Crochet Village

A couple of months ago I finished the crocheted barn and silo for the Indianapolis Crochet Guild.  I started it a couple of months plus one week ago.  A great deal of furious crocheting gave me a silo in a couple days the barn took less than 24 hours.

The project was a donation from the Indianapolis Crochet Guild to the Indiana State Museum.  The buildings we donated would be assembled as a "village" around the pendulum clock located in the spiral staircase of the museum.

I had committed to donating the silo but it looked sad and lonely without a barn.  I think I was intoxicated by the completed project which caused me to completely loose my head and imagine that I could finish the barn the next day (the day after that was when it was due).

A pound of red yarn worked with a random pattern of slip stitches, single crochets, half double crochets, and double crochets all through the back loops produced the illusion of irregular siding for the barn walls.

The roof was a half pound of doubles worked at a fever pitch.

When the end was in sight I wrapped what was essentially a "scarf" around my chosen box and found that it was about 8 inches too short.  More yarn, more rows added to both the sides and the roof, and an hour later I was 80% there.  I then picked up stitches along the top of the "ends" of the barn sides then worked back and forth decreasing to a point to fill in the gaps.

A little hot glue and a bit of sewing the pieces to the box with darning needle and yarn produced the completed product.

Except there were no doors... no windows!  How would the horses get in?  How would the owls get out?  During the meeting on Saturday morning I put together doors and attached them with crocheted chains and tacking stitches so that they would be raised off the side of the building.  Windows were a length of chain stitches tacked down in a square.  Complete.

Almost.  I gave a nod to all those lovely quilt designs you find on barns but this one had that crochet twist.  With a little yarn leftover I put together a granny square and tacked it to the eave.

Done.  Really.  Done.

On display in the museum.

My worst fear... I joked about giving the museum "fluffing" instructions. I should have been serious, that's a giant thumb print in the roof of the silo!

You can sort of see the granny square on the eave.

There was some concern as to the pendulum knocking the buildings over. Though it swung close, it never got near enough to do damage.  

Third floor looking down.

More photos can be seen at my flickr page.