Did you learn any new crochet techniques last year? Are there any crochet techniques that you’d like to learn this year? I love learning new techniques/skills and passing along what I’ve learned along the way to the students in my classes, whether that’s in person or through videos!
I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be teaching 2 crochet techniques at the annual IOLI Convention (International Organization of Lace, Inc) in Mesa, AZ in July of this year! I’ll be teaching a 12-hour class on Irish Crochet and another 12-hour class on Bruges Lace Crochet! I’ll also be teaching a 6-hour class on Irish Crochet. This all takes place the week of July 17 – 22, 2022. For more information about this convention, check out the IOLI website here. There are lots of teachers and lace techniques being taught. It’s going to be a fantastic convention!
Registration for the convention opens in just a few days, on February 15. Classes fill up quickly, so get your registration completed and submitted right away if you’d like to attend one or more of these fabulous lace classes!
Here are photos of the projects in my 12-hour Irish Crochet and Bruges Lace Crochet classes at the IOLI Convention:
Irish Crochet is a fabulous technique. It is made with separate textured flower and leaf motifs that are joined together by various methods. I’ll teach you 3 ways to join your Irish Crochet motifs together in my 12-hour class and the 2 easiest ways to join them together in my 6-hour class. A padding cord is used to add more stability and thickness to the pieces.
Bruges Lace Crochet is made with narrow strips of crochet “tapes” that are joined together to form intricate shapes. You’ll learn to make several basic tapes, then jump in to making 3 gorgeous Bruges Lace projects in my 12-hour class.
Since I learned to do bobbin lace 4 years ago, I’ve been even more fascinated with all kinds of lace techniques: crochet, knit, bobbin lace and more! I’ve gone to several Lace Days that the IOLI Lacey Ladies Guild puts on in Phoenix, AZ and I’ve begun to learn a needle lace technique called Aemilia Ars. This is my first attempt at making that lace:
My first Aemilia Ars needle lace piece
It’s by no means perfect, but it’s a start! I have a long way to go in improving my needle lace skills, but at least I’ve made the initial jump into learning how to do this gorgeous lace technique! It’s challenging to learn a new skill or technique, but it’s a great way to keep our brains active!
I’ve also made my first piece of Romanian Point Lace. The cord for this lace is made with a small steel crochet hook. The lace areas are made with a needle. Here’s that piece for you to see:
My first Romanian Point Lace piece
I hope you all have a great time learning new things and improving your skills this year. I look forward to meeting some of you at the IOLI Convention in July!
What does that mean exactly? Well, to me it means whether to join CGOA (the Crochet Guild of America) or not. That’s a silly question, in my opinion! CGOA has been the best thing I ever could have done (and I did) for my crochet career! Even if I wasn’t a crochet professional, it still would have been the best thing I’ve done for my crochet skills and knowledge! I’ve learned so much about crochet since becoming a CGOA member!
CGOA has a conference every year. The first CGOA Conference I attended was in 2003 in Chicago. I’ve attended almost every year since then (15 conferences so far) and I’ve taught at 9 CGOA Conferences since 2009!
This year’s CGOA Conference was held last month in Portland, OR. I taught 5 crochet classes there: Symbol Crochet, Multiple Motifs, Invisible Repairs, Beginning Bruges Lace and Intermediate Bruges Lace. I had the best classes this year! All of my students were fabulous! I’ve met so many crocheters at the conference who are just as passionate about crochet as I am! The attendees come from all over the US, as well as a few other countries such as England, the Netherlands, Australia and a few more. Here I am teaching in one of my classes:
Teaching Invisible Repairs
You may be wondering what exactly happens at a CGOA Conference. Well, it depends on the year! Some years we’ve had a Pajama Party or a Fun Night! Those were both lots of fun!
