Because of the number of “Spam” comments I’ve been receiving at The Crochet Architect.com, I have implemented a new way to leave comments on blog posts. Like many other forums and blog sites, you will be required to log in as a friend of my site before leaving a comment. You will only need to sign up for an account once. It is quick and painless, but should alleviate the number of spam comments I’ve been receiving. You will still receive updates to my blog posts without having an account (if you’re subscribed to my blog). The account is only needed if you’d like to leave a comment on a blog post. This account is separate from a customer account for purchasing crochet patterns at The Crochet Architect.com website.
I look forward to hearing what you have to say about my blog posts. I’d love to get a dialogue going and discuss any crochet topic you’re interested in discussing. If you have a suggestion for a crochet related blog post, please send me a message on the “About Me” page. If a blog post has touched you, inspired you or taught you something new, please let me know by commenting.
If you’ve purchased one of my patterns and have any questions about it, please ask by sending me a message. If you’ve crocheted a project from one of my patterns, please send me a photo of it. I’d love to see it!
Learn Bruges Lace back coverLearn Bruges Lace front cover
When I taught my Beginning Bruges Lace class at the CGOA Conference in 2010, I had no idea that one of my students would go on to design so much in Bruges Lace. But she did! That student is Ellen Gormley. She not only has had many Bruges Lace designs published, but she’s also come out with a new crochet book/leaflet called “Learn Bruges Lace”, published by Annie’s. You can see and purchase this book at http://www.anniescatalog.com/detail.html?prod_id=90152.
Ellen has done a great job with this book. It includes step-by-step instructions for 10 stitch patterns in Bruges Lace to learn this crochet technique. Once you’ve learned the technique, you’ll want to make some (or all) of the 8 Bruges Lace patterns in the book, which Ellen has designed: 3 hats, 2 scarves, a blanket, a bracelet and a cowl. Each pattern (and each beginning stitch pattern) includes written instructions, as well as a symbol chart. If you haven’t learned to read crochet symbol charts, you’ll really want to learn. Crochet symbols are a visual representation of the project, showing all the crochet stitches worked in the project in symbol form. Here is an example of crochet symbols:
Crochet Symbols
Once you learn to read crochet symbols, you’ll never be the same! You can make many more crochet projects from patterns which are only written in crochet symbols, such as in Magic Crochet and Decorative Crochet magazines, along with Japanese and Russian crochet magazines, such as Duplet. I’ll be teaching a class at the CGOA Conference next week in Reno on Crochet Symbols. If you’re in the area, there is still room for a few more students in this class! You can read about the CGOA Conference and all the classes being offered here: http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com/fall-special-events.asp?i2s3. There are a lot of great classes to choose from, both crochet and knitting!
Back to Ellen’s book! If you’ve never tried Bruges Lace, it’s easy (and fun) to do once you know how. You can use crochet thread or yarn, whichever you prefer. Ellen’s book is easy to understand, laid out well and has great stitch patterns, as well as projects. My two favorite projects in this book are the Spiral Cowl and the Dune Throw. Here are photos of those two projects:
Spiral CowlDune Throw
Bruges Lace uses regular crochet stitches, such as chain, single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet and sometimes treble crochet. It’s just the way the stitches are laid out that makes it Bruges Lace! If you’d never heard of Bruges Lace before, it is a lace technique which originated in Belgium. The “real” Bruges Lace is made with many tiny wooden bobbins that are filled with thread and crossed over each other to create intricate lace. Here is a photo of the bobbins that are used for the “real” Bruges Lace:
Lace making bobbins
Doesn’t that look confusing and difficult? There are master lace makers in Belgium, as well as other parts of the world. They put us to shame here in the US! I love lacy things, so I might learn to do bobbin lace someday, but not for a while. There are many more crochet projects that I’d like to design first!
Crocheted Bruges Lace is much easier to make than this “real” bobbin lace! All you need is a crochet hook and some yarn or crochet thread. You can combine Bruges Lace with crochet motifs in the same project, too. You can use one color of yarn/thread or multiple colors in different sections of the lace.
