classes – The Crochet Architect

March 6, 2019July 27, 2019

2019 CGOA Conference

I LOVE to teach crochet! And I LOVE to learn new crochet techniques! Don’t you?

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be teaching 5 classes at the CGOA Conference this July in Manchester, NH. Not all of my classes are crochet, though. I’ll be teaching shuttle tatting again this year, too!

First, I’ll tell you a little about the CGOA (Crochet Guild of America) Conference. This takes place every year (sometimes twice a year) in various cities across the US. It is open to CGOA members and non-members. There are dozens of classes taught by many talented teachers, some very well-known! We have a marketplace with vendors who sell everything from luscious yarn/thread to hooks, books and supplies. We also have a banquet and fashion show, as well as some fun events in the evenings. And I can’t forget about Professional Development Day (PDD) where established crochet professionals share what they know about running a successful crochet business. PDD takes place the day before classes begin, on Wednesday, July 10 from 9 am – 4 pm.

For all the scoop about the conference, visit the CGOA conference pages. Here is a list of the events going on at this year’s conference. Read this page to find out about all the classes being offered. And one last thing, CGOA has a design competition each year for CGOA members only. There are prizes in 6 categories ranging from $100 – $300, with a grand prize of $1,000! There have been some fabulous entries each year! It’s so much fun to see the entries at the conference and find it who wins in each category!

Okay. Now to list the classes I’m teaching and when each one is offered.

Thursday, July 11 from 9 am – 5 pm (with lunch from noon – 2 pm)

Tatting the Old-Fashioned Way

Tatting is such a fascinating and delicate craft. I taught myself to tat over 20 years ago. I’ve learned more since then and I really enjoy teaching others so they’ll be successful in their tatting projects. In this class, my students will learn the basics of tatting and start tatting this beautiful necklace with buttons, beads or charms. This is the only 6 hour class I’m teaching at the conference this year. Yes, it takes that long to learn to tat and get your head wrapped around how to do it! But I’ll be there to teach my students and answer all their questions. If you’ve always admired tatting and want to learn to tat, sign up for this class early. I’ve limited this class size to only 20 students.

Friday, July 12 from 9 am – 12 pm (noon)

Invisible Repairs

I’ve taught my Invisible Repairs class at the conference for the past 2 years. This has been a popular class and I’m thrilled to be teaching it again this year! In this class, I teach my students how to repair their damaged crochet projects, no matter where the damage is located. There is homework for this class so we can all do the repairs to the same swatches in class. And I’ll be demonstrating how to do the repairs in class, as well. This technique also works great to invisibly seam the last row to the first row on crochet cowls!

Last year, I filmed a crochet video class for Annie’s on this same topic called “Crochet ER: Fixing Damage and Mistakes”! If you can’t make it to the conference and would like to learn to repair your crochet projects (or someone else’s crochet projects), check out my Annie’s video class.

Friday, July 12 from 2 pm – 5 pm

Intro to Irish Crochet

I LOVE Irish Crochet and I really enjoy teaching this class to other Irish Crochet enthusiasts (who don’t know where to begin). In this class, I’ll be teaching how to make the Irish Crochet rose and leaf motifs. I’ll also teach how to make the background and the edging that you see in this photo. This is an introduction class, so we won’t get into more advanced Irish Crochet techniques. But once you know the basics of Irish Crochet, you can always learn more on your own or with books.

Saturday, July 13 from 9 am – 12 pm (noon)

Intermediate Filet Crochet

This is my Filet Crochet class for those who already know the basics of Filet Crochet (open mesh, closed mesh and lacets). In this intermediate class, you’ll learn to do increases, decreases, diagonals and a whole lot more! Once you learn these intermediate Filet Crochet skills, you’ll be ready to tackle that more complex Filet Crochet pattern you’ve had your eye on for so long!

If you don’t know the basics of Filet Crochet yet, and you’ve been wanting to learn to do Filet Crochet, check out my Annie’s class called “Learn Filet Crochet Using Thread and Yarn”. Then if you want to take your Filet Crochet to the next level, why not sign up for my intermediate class at the CGOA Conference (or before for the best rates)!

Saturday, July 13 from 2 pm – 5 pm

Simplifying Symbol Crochet

This class is always a lot of fun to teach! I learned to read symbol crochet charts several decades ago through Magic Crochet and Decorative Crochet magazines. I love to make doilies and the patterns in these magazines were mostly written in crochet symbol charts. As a visual learner, I find these charts so much easier to follow than a lengthy written crochet pattern! And they look so similar to the finished project, too!

If you haven’t learned to read symbol crochet charts yet, this is your chance! You’ll learn all the basic crochet symbols and lots of more complex symbols, too. You’ll learn to follow a symbol crochet chart, both in rows and in rounds. And you’ll practice what you’ve learned making 2 small projects/swatches in class. Once you learn to read and follow symbol crochet charts, a whole new world of crochet patterns will open up to you! You’ll even be able to follow symbol crochet patterns in other languages including Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Ukranian!

