves both. But if you don't embroider and you do crochet... What I've learned from Andy today is that you don't really have to know a lot about embroidery to be able to blend these two crafts. So what I wanted to do was give you the basics. Just spark the idea that, hey, these two things go together and they look really amazing when you do it. And to give you the confidence and just a few first steps that you need to take in order to try blending these two crafts together. So that's what we're talking about with Andy from Owen Dwye Studio. I'll have all of her information linked in the show notes page for this episode, which is behooked.com slash 132. You'll definitely want to connect with her after hearing and if nothing else, just to see what she's talking about. Her pieces are absolutely gorgeous and they're truly inspiring to me. All right, so I don't want to delay anymore. I'm really excited about this one, as you can probably tell. So here's my chat with Andy from O&Y Studio. Andy, hi, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here today. Hi, Brittany. This is so much fun. I've been looking forward to this. I have been looking forward to it as well. When I first found you on Instagram, I was just baffled by the things that you create and I Great. Great.

Andy 4:19

I'm here to tell you about it.

Brittany 4:21

Well, I will wear you out, I'm sure, with all kinds of questions. I know absolutely nothing about embroidery. My grandmother did it, and my grandmother has already passed now. And at the time when I was able to spend time with her, I was too young to really be interested in any of that stuff. And I really wish that I were. So now I just have some of the embroidery pieces that she has made. And I associate that with her. So I think it would be so cool to blend something that was really important to her with something that's really important to me. So

Andy 5:00

who knows? I might get some tips. We'll have to get you started on some

Brittany 5:03

embroidery. Yeah, for sure. Before we get to any of that, though, I would love to know a little more about you and how the order of all of this happened. When did you first start blending embroidery with crochet? What gave you the idea?

Andy 5:20

Well, it was in 2016, and my daughter had been coaxing me to start an Etsy shop, and I started getting excited about the idea. But I was so across the board about what I could make. I've been a smocker, which is the English smocking, and I owned a shop that sold needle arts-related materials. And so smocking for many, many years had been a big part of my life, which, of course, it incorporates embroidery. For somebody who doesn't know what that is, it's like the pleated fabric. And then you do the decorative stitches. And so I kept thinking that I needed to do smocking for my shop. And I was thinking, how in the world can I have such a time-consuming product that I sell? How do you know what sizes people are going to want and that kind of thing to put in your shop? I was a little bit confused about what I should do. So my daughter was really great. She kept nailing me with different things, like, Mom, look at this. Mom, look at that. You could do this. You could do that. And so I started trying out different things. And I eventually came to the point where I was thinking about doing embroidery with DMC thread on fabric. And I was doing some pieces. But I just wasn't excited about what I was doing and as a possibility for a business, you know, doing a lot of it. And and so I was brainstorming and I was in my sewing studio and I was looking over at all my beautiful, colorful walls and. And I went over and I picked some up and I thought, what can I do with these? And then I had just recently found some hoops in an antique shop. So I had this big stash of vintage hoops and I crocheted a background. Well, a piece of fabric and a crochet circle. And I tried to put it into the hoop. And it was too thick. And I couldn't get it centered just right. And I didn't want it to hang way over the back. It needed to be just, you know, about the right size. And I was thinking, how in the world am I going to do this? So this is not going to work. And then I thought, well, wait a minute. What if I make it smaller and I whip stitch it into the inner hoop? So then I tried another one. And so that worked. And I had a background. So then I got all excited and I started stitching some flowers on it. And that is actually how it all began. And I had two or three of them and I showed my daughter and she said, that's what you need to do. Make 10 of them and we'll get your shop open. So that all kind of came together towards the end of 2016. Oh, so cool.

Brittany 8:23

So it was sort of like a happy accident. It was. Yeah, I have tried to do that myself. I recently created a wall hanging and I have this like bare spot on my studio wall and I thought I need to hang some yarn there. I'm not really... I don't really have the effort or the energy to weave something, which is really what I wanted to do. But it's a skill that I don't know, don't really have the tools for. So I thought, well, I can crochet something. And I started crocheting something completely different to what actually ended up being what I used. And it just didn't work out. It was a crocheted piece. And I had tried to do sort of like a part of a chevron. So think about the chevron stitch, how it like goes up and down, it was like the downward peak. But because it wasn't solid at the top, it was really like saggy and it didn't hang right. And so I thought, oh, I've put all this time, I've completely finished the project. It's not going to work though. Like I know if I let it sit here on the wall, it's just going to get saggier and saggier and I'm going to hate it. And I don't want to publish a pattern for somebody else to hate. So... I thought, well, I need to do something quicker and easier. And I had an embroidery hoop in my closet that I bought, gosh, probably three or four years ago because I wanted to use it as like a framework for crochet. But I ran into the same problem as you. I thought I can crochet a circle. And I can put it in this hoop. Well, I quickly found out too that it's too thick to do that. And I sort of gave up on it. But I used this hoop later on and I actually crocheted around the entire hoop. So I really just made it like the frame of the O, like the circular shape to create the wall hanging. And it was a lot of fun, but When I saw some of your stuff and thought, wow, like she's got this figured out and it looks so cool. I wish I would have put a little more effort into figuring out how to put the crochet inside the embroidery hoop.