Here are a few photos of some crochet Bruges Lace that I’ve designed:
Daisy Tablecloth
This is a tablecloth that I designed with colorful center flower motifs which are done in regular crochet (not Bruges Lace). Only the white around the edges of each motif is done in Bruges Lace. This tablecloth was published in Crochet World magazine’s Spring 2011 special issue called “The Joy of Thread”. It was actually on the front cover, too. The tablecloth is made with size 10 cotton crochet thread. You can see all of the projects in this magazine here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/crochet-world-magazine-spring-2011.
Vail Mountain Wrap (Bruges Lace)
This Bruges Lace Wrap that I designed is a free pattern on the Naturally Caron website. It is made with Naturally Caron Spa yarn. This yarn drapes beautifully and the wrap is very soft! You can download this free pattern here: http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/vail_mountain/vail_mountain_1.html.
In conclusion, please check out Ellen Gormley’s new book, “Learn Bruges Lace” on the Annie’s website or at your local craft store to learn this crochet technique. You’ll be delighted with the Bruges Lace projects you’ll be able to create with your knowledge of this fascinating crochet teachnique!
Are you a crochet lover like me? Do you enjoy being around others who love to crochet, also? Then you won’t want to miss the CGOA Conference in Reno next month. It will be held at the Grand Sierra Resort from Sept. 12-16. There are many wonderful crochet (and knit) classes being offered. Go to http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com/fall-special-events.asp?i2s3 to see the schedule and description of all of the classes being offered and the special events at the conference, too. There will also be a shopping floor at the conference to buy new yarn, hooks, patterns, etc! Attending the conference is like being in “crochet heaven”!!! All the conference attendees speak the same crochet and/or knitting “language”! We all help each other and encourage each other in our crochet projects and classes! It is a wonderful experience!
The classes I will be teaching in Reno are:
Beginning Filet Crochet
BEGINNING FILET CROCHET (Thursday morning)
Intermediate Filet Crochet
INTERMEDIATE FILET CROCHET (Thursday afternoon)
If you’ve never learned to do filet crochet, you’re really missing something wonderful! You don’t need to use crochet thread and a steel hook for filet crochet, either. If you prefer working with yarn, you can make filet crochet afghans. The technique remains the same whether you use crochet thread or yarn! I love filet crochet because I can see the picture forming before my very eyes (and I love working with crochet thread)! It’s easy to design in filet crochet, too. All you need is a pencil, eraser and graph paper to draw your design. That’s how I started designing in filet crochet. I now have a computer program that makes nice filet charts for publication, but that’s not needed if your project will be for yourself or given as a gift. There are many beautiful filet crochet patterns, also, that are fun to make. Filet crochet can be used for pillows, coasters, placemats, afghans, garments and much more. You can even use a filet pattern that was designed with thread and use yarn instead! Of course, the project will be much larger, but you may desire a larger project than the original size anyway!
Playful Polish Stars
PLAYFUL POLISH STARS (Friday morning)
I think the Polish Stars technique is fascinating! I blogged about this technique on July 25th. If you read that blog post, you’ll see the before and after pictures of my Polish Stars swatch. The stars are formed when you weave the chain loops in the specified way. It’s really fun to see the stars take shape before your eyes when you weave them! Polish Stars can be used for many projects, as well. I’ll have a Polish Stars poncho on display at the conference in a special booth on the shopping floor from Thursday evening until Sunday afternoon. Please come by the booth and see a sample of this wonderful technique!
Simplifying Symbol Crochet
SIMPLIFYING SYMBOL CROCHET (Saturday morning)
I’ve taught many students to read crochet symbols in my classes at past CGOA Conferences. They all love the versatility of crochet symbols and they now have the knowledge to make any project from just a symbol chart (even foreign patterns like Japanese and Russian). Since I love thread crochet, I have many Decorative Crochet and Magic Crochet magazines. All of these patterns are written with very little words, but with a fantastic symbol chart that is easy to follow, once you know how! I’m so glad that I learned to read crochet symbol charts years ago. It really opens up a whole new world of crochet once you learn! And I’ve learned to make crochet symbol charts with Adobe Illustrator, too! Since I’m “electronically challenged”, it’s sometimes a challenge for me, but with the help of my good friend, KJ Hay, I’m learning more about Illustrator all the time! Thank you very much, KJ!