If you’ve taken any of my classes in the past, you know how much I like to have nice, precise class handouts. I print them in color and bind them like a book to they’re a great keepsake to refer to later on after the conference. I charge $5-$8 for these handouts (depending on the quantity of photos/pages), which is what it costs me to print them at home, with the price of toner cartridges, nice paper, card stock and binding combs (to use with my binding machine). Here’s a look at my class handouts:

If you’re going to the CGOA Conference, class registration begins next Wednesday, March 13 at 12:00 pm (noon) Central time. Once again, here’s the CGOA website to find out more about the conference and CGOA in general. And if you have any questions about the conference, I’d be happy to answer them for you.

I hope to see many of you at the conference!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

February 22, 2018

Learning New Things!

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

And here’s a photo of my 2nd 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!

Susan

January 19, 2018

I’m Teaching Again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

See you in Loveland!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

August 21, 2017

2017 CGOA Conference Afterglow!

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:

Here’s another student, Gwen, from that same class wearing her amazing crochet lace top that she made:

And here is Corina from my afternoon Invisible Repairs class:

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!!!

Here’s a photo of the Design Competition display at the conference:

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!!!

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!

Until next time!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

June 1, 2017June 1, 2017

Teaching or Taking Crochet Classes?

Are you a life-long learner, like me? I absolutely LOVE to learn new things!!! I’ve taken so many classes over the years, mostly in crochet. It’s so much fun to learn something new, especially new crochet (or knitting) techniques!

I also LOVE to teach others new things such as crochet, knitting, tatting, paper quilling, etc! Next month, I’ll be teaching 5 crochet classes at the CGOA (Crochet Guild of America) Conference in Itasca, IL, just outside of Chicago. There will be over 50 classes available to take and so many crochet techniques to learn! If you’re a crochet enthusiast, like me, this is THE PLACE to learn more about crochet! Here are the classes I’ll be teaching at the conference:

Beginning Bruges Lace Crochet – Wednesday, July 26th from 6 – 9 pm

Beginning Filet Crochet – Thursday, July 27th from 2 – 5 pm

Invisible Repairs – Friday, July 28th from 9 am – 12 pm (Note: This class is sold out!)

Intermediate Filet Crochet – Saturday, July 29th from 9 am – 12 pm

Intermediate Bruges Lace Crochet – Saturday, July 29th from 2 – 5 pm

I’m really looking forward to teaching these 5 classes! I always enjoy meeting new people at the conference and spending time with old friends! Everyone is so friendly there and willing to help each other out with any questions they have, whether it’s crochet-related, hotel-related or anything else. I love to inspire others to learn new things and stretch their crochet knowledge and skills!

To learn more about my crochet classes, or any of the other classes being taught (and to register for classes and events at the conference), just go to the CGOA website here.

There are many things going on at the conference besides crochet classes, too. There is a show floor with vendors selling crochet-related items, a design competition (for CGOA members), the CGOA Masters pinning ceremony, the induction of the newest CGOA Jean Leinhauser Crochet Hall of Fame winner (this year it’s Carol Alexander), the CGOA Masters Day, a professional workshop, a designer meet & greet (where designers can meet with editors and sell their designs) and a fashion show. To read all about the conference, check out this page.

If you’ve been to the CGOA Conference before, what is your favorite part of the conference (if you can name only one thing)? If you’d love to go, what would be some of the classes/techniques you’d love to learn?

Happy crocheting,

Susan

July 25, 2016

2016 CGOA Conference Afterglow!

It’s so nice to meet other crochet enthusiasts! I just love it! And teaching them some fun crochet techniques is the best!

It’s been almost a week since I got back from the CGOA Conference in Charleston, SC, which ran from Wednesday, July 13th through Saturday, July 16th. What a conference it was!!! For me, the highlight of the conference was teaching 5 crochet classes to lots of eager students!

On Thursday, July 14, I taught a full day class on Writing Crochet Patterns. These ladies were eager to improve their pattern writing skills and were excellent students! Here is a photo of the fabulous students in that class:

The next day, Friday, July 15, I taught 2 classes: Polish Stars and Intermeshing. I had lots of eager students in these 2 classes, also! The Polish Stars class was the largest of my 5 classes. The students learned how to crochet the rows of stitches and chain loops/spaces, along with how to weave the chain loops/spaces to form the Polish Stars. I demonstrated how to weave the stars and everyone did great! It’s so fun to see the stars emerge before your eyes!!! Here are the students in that class:

Right half of Polish Stars clss — Right half of Polish Stars class

In the Intermeshing class, my students learned how to crochet the alternating rows of stitches and chain spaces so the 2 colors are woven together! This is a fascinating crochet technique that is also called Interlocking Crochet. Intermeshing designs are all reversible and many have different designs on the front and on the back. Here are the students in that class:

Then, on Saturday, I taught 2 more classes: Into to Irish Crochet and Symbol Crochet. This was the 2nd time I had taught the Irish Crochet class. The first time was at last year’s Annie’s Craft Festival in Fort Wayne, IN. I love crochet techniques which utilize crochet thread. I think that Irish Crochet is one of the prettiest crochet techniques! These students did great and asked some very good questions! They learned to make an Irish Crochet rose, 2 leaves, mesh and a border in their class project. Here are the students in that class:

In my Symbol Crochet class, my students learned how to read and follow a symbol crochet chart, both in rows and in the round. If you’ve never learned to read a symbol crochet chart, you don’t know what you’re missing! It’s a visual representation of the finished project. It’s a lot easier to follow a symbol crochet chart than a written pattern, too! Here are the students in that class:

I had so much fun meeting the students who I didn’t know and seeing the students who I already knew! They were ALL excellent students and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching EVERY ONE of them! I want to send a special “Thank You” to all of my students for taking my class(es)! You’re the best!!!