Andy 10:29

Yeah. Yeah. So you're right. It was a happy accident. And it took me a little bit of a little while to get the stitches evenly. You know, I usually stitch every other stitch. single crochet, I run my thread through that all the way around and that sort of spaces out those threads that hold it into place. So what happens is that the hoop is, The outer hoop is not really necessary. It's just, I just put it on because it's part of the hoop, but it's not holding the tension or the tautness of the crochet at all. It's the stitching that's holding it in there.

Brittany 11:14

Yeah. It just gives it probably a nice finished look on the outside, which I personally would love that because I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. So having like a whip stitch that's not exactly perfect, would probably drive me crazy.

Andy 11:29

(Laughs) But then with the outer hoop there then you've also got the little hook for hanging it so that works out

Brittany 11:36

yeah yeah so nowadays you said that you are you're still doing this you're still making these it's a few years later And now you have your Etsy shop. Did you open it at the time when you were like, yeah, this is exactly what I need to make. I love doing this. Or did you already have it started and you were just kind of experimenting with the things you sold?

Andy 11:59

No, I didn't. I started it when I had 10 items to list, and that was the 1st of November 2016. And that same day that I listed, that my shop went live, I sold a hoop. I couldn't believe it. That's amazing.

Brittany 12:16

Yeah. I wonder how that person found you. I know it's really difficult to be found in Etsy's algorithm, especially nowadays, three years after you had made that first sale. Yeah. Do you have any idea of where they came from? No,

Andy 12:33

I don't know. And then I got very busy making Christmas ornaments myself. And so I put some of those in my shop, and they did quite well as well. And it actually blew my socks off that I had such a good little two months right there at the end of the year. I just caught the wave.

Brittany 12:56

Yeah. Well, that's really cool. Now, I have known your shop name for a little while now, but you just told me the story behind it. So what is that? It's so clever. I love it. Okay.

Andy 13:08

So if you look at it, it's O&Y Studio. with an ampersand but the ampersand is and so oh Andy is really what it is and the way that came about is because when I have made things during my life whether it be baked or a flower arrangement or a you know smock dress or something like that people tend to say oh Andy this is beautiful and And my son honed in on that and he started teasing me about it. And so it kind of became a family joke. Oh, Andy. And so that's what we named my shop,

Brittany 13:46

Oh Andy Studio. I love it. And it's funny as you're sitting here telling me that I'm looking at some notes here that I have for myself. And I actually wrote out, I typed out the word and instead of doing the ampersand, just I don't know. I don't know why. I just ended up typing it out. So I'm looking at the letter O and Y. And then when you said it, it's like, oh, I totally see it. It's so clever. And I think that's a fun little story for people to hear. Thanks. So your Etsy shop is really gorgeous. The things that you have in there. And I'm just completely fascinated with the way that you incorporate these two completely different needle arts into one like really amazing piece the disadvantage to an audio podcast like this is that the listeners they can't really see what you're talking about so I definitely want to link to your shop in the show notes page so that way if you're listening now like do go and check this out because it just really blew my mind but in your own words can you try to put into words exactly what you create. I know we've sort of danced around that, but are they all just wall hangings or are there other uses for them? And just help people get a visual picture.