Intermeshing 101
INTERMESHING 101 (Saturday afternoon)
If you’ve never seen Intermeshing (aka: Interlocking) Crochet before, you’re missing something really cool! You can create reversible crochet fabric with different looks on each side! The photo shown here is actually 2 sides of the same piece! I’m a real “geometric” person, so Intermeshing appeals to me a lot! I love anything that isn’t “ordinary” crochet and gives me a challenge! You won’t find me with mindless crochet projects very often!!! If you’d like to read more about Intermeshing, please read my blog post on May 25! You’ll find a link to a wonderful Intermeshing/Interlocking book there, too.
I don’t know how anyone progresses in crochet without knowing how to read a crochet pattern! I’ve learned a lot about reading, writing and editing crochet patterns over the last 3 decades and I’d love to share that knowledge with you in this class. If you’ve ever struggled with reading or understanding a crochet pattern, this class will give you the knowledge and confidence to push yourself further in your crochet projects. Once you learn to read a pattern with ease, you’ll find yourself crocheting projects you never thought you could make before!
If you’ve signed up for one of my classes, thank you very much! I look forward to meeting you in my class and/or at Professional Development Day in Reno. For those of you who are on the fence about what classes to take, I would like to “encourage” you to sign up for one of my classes. For whatever reason, I have low enrollment in my classes for the Reno conference, which puts some of them at jeopardy of being cancelled. I love teaching crochet and would be thrilled to have more of you in my classes. I’m very friendly and encouraging to all of my students. I strive to have fun, enjoyable classes for everyone!
Thank you for your consideration of my classes and the Reno Conference. For anyone who hasn’t decided about attending the Reno Conference, please make the decision to attend the conference. It is so enjoyable to be around like-minded people who love to crochet and learn new crochet techniques for almost a week!!! I’ve heard that if the Reno (west coast) conference isn’t well attended, the conference probably won’t return to the west coast for a while. It would be a shame for those of us who live on/near the west coast to lose having the conference close to us. My classes at the Manchester conference in June of this year were very well attended, as was the whole conference. Please, let’s rally together and make the west coast conference as well attended as the east coast conference!
For the past 2 days, I’ve been working on the contents of my Polish Stars class that I’ll be teaching at the CGOA Conference in Reno, NV in September. I had some swatches already made, but needed to make some new ones that aren’t as big for the class swatches. And, of course, I’ve been writing and checking the new patterns for these swatches, too! I tried following the patterns in some leaflets that I have on Polish Stars, but I’ve found a lot of errors in the instructions, so it’s back to the drawing board! If you’ve never seen a Polish Star in crochet, this is how it looks:
Polish Stars (after weaving loops)
They’re actually quite fascinating to make! They are worked in rows of alternating colors. The stars are formed when you weave the chain loops in a certain configuration. I found a YouTube video on weaving the stars, but she does it wrong! I pity the person who follows her directions!!! Their stars won’t turn out right at all!
Polish Stars (before weaving loops)
Here’s how this swatch looked before weaving the loops:
That’s quite a jumbled up mess, isn’t it? It almost looks as if there are mistakes in it! But have no fear! After weaving the loops, it turned into the well-mannered, finished swatch with the stars that I already showed you. Are you amazed?
Well, a few years ago, I tried the Polish Star technique that was in publication and decided to improve it a little. I came up with a less messy way to work the Polish Stars and I’ll be unveiling it in my Playful Polish Star class in Reno in September. If you’re interested in learning this technique, you can read about my class and sign up to take some crochet or knitting classes here: http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com/fall-special-events.asp?i2s3. This class will be held on Friday, September 14 from 9AM – Noon. There are a lot of other wonderful crochet and knitting classes being taught at the CGOA Conference in Reno that week, too.
If you’ve never been to a CGOA Chain Link Conference before, you don’t know what you’re missing! It’s a week of “crochet heaven on earth”!!!
We have 3 new crochet patterns for you at The Crochet Architect. They’re all fun to crochet and will be a wonderful addition to your kitchen table or to use for outdoor dining!
Wiggly Flower Hot Pad & Coaster
The first is our WIGGLY FLOWER HOT PAD & COASTER. This set is made in the wiggly crochet technique with size 10 cotton crochet thread. The hot pad is made with 3 strands of the thread and the coaster is made with only one strand.
This pattern includes written instructions and wiggly crochet charts for both designs.