At every conference we have dozens of crochet classes (and sometimes a few other similar crafts) that are taught by very talented and accomplished teachers (I am in awe of my fellow teachers’ accomplishments!). Here are some of the students in my classes this year:
Beginning Bruges Lace class
Beginning Bruges Lace class
Intermediate Bruges Lace class
Multiple Motifs class
Multiple Motifs class
Symbol Crochet class
Every year we have a show floor/market place where we can purchase yarn, thread, hooks, books and lots of yummy fiber goodness!!! This year we had a “yarn tasting” table outside the show floor where you could try out some of the yarns that were being sold in the market place. I really enjoyed “tasting” some of the yarns there!
Yarn Tasting table
Every year we have a banquet and fashion show. That’s so much fun (with yummy food, of course!). You get to see some gorgeous crochet fashions (or be a model yourself)! I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone for almost 10 years and have modeled in quite a few fashion shows over the years! It’s a lot of fun, mixed with some butterflies in my stomach, of course!
Modeling in Fashion Show
Almost every year we’ve had a Professional Development Day (PDD). That’s one of the best investments I’ve made at the CGOA Conference because I learned so much about how to run a professional crochet business. I’ve even presented the topic of Contract Crocheting at PDD a few times in the past!
Every year we hold a Member Meeting where we vote on the minutes of last year’s meeting and discuss new business for CGOA. The meeting is run by the volunteer board members. I was a board member for several years and it was great to learn more about what goes on “behind the scenes” of CGOA!
For many years now, we’ve held a Design Competition that is only open to CGOA members. Doris Chan started this (I can’t remember what year it started, though). It’s fabulous! Thank you, Doris, for working so hard to start the design competition! I think it’s been a great help for many budding crochet designers. I was too busy to design anything for the Design Competition this year, but I saw a lot of really nice designs in the competition! Here’s a look at it for you:
2018 CGOA Design Competition
2018 CGOA Design Competition
2018 CGOA Design Competition
2018 CGOA Design Competition
We have an editorial “Meet and Greet” where designers can sit with a book publisher or magazine editor and show them their designs. Many editors actually purchase (or commit to purchase) designs right then and there! It’s a fantastic benefit for designers who attend the conference!
Almost every year we have a CGOA Masters ceremony where we pin the newest CGOA members who have passed one of the Masters courses. This year, I earned my Fundamentals pin. This was because I helped test the new Masters course, Fundamentals of Crochet. This is a fabulous course and I learned a lot while taking it. I also helped tech edit the course last year, so I earned a Writer pin for that! You can read about the current Masters programs here. Here’s a photo of the Masters reviewers and graduates from this year’s conference:
2018 CGOA Masters graduates and reviewers
Since 2011, we’ve held the CGOA Jean Leinhauser Crochet Hall of Fame. The first inductee was Jean Leinhauser, who passed away unexpectedly the month before her induction ceremony. There have been 8 inductees into the Hall of Fame so far: Jean Leinhauser, Margaret Hubert, Rita Weiss, Gwen Blakley Kinsler (the founder of CGOA), Lily Chin, Doris Chan, Carol Alexander and Pauline Turner. This year’s inductee was Pauline Turner. What an interesting crochet career she’s had!
For new conference attendees, we have a buddy program where new attendees are paired up with volunteers who answer their questions before the conference and help them out, as needed, at the conference. Of course, everyone there is more than willing to help anyone else with their questions at the conference! We have a Buddy Breakfast where the buddies and newbies can all spend time together and meet each other. It’s a fabulous program!
We have door prizes and goodie bags at the conference, as well! These are always lots of fun to receive and they change from year to year! In addition to the goodie bags, I won a door prize this year! It’s a Yarn Pop bag! This bag is awesome!!! It’s HUGE and is big enough to fit a whole afghan while working on it (it measures 17” wide x 15” high x 5” deep)!!! The bag has an outside pocket, 3 grommets to feed your yarn through, if desired, 3 inside pockets, 2 zippered inside pockets, 2 magnetic clasps and a lanyard inside to attach your keys, or possibly even your cell phone (if you have a cell phone cover with a grommet, of course). You can see all the bags that Yarn Pop makes on their website here. You can see (and order) the very big bag here. Here’s a photo of all the goodies I came home with this year:
Goody bags and door prize
But one of the best things about the conference is seeing and spending time with the friends I’ve made over the years! We’re all like-minded when it comes to crochet! We each have our favorite crochet technique and fiber to work with, of course. But we all LOVE crochet and LOVE learning more crochet techniques! That’s where the conference comes into play! The classes are fabulous! I’ve learned so much in CGOA classes!