Andy 15:08

So basically what my work is, is it's an embroidery hoop with a piece of a circle of crochet that's mounted in there. And then I embroider 90% of the time that's flowers. I've done leaves, like botanical leaves, like monstera plant leaves, that kind of thing. And I've done some smaller pieces like Christmas ornaments. I've done animals. And yeah, that's basically what most of what I've done. But flowers is my big love. So I've done flowers mostly. So I embroider them, but I use wools to embroider them. So they're very textural. I have a lovely collection of hand spun and hand dyed walls and painted walls and that kind of thing. So the colors, they sometimes blow me away what they do. They just add texture and really completely change what my perception of what I'm doing is going to be like when I add certain ones with the different shading. And so basically they're all flower scenes. Or if they're a leaf or whatever. And then they are wall art. They look lovely in a collection or in a gallery wall combined with plates and photos and plants hanging on shelves and that kind of thing. And then the other use one could do is to put it in an easel, but you would have to put a piece of cardboard behind it so that the back of the easel doesn't push through the crochet. Or you could just prop it on a shelf. And then I also do some driftwood hangings. I only have two in the shop right now, I think, where I've picked up driftwood in the South Carolina beach and put a fringe at the bottom of the crochet. And usually I've done leaves on those. I've also done mushrooms and toadstools. I forgot about that. Okay. Anyway, did that answer your question?

Brittany 17:07

Yeah, it totally does. That gives us a good visual as we kind of can see the spectrum of what you can create with something like this. It's not just maybe one thing in particular. If you learn about the idea, you can sort of run with it. And most of the listeners here are crocheters. Some of us knit and crochet as well. But, you know, we might not necessarily... be looking to make the exact thing but just having the aha moment that oh you actually can embroider on crochet so how can I use that in a way for my own personal style like let's say I love to crochet bags or totes and I want to embroider my name on it then that's something that they can see absolutely they can see the idea yeah so let's talk about how the process works. I'm sure the creative process is probably similar to what we would follow for just a crochet project or just a knitting project, but I like to get everybody's unique design process because it's always a little bit different. So how does one of your pieces start? I'm guessing it probably starts with crochet and an embroidery hoop, but let's kind of elaborate from there.

Andy 18:25

Yeah, so if I'm going to... make a certain embroidery hoop I would have the hoop in front of me and then I start with a with a magic circle and then I do rounds of crochet but I always I typically don't do a spiral I typically end a row and then start the next row so that I can I can sort of keep it even. Otherwise, sometimes I've ended up with it a little lopsided. I don't know how because I don't know. I think it's because I don't know where. I can't figure out where I started. So I try to do that. And then I stop when I'm about a half an inch shy of the inner hoop. And then that gives me the half inch to stretch it and gives it the tautness that I need. for embroidering so that it doesn't, you know, it's not loose, something too loose underneath what you're trying to sew. Although if you were doing a bag, and definitely when I'm doing the driftwood hangings, you don't have it pulled into a hoop. So you certainly can still embroider. You just have to be careful not to pull too tight so that you crimp the fabric underneath.

Brittany 19:41

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Do you always use the same stitch or do you play with different stitches to make like a different textured background?

Andy 19:51

I would say most of the time I just do single crochet. I have done sort of some trebles on the last row just to add a little bit of a lacy filigree edge. And then I did that in a recent series Then I actually did embroider over some of those holes. So they're there for part of the circle, but the rest of the circle, they were kind of embroidered over a little bit. But, you know, just like a petal over or something. And it kind of had a nice effect. I quite liked how that was. So I do need to experiment some more with that.

Brittany 20:30

Yeah, I was sitting here thinking about it. The stitch structure is so different from a single crochet to a double crochet. It makes me think that maybe some stitches aren't suitable for embroidery. Now, like I said, I know nothing about embroidery, but I feel like you have to have maybe like a consistent structure where you don't have like really big holes. Like think the... this airspace in between your two double crochets is a lot bigger than the airspace between two single crochets so I'm sure that comes into play

Andy 21:00

yeah it is helpful that's why I use single crochet almost exclusively just because it gives me an even background however I do I do also crochet jewelry wire and I've mounted that into hoops before and then embroidered on that so it has a so it has a see-through kind of look and it looks like the embroidery is standing, you know, out from your, from the wall. Um, and I, and I use different colors of, um, different metals. I use brass or bronze and antique copper and copper. Yeah. So, so, um, they, they, uh, have a, Depending on your wall color, it could show through nicely. And then you just sort of have the flowers floating in the hoop there. I bet that looks really cool. I'm going to have to stalk your Instagram page for one of those. If you're wanting to do that, try the wool background first because the wire has a lot of air space, as you say, and there's not always a place where you need to put your needle and you have to kind of get creative or plan it out a little bit.

Brittany 22:17

Yeah, I've seen a lot of people crochet with that like jewelry wire before. I've never tried it myself because well for one I don't know about how it will wear the hooks because you would think that metal rubbing on metal it could potentially scratch the hook but it also seems like it's kind of difficult, really. Maybe not so fun. What was your experience crocheting with it? Do you like it, or is it just you like the result, but maybe not really the process?

