November 2016 – The Crochet Architect

Have you ever taken part in a crochet-a-long (CAL), a knit-a-long (KAL) or a gift-a-long (GAL)? I have a few times and they’re a lot of fun!

I wanted to tell you about a Gift-A-Long that’s taking place on Ravelry right now. It’s a group where hundreds of knit and crochet designers from around the world are taking part, discounting between 5 and 20 of their self-published patterns 25% for the GAL that officially starts tonight! The pattern discount runs from 8:00 pm EST tonight through 11:59 pm EST on Nov. 30. That’s over 8 days to purchase some of your favorite crochet and/or knit patterns by some fabulous designers at a sale price! There are thousands of patterns discounted and 335 designers participating this year! There are lots of games, prizes and KALs/CALs going on! You can read more in the Ravelry Indie Design Gift-A-Long group here.

This is the first year that I’m taking part in the GAL, both as a participating designer and a KAL/CAL participant. I’ve picked out 2 knitting patterns that I’m going to knit during the GAL, along with the yarn for each pattern. I’m very excited to take part in the GAL and I’m hopeful to win a prize or two! These are the 2 patterns/projects that I’m going to knit in the GAL:

No-Brainer One-Skeiner by Stitchnerd Designs

You can find the No-Brainer One-Skeiner pattern here and the Schaumkronen pattern here.

These are the 10 patterns that I have discounted for the GAL (the discount is only available on Ravelry during the discount dates/times):

If you’re interested in purchasing any of these 10 scarf and cowl patterns at 25% off, you can go straight to my “bundle” page here.

Here are some stats about the GAL:

As you can see, the KAL/CAL period runs from tonight through the end of the year. That’s plenty of time to knock out some of the crochet and/or knit gifts on your list!

I haven’t gotten totally organized on what I’m crocheting or knitting for who this year. I’m just concentrating on what I need to do for our Thanksgiving meal right now! But Christmas will be here before we know it! I may be ready and I may not be ready! Time will tell!!!

Have you taken part in the Indie Design Gift-A-Long on Ravelry before or are you participating this year? Do you enjoy taking part in CAL or KAL groups? It’s a lot of fun to crochet and/or knit with others, either in person or through the internet! There’s lots of cheering, encouraging, suggesting, etc that takes place and I’ve found that crocheters and knitters are a great group of people!

Happy crocheting (and knitting),

Susan

I’ve been quiet (on my website/blog) these past few months, but with good reason. At the end of September, my husband, youngest son and I flew to China to visit our middle son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, Rubekah (Ruru for short). We were there for about 2 1/2 weeks and had a wonderful time! We didn’t do any big sightseeing this time. We spent most of the time with our family. We thoroughly enjoyed playing with Ruru! Since she was 3 1/2 – 4 months old during our visit (she’s now 5 months old), she’s a lot more “interactive” than she was as a newborn! We took lots of new photos of her and spent lots of time getting to know her. She’s got a great personality! Here are a few of my favorite photos from (or around the same time as) that visit :

After returning from China, it always takes me a while to get back to Arizona time, since China is 15 hours ahead of us! Since we’ve been back for 5 weeks now, I have no more “valid” excuses for not getting things done, like blogging!

One of the things we did while we were visiting in China was take place in a photo shoot at a photographer’s office. Unfortunately, not all of our family was there in China, but most of us where (my husband and I, 2 of our 3 sons, our daughter-in-law and our granddaughter). Ruru looked great in the photos and we really enjoyed joining in the photo shoot with our kids/granddaughter! Here are a few photos from the photo shoot:

I really enjoy being a grandma, but it’s hard to be so far away from Ruru! However, they’re going to be moving back to Arizona in just 2 months, and I can hardly wait! It’ll be great to see our kids and Ruru again. I expect that she’ll have changed more and will be doing a lot more at 7 months old! I’m so happy that I’ll be able to spend a lot more time with her!!!

One of the nice things about being a grandma is being able to knit and crochet for Ruru! She’s wearing one of the sweaters that I knit for her (and a headband that I crocheted for her) in the 2nd photo at the top of this blog post (the colorful one). She’s also wearing another sweater that I knit for her in the professional photographer’s photos above. I’ve knit and crocheted a LOT of things for her this year (and enjoyed every minute of making them, too!).

I wanted to buy some Chinese yarn while we were there, but I didn’t get a chance to go to a big yarn store. However, one day my husband and I took a walk nearby the university where our kids live and there was a little yarn shop along one of the streets. So I purchased 2 skeins of yarn, which I believe are 92% wool and 8% nylon. I’d say they’re about the weight of sock yarn. Since the labels are all in Chinese, I don’t know everything I should about them! But that’s OK. I enjoyed buying them and going into at least one yarn shop during our trip! The 2 skeins, which have 100 grams of yarn in each skein, cost me about $5 US dollars total! I can have a lot of fun with the amount of yarn in these skeins and $5 is a bargain for 200 grams of yarn! Here are the 2 skeins of yarn for you to see:

I used some of the pastels yarn (on the right) to make the headband in the 2nd photo at the top of this post, along with some leftover yarn from the sweater. I also made a headband with only the Chinese yarn. Here’s a photo of those 2 headbands:

This yarn has a lot of stretch, making it perfect for baby headbands! I made the stretchy headband pieces in Tunisian crochet (with the Tunisian knit stitch). They look like they’re knit, but they’re actually crocheted! There are lots of yards in each of these skeins, so I’ll be making more projects with them in the future.

I hope you’re enjoying the fall weather (if it’s fall where you live). I love the fall weather because I enjoy being able to wear my crochet and knit scarves and cowls again!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, for those of you who live in the US. I’m thankful for many things, especially for family, faith and fiber (the yarn type)! And I thank God for the gift of creativity almost every day!

Happy crocheting,

Susan