I spent the last few evenings crocheting covers for stones. I had made a few small covered stones back in January (posted here), and was interested to try some more. My inspiration for these comes from the lovely, lovely Margie of Resurrection Fern. Margie is queen of crocheted stones. Her article "Lacy River Rocks" was published in the September/October Crochet Today magazine. She provides three patterns. I made them all. They are shown in the first photo. The stones are about 4 inches across. I also began trying out my own patterns. These include the blue one in the second photo, and the red one in the second-to-last photo. That red one is over 7 inches wide.
Finding stones to cover became a process in itself. I live in the shadow of the Taconic Mountains in Western Massachusetts. Most of the rock around here is angular and irregularly shaped, even in the streams. The Mill Hollow rises up behind my house. A stream follows the hollow and makes its way out into the Green River, which empties into the Hoosic River, which then eventually empties into the Hudson River in New York. I looked for stones in the Mill Hollow stream while on my daily walks. Since there are so few smooth or round stones, it was quite a hunt, and very satisfying when I pulled one out. I also found that I learned a lot about the stream bed by spending so much time looking down into it. A mindful, relaxing practice.
I see a lot of smooth, round stones when we travel to Cape Cod in the summer. Certain beaches are littered with them. I also notice that there is more color variation to the beach stones than the ones around my home. Regardless of where we are, my family likes to discover heart-shaped rocks. They are not hard to find if you simply start looking. My daughter found the large tan one - it is 8 inches across!