Byzantine Placemat & Coaster
The second is our BYZANTINE PLACEMAT & COASTER. This set is made with any 2 colors of size 3 cotton crochet thread. The placemat is made with large and small motifs, which are joined together while working the last round of each motif. Then an edging is worked around the joined motifs for the perfect finish. The coaster is made from only one of the large, round motifs, with an edging added to make it square.
This pattern includes written instructions, a crochet symbol chart for each project and an assembly diagram for the placemat.
Filet Woven Placemat Set
The third is our FILET WOVEN PLACEMAT SET. This placemat set is made in the filet crochet method with double crochet stitches and ch-2 spaces. It has added crochet strips of contrasting colors that are woven through the appropriate ch-2 spaces for visual interest! The placemat is made with 2 strands of size 10 cotton crochet thread held together throughout and the coaster is made with only one strand of the same threads. You can choose to make these projects in any colors you desire for spring, summer, fall or winter décor!
This pattern includes written instructions and a crochet symbol chart for each project.
I hope you enjoy these patterns and the extra pizzazz they are sure to bring to your table! If you have any questions about these patterns, please don’t hesitate to ask!
I returned home last Monday, July 2nd, from the CGOA Chain Link Conference in Manchester, NH. It was a blast!!! I taught 6 classes and met a lot of really nice crocheters, knitters and tatters there. If you have the chance to attend the conference, I recommend that you go. You won’t be disappointed!
My plane took off from Phoenix Sky Harbor Int’l Airport, heading to Manchester on Tuesday, June 26, 2012. The flight made a scheduled stop in Denver, then continued on straight to Manchester from Denver. That morning, I remembered that a designer friend of mine, Andee Graves, lives in Colorado. I was wondering what flight Andee might be taking, so I watched for her when the new passengers came onto the plane in Denver. To my surprise and delight, Andee got on the plane!!! After I got her attention, we sat next to each other and talked the whole way to Manchester, which made the time pass a lot faster!
The first day of the conference was Wednesday, when I attended Professional Development Day (PDD for short). It was a day packed with information for crochet professionals or aspiring crochet professionals. At PDD, I learned more about designing, tech editing, self-publishing, using social media, teaching and producing crochet videos. These and many more topics were presented by other crochet professionals there. KJ Hay’s presentation about tech editing was hilarious and very creative! Instead of reading the information she wanted to present, she made a little “skit” out of it, complete with her bunny slippers! It was a riot! I’ll be presenting the topic of “Contract Crocheting” at PDD in Reno in September. It should be a lot of fun.
Kathryn White at PDDTerry Kehrer at PDD
At PDD, I sat at a table with Kathryn White, Michele Maks, Theresa Kehrer, Joyce Bragg and Karen Ballard. Here are photos of 3 of them:
Michele Maks at PDD
Then on Wednesday night, I taught my first class at the conference: Symbol Crochet. All the students were eager to learn and did very well in class. It was a little difficult to teach a class after a full day of PDD because I’m a morning person, not a night person! But I persevered and was able to think straight, must to my surprise and delight! I must have been running on adrenaline!
On Thursday morning, I taught my Faux Tatted Necklace class from my pattern with the same name. Here’s a photo of the necklace:
Faux Tatted Necklace
Carlotta and her necklace
Kim and her bracelet
And here are some of the happy students with their necklaces (or bracelets) in progress:
Victoria and me
There was also a mother and daughter in that class. This is the daughter and me:
I was amazed and extremely surprised that one of the students in that class had taught herself to crochet the night before! She was still learning how to hold the hook and thread, but she was patient and persistent and she did great!!!
I had Thursday afternoon off from teaching, so I spent it with one of my mentees, Theresa Kehrer. On Thursday night, they held the Design Contest Awards. Here’s a photo of the center of the display with all the entries, located on the show floor (Note: Not all the entries are shown in this photo, just the ones in the center of the display):
Design Competition Display
I entered my new shawl pattern that I made in the continuous crochet motifs method (I blogged about it on May 19), but I didn’t get a prize for it. Here is a photo of that shawl:
Byzantine Shawl in Design Contest
All of the black around the large red and orange motifs is done with one strand (actually 2 strands because I needed to use 2 balls of black yarn) so there are only 4 ends of black yarn to weave in when you’re done crocheting the shawl instead of 128! I’m thinking about designing an edging for this shawl before I publish the pattern. I think it needs a little something extra. It’s too bad I didn’t add an edging before entering it in the contest. Oh well! Better luck next year!
