July 2015 – The Crochet Architect

Last week, I attended the CGOA Conference (aka: the Knit & Crochet Show) in San Diego, CA. The conference was a blast, as usual! There were fabulous classes from Wed night through Sat afternoon, lots of shopping on the show floor on Fri & Sat, as well as a “sneak preview” for registered conference attenders on Thur night and a celebration of crochet on Fri evening, which included the Masters Pinning Ceremony (for those who have passed the Masters program since last year’s conference), the Design Competition Awards Ceremony and the Hall of Fame celebration (for the new inductee into the Jean Leinhauser CGOA Crochet Hall of Fame). This year’s Hall of Fame winner is Lily Chin. Congratulations, Lily! You’re a HUGE force in the crochet field!

We had our grand finale Banquet and Fashion Show on Saturday night, as well. The food was delicious, the fashion show was fabulous and the attendees are some of the nicest crocheters you’ll ever meet! Ellen Gormley, the editor of Crochet! magazine, was the emcee. The evening was relaxing, exciting and inspiring! It was a great way to end the conference (although nobody wants the conference to end)!

For the past 6 months, I’ve had the pleasure of working as co-chair of the 2015 CGOA Design Competition, which was held at the CGOA Conference last week at the Town & Country Resort & Conference Center in San Diego, CA. I was amazed at the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to put on the design competition! I tip my hat to Doris Chan, who has handled the design competition for 5 years (mostly by herself)! You’ve done a fabulous job, Doris!!!

There were many hands helping in the design competition this year. First, I want to personally thank my co-chair, Bobbie Matela, for all the hard work you put into the design competition. You were a fabulous co-chair and I couldn’t have done what I did without you! Next, I’d like to thank our judging manager, Karen McKenna, the many helping hands at the conference, including (but not limited to) Edith Smith, Diane Miller and many, many more, Kaytee Sumida for loaning us so many display pieces, as well as everyone who helped “man the booth” on the show floor (there are too many of you to list, but you know who you are)! We couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!

We had 7 categories in the Design Competition this year, including 2 new categories (First Time Entrant and Young Designer).

Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the announcement of the winners in the 2015 CGOA Design Competition! Can I get a drum roll please?

In the “First Time Entrant” category, sponsored by Susan Bates, the winners are:

3^rd place – Harem Nights by Amy Curtin

2^nd place – Woodland Winter Jacket by Heather Galluzzi

1^st place – Emily Rose by Kayt Ross

In the “Young Designer” category, sponsored by The Marian G. Wilburn Foundation for Fiber Arts, the winner is:

1^st place – Catherine Wheels Skirt by Grace Rosburg

In the “Artistic Expression” category, sponsored by Creativebug, the winners are:

3^rd place – Danakil Depression by Kayt Ross

2^nd place – Cobblestones by Kayt Ross

1^st place – Spiral Blues by Ann Wicker

In the “Accessories” category, sponsored by Clover, the winners are:

Honorable Mention – Ombre Celtic Knot Necklace by Jennifer Ryan

3^rd place – Spring Floral Pin by Jean DeMouy

2^nd place – Eleanor Shawl by Kathryn White

1^st place – Hearts Galore by Sandy Gold

In the “Afghans & Home Décor” category, sponsored by WEBS America’s Yarn Store, the winners are:

Honorable Mention – Shades of Teal Afghan by Kayt Ross

3^rd place – Behind the Picket Fence Throw by Shari White

2^nd place – The Long & Short of It by Vicki Buford

1^st place – Country Gardens Pillow by Joyce Geisler

In the “Thread Crochet” category, sponsored by Bernat, the winners are:

3^rd place – Blue Bird Doily by Kathryn White

2^nd place – Spring Leaves Wedding Dress by Brandi Isham

1^st place – Free Spirit Doily by Kathryn White

In the “Fashion” category, sponsored by Interweave Crochet / Love of Crochet, the winners are:

Honorable Mention – Lollapalooza by Julia Bryant

Honorable Mention – Blue Poppy Lace Coat & Poppy Pin by Alla Koval

Honorable Mention – Checkerboard Cardigan by Shari White

Honorable Mention – Aegean Dress by Kristin Lynn

3^rd place – Velella Poncho by Shari White

2^nd place – Tunica Geometrica by Susan Walsh

1^st place – Legacy by Kathryn White

For “Technical Merit”, sponsored by Mary Maxim, the winner is:

Spring Leaves Wedding Dress by Brandi Isham

For “Peoples’ Choice”, sponsored by Happily Hooked Crochet Magazine, the winner is:

Spring Leaves Wedding Dress by Brandi Isham

And the “Grand Prize” winner, sponsored by Red Heart, is:

Emily Rose by Kayt Ross

Please join me in thanking all of our generous and supportive sponsors this year. And a big “CONGRATULATIONS” to all the winners in each category of the competition!

Now it’s time to get those hooks busy designing entries for next year’s CGOA Design Competition!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

Some of you already know that I’ve gone over to the “Dark Side” (I’ve learned to knit)! To many crocheters, the “dark side” means knitting and to many knitters, the “dark side” means crocheting! You may call me “crazy” (and I may be), but I’m really enjoying knitting, especially mosaic knitting!

In the past 6 months or so, I’ve had 3 mosaic knitting patterns published and I just self-published my first knitting pattern yesterday. My first published knitting design was the Mosaic Blanket in the Winter 2014/2015 issue of Vogue Magazine. That was a lot of fun to design and knit! Here’s a photo of that blanket, in case you missed it in my previous blog post last January:

Mosaic Blanket (knit) from Vogue Knitting magazine Winter 2014/2015 issue

If you’d like to read that blog post, you can find it here.

My next 2 published knitting designs are the Graphic Mosaic Cowl and the Mosaic Diamonds Throw. They were both published in the book, “50 Garter Stitch Gifts to Knit: The Ultimate Easy-To-Knit Collection Featuring Universal Yarn Deluxe Worsted”. You can see and purchase that book on Amazon here. I really like a lot of the designs in this book! Here are photos of my 2 mosaic knitting designs from the book:

I have just self-published my first knitting design, too! It’s my Knit Mosaic Scarf that I designed last year using the yarn I hand-dyed with Easter Egg dyes! That was a lot of fun!!! If you’re interested in hand-dyeing yarn and want to know how I did it, I blogged about that dyeing experience earlier this year. You can read that blog post here. There’s a link to the 12 page pdf tutorial that I made in that blog post, too.

Here’s my new Knit Mosaic Scarf design:

What do you think? I like it because it’s geometrical (I love geometric designs), there are no increases or decreases, and it doesn’t take forever to finish (I’m currently working on a project that is taking FOREVER to get done with over 800 stitches on my knitting needles!).

I used Patons Classic Wool Worsted yarn and size 7 (4.5mm) needles to knit this scarf. I used a full ball of Black and 1/2 ball of Winter White yarn, which I hand-dyed. I didn’t want the hand-dyed yarn colors to pool in my knitted project, so I decided that mosaic knitting would be best for it. I’m very happy with the results!

If you’ve never given mosaic knitting a try, what are you waiting for? It’s so much fun! You knit with only one color across each row in mosaic knitting. To get the vertical lines, you slip the appropriate stitches of the other color instead of knitting them. What could be easier?

If you’re interested in purchasing this pattern, it’s currently available for sale in my Ravelry, Craftsy and Etsy stores. Since I don’t yet have a tab for “Knitting Patterns” on my website, it’s not available here quite yet!

I hope you’ll give mosaic knitting a try soon.

Happy knitting (and crocheting),

Susan