Brenda and me
Carolyn, me and Kristin
Shari, Kathy and me
Sharon and me
Vashti and me
In addition to the annual conference, CGOA has over 120 chapters across the USA. Chapter members get together either weekly or monthly to encourage each other, teach each other, share their work, attend workshops and more. To find out more about CGOA chapters, check out the CGOA website here.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at CGOA and the 2018 CGOA Conference. Until next time!
Now that I’m back from teaching at the Interweave YarnFest in Loveland, CO last week, I thought I’d write a blog post about my next teaching engagement this year.
I’ll be teaching at the CGOA (Crochet Guild of America) Conference in Portland, Oregon from July 25-28, 2018! I always LOVE teaching at the CGOA Conference! There are so many lovely, friendly crocheters at the conference, both professionals and hobbyists! It’s great to meet new crocheters there and spend time with so many of the crocheters who attend every year (or almost every year)! I’ve been attending the CGOA Conference since 2003 and teaching there since 2009. It’s so much fun! If you’ve never attended, I hope this will be the year you make the decision to go and meet like-minded crocheters who all speak the same language of crochet!
To read all about the conference, check out the CGOA website here. To register for the conference, go to this page.
Here are the classes I’ll be teaching in July:
Wed, July 25, 6 – 9 pm:
SIMPLIFYING SYMBOL CROCHET
About the class:
Symbol crochet diagrams are much easier to read and follow than written crochet patterns. Once you learn symbol crochet, you’ll wonder what you ever did without it! You’ll learn what each symbol means, thus enabling you to read and understand symbol crochet diagrams from any pattern, even foreign crochet patterns with international crochet symbols! You’ll even try out your symbol crochet knowledge by making 2 small projects from symbol crochet charts in class. This class includes instructions on starting/working in the round and making motifs, both techniques found in the CGOA Masters of Advanced Crochet Stitches and Techniques program.
Simplifying Symbol Crochet class
Thur, July 26, 9 am – 12 pm:
MULTIPLE MOTIFS
About the class:
Do you love the look of projects made with crochet motifs, but don’t enjoy weaving in all the ends? Then this is the perfect technique for you! With this method of crocheting motifs continuously, instead of separately, the number of ends is decreased dramatically, saving you time and energy! In this class, we’ll make continuous crochet motifs worked in joined rows. You’ll learn how to follow the necessary symbol crochet charts with this motif method. Once you’ve learned how to make many motifs using one continuous strand of yarn or thread, you’ll feel confident tackling any continuous crochet motif pattern.
Multiple Motifs class
Fri, July 27, 9 am – 12 pm:
INVISIBLE REPAIRS
About the class:
Do you have a crochet project that’s gotten cut, torn, chewed, etc? Do you want to learn how to professionally repair it? Then this is the class for you! In this class, you’ll learn how to repair all sorts of crochet projects, replacing the “bad” stitches and making your repairs “invisible”! You’ll learn how to replace stitches and chain spaces in the middle of a row, locking the top of the new stitches to the bottom strands of the stitches in the row above. Your work will look as good as new! Learn how to bring your damaged crochet projects back to life again! This technique also works great to “invisibly” seam the first and last rows in a crochet cowl!
Invisible Repairs class
Fri, July 27, 2 – 5 pm:
BEGINNING BRUGES LACE CROCHET
About the class:
Bruges Lace Crochet mimics the decorative Bruges Lace made with bobbins in Bruges, Belgium. Bruges Lace Crochet is a fabulous technique and is easy to learn. In this beginning class, we’ll make several different styles of Bruges Lace, as well as curve the lace and join it to make circles, squares and triangles. Once you’ve learned the basics of Bruges Lace Crochet, you’ll be ready to tackle more complex Bruges Lace patterns. If you’re not a “threadie”, don’t fret! Bruges Lace isn’t just for thread crochet. It can be done with yarn, as well. Come and learn to make basic Bruges Lace in crochet.