Andy 22:47

I don't love crocheting with it at all. I have to do a lot more rows because it just is finer.

Brittany 22:53

Yeah.

Andy 22:53

And if I stretch it too much, then it gets too holey. Oh, it stays that way. Yeah. But yeah, you know, you have to, I kind of It could cut through your fingers if you held it too tight in your non-hook hand, you know, and so you have to kind of be careful.

Brittany 23:17

Yeah,

Andy 23:18

okay.

Brittany 23:18

Well, good tips there. I probably won't try it anytime soon. I'll still admire other people's work for doing that, but I probably will steer clear. Now, once you have your crochet framework there, you've got it mounted on your hoop, This is the part that I am just full of questions, I think, when it comes to adding the embroidery. So I imagine you probably start with some kind of idea first. Are you pulling inspiration from your mind? Just do you have a collection of flowers or different shapes that you like to create? Or do you sketch it out? Or how does that part look?

Andy 24:01

Well, in the beginning I did used to sketch it out and I think, but now I've done so, so many that I just, um, I just kind of wing it, you know, what, uh, with an idea. Um, usually I have a color for the main flowers in mind, you know, that I want to something that'll show up nicely on the background and, um, and then, um, and then I have to decide what my main flower is going to be. I, I, um, I'm quite a proficient embroiderer, so I know a lot of stitches. But probably for the most part, I do use just a straight stitch, which anybody can do, even if you don't know how to embroider. All you need is a tapestry needle with a big eye, and it has a blunt end. And then you don't knot your thread to start. You would run it underneath where you're going to make a pattern. a petal, for instance, so that if it does come through on the right side, you will again hide it with your stitches. And so then, for the most part, those flowers are just a straight stitch with a central place. You find kind of a hole in your crochet, and then just go out like spokes of a wheel. And you can group... three or four of those spokes together and then leave a little gap and then three or four and then um just keep going around until you've got five petals or six petals and um or you could just make a spoke flower because there really are some in life that are like that and then if you don't know how to embroider and french knots or something like that don't Don't feel like you have to know embroidery because there are ways that you can still do it. You can use beads, for instance, for the center of a flower and get a lovely textured center and have something that you're happy with. But certainly if you are interested in embroidery, I would recommend looking on YouTube for basic embroidery stitches and just teaching yourself some of those.

Brittany 26:09

Yeah, I think that's a really good tip. I mean, gosh, I totally live by YouTube when it comes to learning new skills. That's the first place that I go, especially for something where it's a visual kind of skill. Well, I just understand that I'm not really one to learn easily from books and through pictures. So I don't even attempt that anymore. I always end up going to YouTube.

Andy 26:35

Yeah, it's

Brittany 26:36

a great resource. Yeah, what would you say are the basic four or five embroidery stitches that might be good to know, just to sort of get your feet wet?

Andy 26:47

Okay, I would say a stem stitch or an outline stitch. They're almost identical to each other. That's what you would do stems with, as the word stems says, or you would do outlines, like if you're just doing the outline of a shape, you know, or you could use use it also for a monogram stitch. And then Lazy Daisy is a very good one. It is a sort of, you come up in one place and make a loop and go down, and then you come up at the point where you want the end of your loop to be, and then you anchor it down. So it's a very simple stitch. I actually learned that when I was a young child. And If you make several others around, you can make a little flower or they make great leaves. Yeah, so that's a good stitch to know. A French knot would be another one because you can do so many things with French knots. It's basically you come up with your thread. It's anchored in the back and you come up and then you wrap your needle with three or four wraps. And then you hold the wraps on your needle and then you pull the needle through. And then you push the wraps all the way down to your fabric. And you want them to look the way you want. When you push them down, you want it to look the way you want your finished knot to be. And that's the key. So it doesn't have like a little stalk on it. And then you push your needle through to the back and then you come back up. And that's a French knot. So I'd say those are probably the – a chain stitch could be another one that's very easy to learn.

Brittany 28:29

Okay. I think that's a really good starting point. Is this something that like you could learn in an afternoon? Like say you wake up on Sunday and you're like, man, I want to try something fun and different. Is it something that's easy that you could just dive into for a few hours on a Sunday? Or are there like – is there – a significant time investment to learning these stitches and investing in some of the different tools that you might have to have? I

Andy 28:58

don't think so. I think what I would recommend is not starting on crochet, but just getting a piece of linen or some kind of twill fabric and putting it in a hoop and then using some cotton threads just to begin with and then some kind of an embroidery needle. And then just always remember that the eye of your needle needs to carry the amount of thread you carry through. So you use different size needles based on how many strands you're using, for instance. And so you could try it with all six strands of a DMC thread, but then you would need – I can't actually tell you, but probably – Probably like, I forget the size of embroidery needles right now because I'm not using them, but you would need one with a big enough eye to put all of them through. And then, and you also, that way the shaft of your needle makes a big enough hole to go through the fabric and pull the threads through. So just having those components, then you could do a little sampler where you just try chain stitch in an area or do a circle of chain stitch and do a circle of stem stitch and that sort of thing and then do some flowers. I think you could certainly easily learn those four stitches in an afternoon.