After the Design Contest Awards came the shopping floor preview, which is always a lot of fun! Who doesn’t love looking at and touching beautiful yarns?
I went to the Dance Party for a little while after that, but left in plenty of time to get a good night’s sleep so I could think straight the next morning to teach classes again! It’s important to me to be my best and think as clearly as I can when I’m teaching. I owe that to my students. And that doesn’t include staying up until the wee hours of the morning!!!
Whenever I have to travel to the East Coast for the CGOA Conference, I start adjusting my internal clock 2 weeks before the conference so I don’t have to try to adjust to the 3 hour time difference in one night! It works great! Over the course of the 2 weeks, I was able to eventually go to bed and get up in the morning 2-3 hours early before I left for the conference, so I was already used to East Coast time when I got there!
On Friday, I taught my Beginning and Intermediate Bruges Lace classes. Both of these classes went well and the students enjoyed learning how to form several styles of Bruges Lace tapes, how to curve them, join them to each other (and to motifs) and loop the tapes over themselves. It was a great day!
That night, the CGOA Annual Member Meeting took place. Normally, I sit with the other members in the audience, but this time I sat at the head table with the CGOA Board members. I had to keep the secret for weeks of me filling a vacancy on the Board: Karen Whooley is leaving the Board due to family matters. This is the first time I’ve been on the CGOA Board in the 10 years that I’ve been a CGOA member. I’m looking forward to giving back to CGOA and helping to improve the CGOA Masters Program (I’m the new liaison to the new Masters Committee: Jane Rimmer and Carol Moore are taking the places of Karen Whooley and Kathleen Sams as co-chairs of the Masters Committee).
On Saturday, I attended my first CGOA Board meeting bright and early at 7AM with the other Board members (I’m glad that I’m a morning person!). However, I had to leave the Board meeting early in order to teach my Shuttle Tatting class all day! Every one of the 11 students in the class learned to shuttle tat at various skill levels. It’s not exactly an easy thing to learn, but they were all patient and persistent students! I’m very proud of every one of them! I can’t wait to see what they create in shuttle tatting!
The Fashion Show and Dinner was held on Saturday night. I modeled in the Fashion Show and pinned a Masters Pin on one of my mentees, Carlotta Craig. Here we are in the pinning ceremony:
Pinning Carlotta!
It was a wonderful night and it was hard to say goodbye to many friends at the conference, as many people leave that night or the following morning. I saw Karen Manthey, Bobbie Matela, Carol Alexander, Kathleen Sams and many, many more friends and colleagues at the dinner and conference. Here is a photo of me at the Fashion Show (in the center) with 2 of my mentees: Theresa Kehrer (on the left) and Shari White (on the right):
Terry, Shari and Me
I taught my last class, Writing Crochet Patterns, on Sunday morning. The students in this class were all very eager to learn more about writing crochet patterns and improving their pattern writing skills! Many of them were newer or beginning designers. I look forward to seeing their design careers grow!
After having lunch with Jane Rimmer and Carol Moore on Sunday afternoon, I walked into the show floor and found myself volunteering to help take down the Red Heart/Crochetville booth. It was a lot of fun! I received many skeins of free yarn and crochet thread for my efforts!!! Normally I wouldn’t accept so much yarn at a conference because I’d have to find a way to get it home! But I knew I had extra space in my second suitcase because I gave out so many handouts in my classes and that space was now vacant to fill with yarn on the way home!!! Thank you very much, Kathleen! I will use the yarn for some crochet designs as soon as I find some extra time to make them! Here’s a photo of Andee Graves wrapping up the boxes on the pallets with plastic/shrink wrap before the driver took them away:
Andee wrapping boxes
All in all, I had a wonderful time at the conference and I’m looking forward to teaching 6 more classes at the CGOA Chain Link Conference in Reno in September! I’d better get to work and prepare those classes before time slips away! It’ll be here before I know it!!!
If you are a crochet enthusiast like me, and especially if you’ve been crocheting for as long as I have, then you have certainly run across the name of Jean Leinhauser. Jean was one of the pioneers and legends in the crochet industry. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to tell you a little about Jean.
