RICH TAPESTRY OF LIFE

Designer Marianne Rawlins describes how discovering tapestry crochet took her enthusiasm for the craft to the next level

- Marianne Rawlins

Three pairs of bright pink bunny ears began to emerge in the blanket on my lap, and I smiled to myself. I had cracked colourwork and a whole new world was opening up before me. I started dreaming of all the motifs I could crochet into my creations. Swans, toucans and flamingos started to fly around in my head, impatient to be released and transformed into yarn!

You may have guessed that colourwork is by far my favourite technique. But when I first started crocheting I actually had no idea that you could crochet pictures into work. I’d enviously gaze at my knitter friends’ amazing Fair Isle creations and wish I could achieve the same look with my hook. When I discovered I could it was a revelation and the first tapestry creation I crocheted was a bunny baby blanket from this very magazine (a design by Pat Strong, from issue 70 of Simply Crochet).

Once I’d taught myself how to draw up my own motifs, there was no holding me back! It’s no coincidence that my first pattern to appear in Simply Crochet – a Christmas tree decoration of a robin inside a heart in issue 77 – involved my favourite technique: intarsia.

OLD-SCHOOL ARTIST

Intarsia allows me to combine my love of art and crochet. Although there are computer packages you can use to draw up colourwork designs, I always use the old-school method of graph paper and coloured pencils. We’re all on screens so much these days – crochet is my tactile, real-world escape from all that, and that’s the way I want it to stay, thank you!

Becoming a crochet designer has felt like coming home, though it’s been a long and winding road to get here. I adored art at school and wanted to be a fashion designer, but steered towards English at university.