Brittany 30:26

Okay, yeah, you completely read my mind with that answer. I was thinking to myself, I wonder if it's easier to do this stuff on crochet or if that actually makes it more difficult. So I

Andy 30:37

think it would make it a little bit more difficult just because you're working with such thicker textures of wool, you know, when you're embroidering with it. However, once you've mastered the stitches, I think then taking that to crochet, then it'll just all snap into place. Okay.

Brittany 30:56

Yeah. So once you have the design on your piece, is there any like finishing steps? Like, you know, for crochet, you weave in your ends and that sort of thing. Are there any additional steps to finishing with embroidery? Well,

Andy 31:11

if you are using the embroidery on a garment, for instance, or a bag where it's not lined and there would be some friction on the wrong side, I would say you would definitely need to anchor your stitches in such a way that they would not come undone. So to start my thread, I would do a backstitch. I would come up on the back, you know, run under a couple of, underneath a double crochet, for instance, and then, or sorry, a single crochet, come up and then go back around. That would be a backstitch. And then you're ready to start. to come out on the right side. You don't usually use knots in the wool embroidery just because it would be so bulky and you'd have these big knots, and they would probably pull through to the right side anyway. And then to end off, I do the same thing. I run it under some existing embroidery threads that are on the back, and then I do a backstitch and pull it back through. And you can go a little ways, but just always be mindful Look on the front, make sure it's where you're running it. Underneath something is not showing on the front.

Brittany 32:27

Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, I think in my novice mind, I would think, oh, just tie a knot and finish it off and there's a clear right and wrong side to the work. But it's good to know that that really isn't a good idea always because it could come through the crochet, especially with that framework being like more open than if you're using like a linen fabric or that sort of thing.

Andy 32:50

Yeah, probably every hoop I make, I have to take out a stitch or two that I see shows through from the back, you know, that I don't want it to be showing or else I'm asking with a stem or a leaf or something like that.

Brittany 33:05

Well, that brings up another good point that I didn't even think of. What happens when you make a mistake with embroidery? Like with crochet, it's super easy. You just pull back those stitches. With knitting, it's not quite as easy, but you can still tink through it and it's not like a big, huge deal. Right. But with embroidery, you're really creating stitches that's more like a sewing machine, I guess is the best way I can relate to it. Is it difficult to fix mistakes or is it like not possible at all? Oh,

Andy 33:37

no, definitely. If something doesn't look right and you don't like it when you're doing it, go ahead and take it out and get it right. Because it doesn't make sense to be working for a long time on a project that you want to look good or put your stamp of approval on and then not be happy with the result. a shape or a, you know, part of it that's not looking good or a color, you know, that does that. Sometimes I'll do something and I'll go, eh, that doesn't look, that doesn't look good or it doesn't show up or like I thought it would or whatever. If it's just a straight stitch, then you can easily just use the eye of the needle and just start pulling it out. If you, if it's a knotted stitch, sometimes it's easier just to snip it, but just be so careful as you don't cut your crochet. And then once you snip the knot, you know, like a French knot, then you can usually just pull it right out. Yeah. So definitely if you're not happy with it while you're working on it, you're not going to be happy with it when you finish. So go ahead and take it out. That's so

Brittany 34:44

true. Now, I feel like this is a complete novice question, but I'm curious when you're making the different elements, like let's say you're working on a flower and that flower consists of petals. Is the yarn that you're working with to make the embroidery stitches, is it like enough yarn to make the whole flower so you're working with like a long piece? Or do you like just have enough to work on that one petal and you're just constantly adding more elements, like more strands? Does that make sense?