Jean was born in August, 1933 and passed away one year ago, on June 12, 2011. She worked in the needlework field for 4-5 decades! Back in 1964, she was working as Design Director for the Boye Needle Company in Chicago. She had put together a knitting program that could be used in inner city high schools and was asked to do a crochet program, too. But Jean didn’t know how to crochet! So she spent 4 days at home teaching herself to crochet and came up with the crochet program for Boye. She also wrote the information for their packaged crochet products and started doing leaflets with crochet patterns for them, as well. At that time, the only crochet patterns that were published were by yarn companies.
In 1971, Jean realized how much money Boye was making on the leaflets she was doing, so she decided to start her own company! That was the beginning of Leisure Arts, the first needlework pattern publisher that was not associated with a yarn company. Six years later, Jean sold Leisure Arts and started American School of Needlework (ASN), where she also published needlework leaflets. Sometime in 2002, Jean sold ASN to Dynamic Resource Group (DRG), the owners of Annie’s Attic, the Needlecraft Shop and House of White Birches. Jean stayed with DRG for 2 years as editor of Crochet! magazine. Then in 2004, she left DRG and started producing crochet books with her good friend, Rita Weiss, who worked with her for many years at ASN. Over the past 5 decades,Jean Leinhauser published hundreds, if not thousands, of crochet books and leaflets. I have dozens of Jean’s books in my crochet library to this day. Here is a photo of Rita and Jean at a Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) Conference (Jean is on the left and Rita is on the right):
Jean and Rita
I first met Jean in January, 2002, at a craft trade show (HIA) in Anaheim, CA when Jean still owned ASN. Jean was sitting at a table with Rita Weiss and Bobbie Matela. I was in awe of meeting this crochet legend and a little scared, too! I was a new designer and didn’t have many designs published at the time. Jean looked at photos of some designs I had made and to my surprise, she bought a couple of them!
Fast forward 2 1/2 years to the summer of 2004. I was working on a paper quilling book that God had dumped in my lap (without me even having to submit a proposal for the book). Jean and Rita had just started their new book producing company called Creative Partners and were looking for someone to hire as a technical editor for the crochet patterns in their books. I had never done this type of work before and said I had an interest in being a tech editor. To my total shock, Jean remembered meeting me at the trade show over 2 years before! She gave me their tech editing test and I passed the test, to the surprise of all 3 of us!
Jean was always encouraging, kind, loving, understanding and more. She always encouraged new designers. She loved people and took a genuine interest in everyone she met. She was my biggest and best mentor, teaching me the ropes of tech editing and starting my tech editing career. I will always be indebted to her. We had great fun e-mailing each other for quite a few years about editing and the challenges it poses. Whenever I felt like pulling my hair out, Jean would say something in an e-mail that made me laugh, which eased my frustration. She had a funny sense of humor, or as Marcy Smith, the editor of Interweave Crochet magazine called it, “a wicked sense of humor”. She was always interested in what was going on in my life and always had love and encouragement to share with anyone in need. Jean attended all of the CGOA Conferences, along with Rita Weiss. She was my “class angel” at the 2009 conference where I taught 4 classes with only one hand because I had broken my wrist 2 1/2 weeks before! Here is a photo of Jean and me at that conference:
Jean and me
Jean and Rita were 2 of the 3 members of the “Old Broads” club. The other member of the club was Margaret Hubert. All 3 of them wore sparkly rhinestone pins that said “Old Broads Rule” at the CGOA Conferences. It is a little uncertain to the rules of club membership. Some say members in this exclusive club had to be over a certain age or had to be in the publishing business for as long as Rita and Jean. Others say you had to be a knit/crochet designer still working in the industry and you had to have your first book published before 1968! In any case, the 3 of them wore their pins with pride and we all laughed at this exclusive club!
In July of 2011, at the CGOA Conference in Minneapolis, MN, Jean Leinhauser was the first inductee (posthumously) into the new CGOA Hall of Fame. The CGOA Board of Directors voted to rename the Hall of Fame in Jean’s honor. It is now called the Jean Leinhauser CGOA Hall of Fame. This year, Margaret Hubert will be the second inductee into the Hall of Fame. To read about the Hall of Fame, visit the CGOA website here.