Beginning Bruges Lace Crochet class
Sat, July 28, 2 – 5 pm:
Intermediate Bruges Lace Crochet
We’ll take Bruges Lace Crochet to the next level in this intermediate class. You’ll learn many more variations of the lace itself, more joining techniques, and how to curve the lace over itself for more variety. We’ll explore more intricate Bruges Lace designs and you’ll learn how to achieve them in this class. Prerequisite: Beginning Bruges Lace Crochet class should be taken before taking this intermediate class (or have knowledge of the Bruges Lace technique).
Intermediate Bruges Lace Crochet class
I’m excited to be teaching these classes. Last year, my Invisible Repairs class sold out and I was able to add a 2nd class for this “technique” of repairing crochet projects invisibly. This year, I’m teaching Multiple Motifs for the first time (this is also called Continuous Crochet Motifs, which I’ve blogged about before)! I always enjoy teaching Bruges Lace Crochet and Symbol Crochet!
I hope you’ll consider attending the conference. If you attend for the first time because of reading my blog, please stop me at the conference and let me know (or leave a comment below)!
If you’ve attended the CGOA Conference before, what do you enjoy most about the conference?
Last month, I learned something new. It’s called “Bobbin Lace” and I LOVE it! Bobbin Lace is made with dozens of wooden bobbins. The thread is wound on the bobbins, then the bobbins are crossed and twisted to make the pattern. Of course, there’s much more to it than that, but that’s the basic idea of how to make bobbin lace.
I’ve been wanting to learn bobbin lace for many years. When the class was offered at my local yarn shop, Fiber Creek in Prescott, AZ at the beginning of January, I jumped at the chance to learn it! The Bobbin Lace teacher, Verla, was very good and encouraging! She supplied everything we needed to use in the class.
Here’s a photo of me learning bobbin lace in the class last month:
Learning Bobbin Lace
Bobbin Lace takes a very long time to make. The bookmark that I made in class took about 4 1/2 hours to make! Here’s a photo of my finished bookmark:
My first Bobbin Lace bookmark
It’s not perfect, but I learned a TON making it!
There are many styles of Bobbin Lace. Two of my favorites are Russian and Brugge (or Bruges) Bobbin Lace. If the words “Brugge” or “Bruges” look familiar, it’s because it’s the original bobbin lace from Belgium that inspired the Crochet Bruges Lace technique that I’ve taught and designed in for a number of years! Here are a few photos from my Bobbin Lace teacher’s board in the class I took from her:
Brugge Bobbin Lace sample from class
Russian Bobbin Lace sample from class
Both of these styles of Bobbin Lace are made with “tapes”, just the same as Crochet Bruges Lace. Here is a photo of a crocheted Bruges Lace piece that I designed in the last 10 years:
Crochet Bruges Lace Doily
Can you see the similarities between the Bobbin Lace and the crochet Bruges Lace? They’re both made with tapes. Of course, the crochet method is much faster than the bobbin lace method, but I love them both the same!
In case you’re wondering, this crochet Bruges Lace doily is published in the book/leaflet called “Crochet Beyond the Basics” by Rita Weiss and yours truly in 2014. This book is still available for purchase in print or as a digital download through Leisure Arts, the publisher, here or in print through Amazon here. I designed another crochet Bruges Lace piece for this book. Here’s that piece:
Crochet Bruges Lace Centerpiece
If you’d like to learn how to do Crochet Bruges Lace, I’m teaching it at 2 places this year:
At the Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado in April and at the CGOA Conference in Portland, Oregon in July. You can read about the Interweave Yarn fest here and register for my Yarn Fest class here. You can read a little about the CGOA Conference and find out who’s teaching classes here, but the class listings won’t be publicized until around the middle of March.