Andy 35:19

Yeah, no, it does. No, I just cut a length of yarn. I try not to use too long of a length of yarn because then it starts getting twisted and tangled and then you're dealing with the issue of pulling it through, you know, it looping on itself and that kind of thing. So probably 24 inches or so, something like that would be the longest that I would usually cut. And then if I'm halfway through, Even if I'm doing a spiderweb rose or something and I get halfway through and I haven't cut enough yarn, I can just end it off. Like when your tail, you need to end it off when you've got enough of a tail to run over the back. And sometimes I'll end up with too short of a piece. And so I'll take the eye of my needle and run it underneath the thread to pull it through. that's a trick that I've that's a good trick to know

Brittany 36:21

yeah yeah that's sort of where my mind was going with that when you run out of a skein of yarn if you're crocheting a project it's pretty simple to just add in a new ball of yarn or like when you're changing colors I didn't know if it was easy like that if you're doing it with embroidery plus the the motions that are going into it I recently just finished a crochet afghan. That's a, it was a pretty big size. It was 12 squares wide and 16 squares long and each square was four inches. So it was a decent sized, like little afghan, like throw sort of thing. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Now, you mentioned before that you like to use wool yarns when you're doing your embroidery. And I think that's a really cool idea. Are there any other type of, like, fibers that you like to use? Do you ever use that embroidery floss?

Andy 37:36

No. On this particular embroidery where I'm doing the wool on the wool, I don't use cotton threads. I use mostly wools and mohair. And I... grew up in South Africa, um, on a wool farm and we had Merino sheep and Angora goats. And so I have an affinity for, for lovely walls. Um, and, um, when I've gone, when I go home to South Africa, um, our family farm is in the, in the, um, wool and mohair district of South Africa, where actually most of the mohair in the world comes from. And, um, So it's just so luscious to go into a workshop and come home with some beautiful balls of wool. And a lot of the – I sort of have a passion for helping the – the industries where they're trying to teach women a skill so that they can earn, have an income. And so a lot of the walls that I'm using are made by women who are trying to rise up above poverty and and feed their families, and it just makes it feel special to me. And so, yes, I have a nice stash of beautiful hand-spun wools, and it gives me an excuse to buy more when I travel.

Brittany 39:09

Well, and they're all totally unique, too. That's the really cool part about walking into a yarn store. You never know what you're going to get, and you never know if you'll ever get that again, because it's hand spun, hand dyed, and it's not mass produced. So I think that makes all of your pieces that more unique.

Andy 39:30

Yeah. Yeah. And they're beautiful indie wools in America too. So don't get me wrong. I love buying them here too and supporting our local shops. Yeah.

Brittany 39:39

Well, and that's, I'm totally speaking from assumption. Honestly, I'm definitely not a wool expert, but I know that when you find a wool that you love it's just you know you know that it's something special and there's a reason why people joke and say that you go to the yarn store like a specialty yarn shop you buy a hank of yarn and you just keep it to pet it because it's just so beautiful and you treasure it and you wait to find the perfect project to make it into something. So that's something I can relate to, not necessarily on how it's produced and that sort of thing, but I can relate to finding a special yarn and wanting to turn it into something special too. Yeah. So I wonder now, is the process the same for most of your pieces? Like we've sort of laid out the general steps that you follow when you're creating something new. Would you say that every piece that you make is completely unique or do you sort of follow the same idea? And really the only thing that changes might be the yarns that you're using or the design that you're embroidering on them. So

Andy 40:59

I freehand my designs. There's not an easy way to mark crochet wool with a pattern. You can't sort of hold it up to the light and put it over a black and white drawing and sketch it on there, even if it was a washable pen or something. So I just... I don't really follow any pattern. And I just kind of get started with a focal flower or two or three, depending on the size of the hoop. And I just kind of go from there. And once I have them there in place, then I sort of pull out other colors or else I already have other colors that I want to use to go with that background. And then I usually, well, next I usually do the leaves. Because if a flower needs to be on top of a leaf slightly or something, it's okay. Because if you had a bouquet of flowers and you looked at it, you might see a flower in front of the leaf. I think that's also the way my work has evolved a little bit because before I probably didn't do that so much. But now I'm kind of stitching over flowers and putting petals over flowers and that kind of thing. But yeah, so I just... make up a design and I don't know how it's going to finish when I get started so I really don't don't know what the finished hoop is going to look like but I do work in series so I've started doing that I guess probably a year and a half ago and I so I'll do a whole series on a certain background or color and then make them sort of mix and match and They could go with each other on a wall, but they're not all just identical in different sizes, but they have different elements in them, like maybe different other colors, little flowers in there, or the secondary flowers might be different or whatever.

Brittany 42:56

Okay, yeah, so they sort of complement each other. Right. Makes sense. Yeah. So the one thing that really seems to stand out now and scrolling through your shop, a lot of your pieces have like these really pretty flowers in them. And I can't help but wonder of all the things that you could embroider, you seem to love doing flowers the most. How do you think that influences your work? Like what is it about flowers that really keeps you inspired?