Several years ago, Jean and Rita decided to get “glamour” shots for including in some new books by Leisure Arts. Here is Jean’s glamour shot:
Jean’s glamour shot
She was beautiful to me, with or without makeup!
I will never forget Jean. She impacted so many lives and is deeply missed by many people. She was an inspiration to all designers, many of whom were extremely afraid to meet her (according to the stories I’ve read)! But Jean was humble and approachable, even though she was a “legend” in the needlework industry.
She was a huge blessing to me. I thank God for bringing her into my life and for allowing me to be her friend, as she was mine.
Rest in Peace, Jean, knowing that you are loved and missed by thousands of people worldwide.
A few weeks ago, I walked into my local Hobby Lobby craft store and saw a dress form in the lobby. It was a decorative dress form that someone could use in their home décor, I suppose! When I saw it, I knew I had to buy it for photographing some of my crochet garments and accessories that I’ve created for publication. The dress form is not adjustable in width like typical sewing dress forms, but the legs come off for ease of moving the form and the height is adjustable, too. The only drawback with this dress form (if you can call it a drawback) is the fabric covering the form, which is a black and white print. Here’s a photo of the dress form by itself:
Dress Form by ItselfDress Form with Shirt
I like the fabric, but I think it might be distracting for photography! So I thought I’d cover it with a solid black top I have. Here’s how it looks with the black top covering it:
I like it with the black top covering it, but I think the print on the neck sticks out like a sore thumb!!! A good friend suggested I use turtleneck sweaters so the neck would be covered up. So I set out on a quest to buy nice turtlenecks in various colors. I found some nice turtlenecks online for $3, but every color was out of stock! That certainly didn’t help! So I decided to try some local thrift stores. First, I went to the Stepping Stones Thrift Store in Prescott Valley. They had a very nice, glittery knitted turtleneck marked down to 29 cents, so I bought it. The sales lady there suggested that I try the Disabled American Veterans Thrift Store in Prescott, so I went there later that day. To my amazement (and delight), they had a lot of turtlenecks in various colors. I found 16 more turtlenecks there for 25 cents each! So for a total of $4.29, I bought 17 turtlenecks for my dress form! Did I score or what!!! Most of these turtlenecks are my size, too, so I can wear them when I need a turtleneck (if I don’t have hot flashes from wearing them)! Here is a photo of all the turtlenecks washed and hung up:
Turtlenecks for Dress Form
You can tell that I didn’t get every color in the rainbow, but it’s a great start! I can fill in with some other colors as I find them at more thrift stores along the way.
Now I have less excuses not to self-publish my garment and accessories crochet patterns! If I could just find some extra time (and much needed discipline) to get these garment and accessories patterns done!
Stay tuned for some new patterns coming to The Crochet Architect website soon!
My Intermeshing Pendant Necklace (aka: Double Take Pendant Necklace) was just published in the Summer 2012 issue of Crochet! magazine. Here are some photos of the necklace:
Pendant Necklace
Both sides of Pendant Necklace
I designed this necklace pendant in the Intermeshing Crochet Technique where each side is different, as you can see in the second photo. You can learn more about this technique at Tanis Galik’s website here: www.InterlockingCrochet.com. She calls it “Interlocking Crochet”, which is the same as “Intermeshing Crochet”. She has a full book of beautiful Intermeshing/Interlocking Crochet patterns, called “Interlocking Crochet”, which is published by Krause Publications. On her website, you can see photos of some of the projects in her book, along with a link to order the book from Amazon. I have this book and it is very nice!
Anyway, back to my necklace. This is a small project that would be perfect for learning the Intermeshing/Interlocking technique of crochet. There are some step-by-step photos in the pattern, which are very helpful in understanding how the technique is done. Unfortunately, you’ll find a few mistakes in the pattern that were added during the technical editing process (many of the turning chains were moved from the end of the rows to the beginning of the wrong rows!). Here are the corrections for this pattern:
Row 2A: Remove “ch 2” at beginning of row.
Rows 2B, 3B and 4B: Change “ch 4” to “ch 2” at beginning of row.
Rows 3A and 4A: Change “ch 2” to “ch 4” at beginning of row.
Row 5A: Add “ch 4” at beginning of row.
Also, in the “Pattern Notes”, it says “After sewing pieces together”. That should say “After weaving pieces together”. These pieces aren’t “sewn”, they’re “woven”!