Back to Bobbin Lace! Here’s a photo of the first Russian Bobbin Lace doily that I made a few weeks ago:
My First Russian Bobbin Lace Doily
And here’s a photo of my 2nd Russian Bobbin Lace doily in progress:
Russian Bobbin Lace doily in progress
What do you think? Have you ever wanted to learn to do Bobbin Lace? Or do you already know how to make bobbin lace? Do you want to learn to do Crochet Bruges Lace? I’d love to have you in my Bruges Lace classes in Colorado or Portland this year! And I’d love to hear what you think about bobbin lace and/or crochet Bruges Lace!
Happy crocheting, knitting, tatting and bobbin lace making!
Who loves learning new crochet techniques? I certainly do! And I love teaching new crochet techniques, too!
I’m super excited to announce that I’m teaching 6 crochet classes at the 2018 Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado from April 12-15! Woohoo!!! This will be my first time teaching there and I can’t wait to meet new crocheters, see crocheters who I already know, see the yarny goodness in the marketplace and have lots of fun!
Here are the 6 crochet classes that I’ll be teaching at this year’s Yarn Fest:
Intermeshing Crochet class
Intermeshing Crochet
Thur., April 12 from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
I learned this fascinating crochet technique over 10 years ago and I really enjoy it! The front and back of Intermeshing Crochet pieces usually look different because of how and where you make your stitches. It’s a really, really cool technique! It’s the same technique as in the “Interlocking Crochet” book by Tanis Galik. If you’ve tried this technique on your own and you can’t understand it, I’d be happy to help you figure it out in this class!
Beginning Bruges class
Beginning Bruges
Thur., April 12 from 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
I’ve enjoyed the Bruges Lace crochet technique for many, many years! I LOVE anything lacy and this technique is lots of fun! It looks very much like the Bruges Bobbin Lace that’s so intricate and time-consuming. I just learned to do bobbin lace (2 weeks ago) and soon I’ll be able to do “real” Bruges Lace with bobbins instead of a crochet hook! But I still love to do Bruges Lace in crochet! This technique can be done with yarn instead of crochet thread for those who aren’t comfortable with smaller crochet hooks and crochet thread.
Irish Crochet Intro class
Irish Crochet Intro
Fri., April 13 from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
I’ve been crocheting doilies with crochet thread for decades now, some of them in Irish Crochet! While my good friend, Kathryn White, was working on her Irish Crochet book for Annie’s about 5 years ago, she taught me some more Irish Crochet (she’s an expert in Irish Crochet)! I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned with you in this class!
Magical Mosaic Crochet class
Magical Mosaic Crochet
Fri., April 13 from 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
I can’t remember how long ago I learned mosaic crochet. There are so many variations on how to work mosaic crochet. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses (like is it reversible, how many stitches can you work in a row, are they anchored, etc). I started working on a new crochet design a few weeks ago with some mosaic crochet in it and I enjoy this technique very much. I’m sure you will, too!
Fantastic Filet class
Fantastic Filet
Sat., April 14 from 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM (6-hour class)
I’ve done Filet Crochet for almost as long as I’ve been crocheting (over 40 years now)! I absolutely LOVE this crochet technique! You don’t have to enjoy thread crochet to enjoy the Filet Crochet technique. I’ve made filet afghans, shawls and more with this technique (using yarn)! In this 6-hour class, I’ll teach you everything you need to know to be successful with basic filet crochet, as well as more advanced filet crochet (like increases, decreases, diagonals and lots more!).
Polish Star class
Polish Star
Sun., April 15 from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
This is one of the slightly newer crochet techniques to me. It’s a lot of fun and I enjoy it, too! You work basic crochet stitches according to the pattern. Then you weave the loops to create the Polish Stars! It’s so much fun to see the stars take shape right before your eyes! If you’ve ever seen this technique and wanted to give it a try, I’d love to have you in this class!