Andy 43:27

Well, I think I've loved flowers my whole life. My parents grew them when I was a child and I was free to pick whatever I wanted and play with them. And then the other thing is that I've been a crafter all of my life and so I've been making flowers in all kinds of different mediums from like tissue flowers when I was a child to crocheting them later on and I've made them in icing and I've made flowers. I think one time I sat down and came up with almost 100 different ways that I've made flowers. I think that's helped me to learn the anatomy of a flower and what makes them work and what they need to have in the way of shading and that kind of thing. I love gardening and have a little smattering of all kinds of different colored flowers out there that are trying to grow on different seasons. And I love picking them and bringing them in and using them for props with my hoops to take

Brittany 44:31

photos. That's another thing I noticed. Throughout your shop, there's always something really pretty in the background that's complementing what you're selling, the piece that you've made. It's cool to hear the story behind that. Now, my husband and I, we just recently got into gardening. We're, I love flowers, but I'm still not quite good enough for some of them. I have a lot of house plants and my thought process on that was let's get the plants that are really hard to kill. That way I can just build my confidence a little bit. And now I'm sort of venturing into a little bit more. And I'm sitting here at my desk looking at a pink African flower. And from what I've heard, that's one of the more finicky flowers to grow. And here it is thriving. So I am really loving the whole world of flowers too. I've always loved to crochet them, but it wasn't because I... was ever maintaining them or had them on my own. I admired them, but I was always just really bad at caring for them. But I guess in my old age, I'm getting a little bit better at knowing what a flower needs. They definitely

Andy 45:50

need water when they're out in the garden. Yeah, they don't do so well if they don't get water. And then the other thing in the summer is they definitely need to be fertilized so that that'll make them

Brittany 46:04

produce. Yes. And the internet is a wonderful place to learn all of those things. That's for sure. If it weren't for YouTube and various blogs, I wouldn't have this little African flower sitting on my desk because I probably would have killed it by accident. Well, now this has been a lot of fun. I don't want to get too off track with that. I'm sort of going down a rabbit trail there. But we've heard a lot of great tips. I think it's it's pretty realistic to say that somebody could dabble with this just to change things up a little bit and create something unique and new. Out of all the tips and stuff that you've mentioned for us today, if somebody is ready to give this a try, what would be your first tip for them?

Andy 46:51

Well, um, I think just don't be, don't be scape frightened. Um, just, um, find a contrasting color or a coordinating color. And then just, you could try with some straight stitches, as I mentioned before, if you don't know how to do embroidery, and do a spoke flower. And then you can use some green and kind of do straight stitches for a leaf as well. And then... The center of your flower, you could actually do another set of spokes with a different color, like a dark yellow in the center or a black, so that you're making a center. So you're not limited by the fact that you don't know how to do embroidery stitches. Well, you are limited somewhat, but don't let that stop you. Don't let that stop you from playing and experimenting. And then definitely try and learn some stitches. Then you could branch out a little bit.

Brittany 47:53

Yeah, I think the one way that we can all really relate to this is thinking back to when we first started crocheting. Maybe we only learned one stitch first. Let's say you only knew how to do the single crochet for a few months. Just because you only know one stitch didn't mean you couldn't make an infinite number of projects. And I feel like it's probably similar for embroidery. You might only know one or two stitches, but you can be creative with that one or two stitches and create something with it.

Andy 48:22

Absolutely. Yeah. Like when I do my toadstools, I don't use anything but straight stitches. Well, I do sort of outline it, but you could just use straight stitches to outline it and then just fill it in with lots of shaded colors. I usually do the toadstools in reds and peaches and not corals, but blushes, blush colors. And then just, it's a little bit like needle painting. So yeah. Yeah, you absolutely don't have to know any kind of embroidery stitches for that. It's in, out, in, out, in, out, you know. Yeah. So, yeah.

Brittany 49:01

Go for it. Okay. So yes, go for it. Learn one or maybe two stitches on YouTube. Maybe find a picture of a flower that you can embroider on one of your crochet projects. I know we all, if you're like me, you've got them sitting everywhere. They're in every nook and cranny of my house. Every drawer, every closet has something crocheted in it. So I'm sure I can find something to maybe embroider my initials on. I think that would be a really fun touch. Just To say that I've done it, not necessarily to do it every single time, but I really just love experimenting with different crafts. And so I just really want to thank you for coming on the show, sharing your knowledge. I'm sharing so much with us about what you do and making it seem like it's doable for all of

Andy 49:49

us. So I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's my honor.