If you’d like to learn the “Intermeshing Crochet” technique in person, I’ll be teaching a class on Intermeshing at the CGOA Conference in Reno, NV in September, 2012. For more information about both of the CGOA Conferences, go to www.knitandcrochetshow.com. For specific information about my Intermeshing class, go to http://www.e-offinger.net/knitandcrochet/fall-classes.cfm. The class number is S209C and it’s going to be held on Saturday, September 15 from 2-5PM. I’d love to meet you in my class and teach you the Intermeshing technique!
I think Intermeshing is a fun, fascinating technique and it’s almost limitless in what you can make!
I bought a crochet book last year called “Continuous Crochet Motifs” from a Japanese seller on EBay. I paid $40.00 for this book, which is a lot to spend on a crochet book, but it is very much worth the money! It is a Japanese book with only Japanese writing inside, but it has crochet symbol charts throughout the book, which I can easily read. I quickly digested the book and learned this technique, in which motifs are made continuously, meaning there are less ends to weave in at the end (hooray!!!). You have to follow the symbol charts very carefully, but the book also includes a front section where there are both symbol charts and step-by-step photos of the motif being worked. It’s a great book and if you’re at all intrigued by this crochet technique/method, you might want to buy one of these books someday. Kristin Omdahl has a book with this technique called “Seamless Crochet”. I don’t have her book, yet, but I plan to get it soon. Here is what the Japanese Continuous Crochet Motifs book looks like on the front and back covers:
front cover of bookback cover of book
Keep in mind that when you’re using only one color, there are only 2 ends to weave in “total” because you work the motifs continuously, no matter how many motifs you make, and only fasten off at the end! That’s a huge improvement on weaving in 2 ends for every motif made!
A few weeks ago, I decided to use this technique to design something for the CGOA Design Contest, which will be held at the CGOA Conference next month in Manchester, NH. The deadline to enter something into the contest is June 6. I need to get it done within the next few weeks so there will be time for my entry to travel to the destination where it needs to be by June 6!
Luster Sheen colors
I can’t tell you what I’m designing, but I can tell you that I’m using some Red Heart Luster Sheen yarn to make it. I love this yarn! It is a size 2 (fine weight) yarn and is 100% acrylic. It provides beautiful drape and the colors are really nice. Here’s a photo of the yarn I’m using:
You can see that the bottom skein is different from the rest. That’s because Coats & Clark is repackaging this yarn into 3.5oz/100g skeins (they used to be 4oz/125g). There are 307 yards/281 meters in the new skeins, so it still goes a long way! The bottom color is from my stash and the top 3 colors are new. I’m using their cherry red, black, orange and vanilla colors. Since I’m using so many colors in this design, there will be plenty of ends to weave in. But I will only have 2 ends to weave in of the color that I’m using continuously around the other motifs to join them all together. That will almost CUT IN HALF the number of ends to weave in! Now that’s a big improvement in my book!!!
I noticed last week that I made one of the motifs wrong for this project, so I had to rip out a whole row of work! Ugh!!! I had only worked the second round and left out the first round in each of the motifs (that’s what happens when I’m preoccupied and don’t look at the symbol chart I made!). Here’s how the motif looks (the left motif is missing round 1, but the right motif has both rounds worked):
joined and unjoined round 1
I took a few minutes to decide if it was going to make a difference before ripping it out, though. I decided it would look better if I made the motifs the right way (the chain spaces are more pronounced in the correct motif on the right), so the extra time would make a difference in the look of the project. When I ripped it out, I decided to engineer the motif a little differently. Originally, I had designed it with 2 rounds and both rounds were joined at the end. However, I tried it with not joining the first round and only joining the second round. Here is a photo of the difference between the two joinings:
The motif on the left is joined at the end of both rounds. The motif on the right is joined at the end of the second round only. I see less bulk in the joining area, so that’s what I’m going to do for these motifs. The new motif goes straight from the last sc in the first round to the first sc in the second round without the usual “sl st” at the end of the round and “ch 1” before the first sc of the next round. What do you think? Do you like the newer motif better or do you not see any difference between them? I know, it’s very minimal, but if I had to rip them out anyway, I might as well make the change!
Let’s hope I stay on schedule and get this done in time for the contest (if I don’t get distracted with something else along the way)!