To read more about my classes and all the fabulous classes being offered this year, check out this link. To read more about the Interweave Yarn Fest, check out this link.
I hope to see many of my friends and meet new friends there! If you read this blog post and you sign up for some of my classes, please drop me a note and let me know! Or tell me in class!
I’ve been back from the CGOA Conference in Chicago for 3 weeks now and I thought I’d share some of the highlights of the conference this year for me!
I taught 6 crochet classes this year: Beginning and Intermediate Filet Crochet, Beginning and Intermediate Bruges Lace Crochet and 2 classes of Invisible Repairs. For more information about any of these classes, check out my previous blog post here. My smallest class had 11 students and my largest class was sold out at 25 students! I had the best students in each of my classes this year! I met so many nice, encouraging, friendly crocheters in every class and at every event!!! My dog had run into my left foot the Saturday before the conference, giving me a huge bruise and a very tender foot, so I was hobbling around a lot before and during the conference. My students were very understanding and let me sit down a lot, bringing their crochet pieces and questions to me most of the time! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting each student and sharing my crochet knowledge with them!!!
Here are some photos of my happy students from each class:
Left Side of Beginning Bruges Lace class on Wed night
Right Side of Beginning Bruges Lace class on Wed night
Left Side of Beginning Filet Crochet class on Thur AM
Right Side of Beginning Filet Crochet class on Thur AM
Some students in Invisible Repairs class on Fri AM
All students in Invisible Repairs class on Fri PM
Left Side of Intermediate Filet Crochet class on Sat AM
Right Side of Intermediate Filet Crochet class on Sat AM
Left Side of Intermediate Bruges Lace class on Sat PM
Right Side of Intermediate Bruges Lace class on Sat PM
You probably can’t notice from the small size of these photos that one of my students took all 5 of my classes this year! Her name is Robin and she’s a wonderful crocheter and student! Here we both are in the last class:
Robin and me
Here’s another student, Gwen, from that same class wearing her amazing crochet lace top that she made:
Gwen with her amazing lace crochet top
And here is Corina from my afternoon Invisible Repairs class:
Corina and me
Corina is from Romania. She had contacted me through Ravelry a week before the conference asking a question about one of my designs. I noticed that she lived locally to Chicago and told her about the conference. I had no idea that she would actually attend the conference, let alone take one of my classes! And it was her birthday, too! Happy belated birthday, Corina!
I hope to see all of my students at next year’s CGOA Conference to be held in Portland, Oregon from July 25-28, 2018.
Another fun event at the conference, besides classes, is the Design Competition. I entered a shawl that I designed this year and I won an Honorable Mention! Here’s the shawl, which I’ve named Blazing Embers Lace Shawl. I designed it based upon a really pretty doily that I crocheted a number of years ago. Obviously this isn’t a doily! I’m pleased with how it turned out and will self-publish the pattern one of these days/weeks/months/years, when I get the chance!!!
Blazing Embers Lace Shawl
Here’s a photo of the Design Competition display at the conference:
2017 CGOA Design Competition display
The Design Competition display was set up in the same room as the crochet lounge, which was sponsored by Red Heart Yarn. Red Heart set up an amazing display, designed and crocheted by Gina Rose Gallina called Queen Bee. Here’s that amazing display, along with Gina herself:
Queen Bee display with Gina Rose Gallina
At the end of the conference, on Saturday night, we had our banquet and fashion show, which is always so much fun! We also had the induction ceremony for this year’s CGOA Jean Leinhauser Crochet Hall of Fame award. This year, the award went to Carol Alexander, who was a crochet designer for many years before becoming the editor of Crochet! magazine (a magazine published by Annie’s). Here’s Carol giving her acceptance speech:
2017 CGOA Hall of Fame winner, Carol Alexander
And here’s the loot from the goody bag that I came home with this year! What a haul!!!
2017 CGOA Conference goody bag loot
If you’ve never been to a CGOA Conference, I hope you’ll take the plunge and attend one (or more)! You’ll learn so much, meet awesome crocheters and make life-long friends!