Brittany 49:53

Well, before we hop off here, I want to give people a chance to connect with you and definitely like go look at her stuff. Seriously. It'll change your life. just having something pretty to look at. So where can they go? Where's the best place for them to find you if they want to connect with you and see your pretty work?

Andy 50:11

Well, I'm not on Twitter, but I am on Instagram and Facebook. My Instagram is oandystudio, O-A-N-D-Y studio. And then my... My Etsy shop is etsy.com slash shop slash O&Y Studio. And Facebook is O&Y Studio as well. So you can find me on all those places. And then I also have a website that's O&Y Studio or oandystudio.com. From my Instagram and from my website, you can find my shop.

Brittany 50:52

Okay. Gotcha. Well, I have links to all of that. So don't, don't worry about, um, you know, trying to remember if you're on the go, if you're driving or that sort of thing, I'll have them linked in the show notes so that you can, you know, next time you have a free minute, just go and check out some of her work, be inspired by it. That's really what we're all about here. Just admiring other people's work and being inspired by what they do. So once again, thank you so much. It's been a really big pleasure for me to talk to you today. Thank you for having me, Brittany. All right. Once again, that was Andy from O&Y Studio. You definitely want to find her on Instagram. Look at her amazing work so you can put a visual to what you just heard. I think it'll blow your mind. And you can find all of her information, where you can see her stuff, where you can find her on Instagram. You can find that over on the show notes page, which once again for this episode is behooped.com slash 132. I would really love to hear from you on this one and see if you have tried blending these two together and how it worked out. I would love to see some pictures and that sort of thing. So I'm going to challenge you. You heard Andy say that she's not on Twitter and you know that I'm trying to help this community see the value in the conversations that can happen over on Twitter. So let's start the conversation there. Tweet me at bhookedcrochet, B-H-O-O-K-E-D, crochet. And tell me your experience with embroidery and crochet, if it's something that you've tried before. Or if it's not, just say, hey, I would love to try this. I really just want to start the conversation about it. This is something unique and fun and different. And as you can tell, I'm pretty pumped about it. So tweet me. I would love to hear that. And if you're not on Twitter and you don't want to create another social account, no worries. There's a comment section on the show notes page. And just tweet. Talk to me there. I'm right here on the other side of the keyboard and I really do love to connect with you. It's one of the only ways that I have as a podcaster to really communicate with you. So head over to the show notes page. We can chat there and we can chat on Twitter. Lastly, before I go, I want to let you know that today's episode was brought to you by my blueprint course, Tunisian Crochet for Beginners. Now, you've heard me talk about this course before and why I got into Tunisian crochet in the first place. It's something that I really love to do to shake things up. You might know that that's a common theme. I love to crochet. I love to knit. I always go back to those two things. But every now and then I wake up on a Sunday morning and I just get this urge to try something a little different. I'm sure that's how embroidery is going to play its role in my life here in the very near future. But let's say you're wanting to try a different form of crochet. Tunisian crochet is so much fun, it's completely unique, and it's sort of a hybrid between crochet and knitting. So let's say you crochet and you just don't knit. You don't get it, you hate it, whatever the case may be, but you like the way knitting stitches look. Well, if that's the case, Tunisian crochet will be your best friend because you can create a lot of stitches with Tunisian crochet that you can create with knitting. So what I did was I teamed up with Blueprint, which is formerly known as Craftsy, to create a completely beginner's course to Tunisian crochet. We cover all the basics like the different hooks that you'll need to use. And of course, I like to teach by doing. So I created three completely beginner projects. I walk you through all three of those projects in the course. So if you want to learn more about Tunisian crochet for beginners, exactly what's included in that course, and maybe take part in it, just head over to bhooked.com slash tcfb. That'll redirect you to Blueprint's page where you can find all that information about the course. And I can't wait to see you there. I'm... I'll be able to interact with you, answer your questions, and that sort of thing as you're a student of my course. So that link, once again, is BeHooked.com slash TCFB. All right, now that'll wrap up this week's episode of the Be Hooked podcast. If you haven't subscribed to the show already, go ahead and do that now in your podcast player. I have a couple of really amazing episodes, some new guests that are on the show that have never been here before, talking about some of your old favorite topics, but then a couple of new ones as well. So subscribe if you haven't done so already. Have a wonderful weekend. Experiment with embroidery and crochet. And I'll see you later, friend. Bye-bye.