More highlights of the conference were (in no particular order):

Meeting and getting to know 4 newbies: Barbara, Renate, Cynthia and Linzi. I was their buddy and answered any questions they had about the conference to help them feel more at home there! I hope you all enjoyed every aspect of the conference! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of them (boohoo)!

Doris Chan was inducted into the Jean Leinhauser CGOA Crochet Hall of Fame on Friday, July 15. Doris was the 6th inductee into the HOF. The ceremony included a cake walk on stage of everyone who was wearing one of Doris’ garment designs that night! I’m so blessed to know Doris through CGOA! She’s a warm, sharing, caring person and a fabulous designer! She really deserved this honor!

The design competition and the awards ceremony was also held on Friday night. My good friend, Kathryn White, won the grand prize and people’s choice awards for her stunning Baroque Jacket! She made it in size 30 thread and it took her 9 months to complete! Congratulations, Kathy!!! Here’s a photo of Kathryn wearing her winning jacket:

Kathryn White wearing her award-winning Baroque Jacket

The CGOA Masters Pinning Ceremony was on Friday night, too. There were quite a few people who completed the Masters program in the last 12 months. They each received their pin in the ceremony. Congratulation to all of the new CGOA Masters graduates!

The banquet and fashion show on Saturday night. The food was delicious, as usual, and the room was electrifying! I modeled in the fashion show and had a blast doing that! The emcees for the fashion show were Lily Chin and Tamara Kelly (of Moogly). There were lots of door prizes that night such as yarns, patterns, hooks and more! I won a set of Clover Amour crochet hooks while I was modeling! Woohoo!!! Here’s Teresa and me modeling my 4 crochet cowl designs in the fashion show:

Teresa and me modeling in the fashion show

After the conference, I stayed an extra day (Sunday) to do some sightseeing with Jane R. and one of my newbies, Barbara W., who is a Charleston local! We had a really nice time shopping at the City Market, which is a covered area 4-6 blocks long, with local craft, souvenir and food vendors. Since all 3 of us are crafters, we really enjoyed it! Here’s a photo of the market:

We had a delicious lunch at a nearby restaurant and some chocolate afterwards! Since it was a rainy day, we drove around to see some of the local architecture. We stopped at Waterfront Park and saw the pineapple fountain. Here’s that fabulous fountain, along with Jane:

We also sat on a swing and relaxed! Here are Jane and Barbara on the swing:

That night, I went swimming in the hotel’s pool and jacuzzi! I haven’t done that in years, which is way too long for someone who grew up with a pool in her backyard in Southern California!!!

The next day, Monday, I got ready for my plane and flew home. When I was downstairs in the breakfast area that morning, I was joined by Tammy Hildebrand, her grand daughter, her mom and Amy Shelton. I had lots of fun meeting Tammy’s grand daughter, Willow, and playing with her! Here we are having lots of fun with Fruit Loops cereal:

So there you have it! Everything you always wanted to know (and more) about the CGOA Conference. I hope you’ll join us at next year’s CGOA Conference in Chicago, July 26-29, 2017!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

July 8, 2016July 8, 2016

Crochet Classes on Sale!

Are you someone who loves to learn more crochet techniques? If so, do you take classes on a regular basis? I absolutely LOVE to take classes (and to teach classes)! I’ll be teaching 5 crochet classes at the CGOA Conference next week in Charleston, SC. The classes I’ll be teaching next week are: Let’s Get Writing (crochet pattern writing), Playful Polish Star, Intermeshing, Intro to Irish Crochet and Simplifying Symbol Crochet. To read more about these 5 classes, check out my previous blog post.

I love sharing my crochet knowledge and encouraging other crocheters in my classes! There are currently between 13 and 23 students registered for each of my classes. I can’t wait to meet my students (some I already know, but many I will meet for the first time at the conference) and interact with them! It’s so much fun (and hard work, too, but mostly fun)!!!

It’s great to meet new crochet enthusiasts at the conference and in everyday life (I met one yesterday at the bank)! I hope many of you are going to attend the conference and learn more so you can make bigger, better and more challenging crochet projects! To read all about the CGOA Conference (aka: the Knit and Crochet Show), check out this overview of the conference on the CGOA website. The conference is held in conjunction with the TKGA (The Knitting Guild Association) conference, so there will be knitting classes there, too. You can read all about the whole conference, including the knitting classes, here. Oh, I almost forgot: THERE WILL BE SHOPPING, TOO (lots of luscious yarn, patterns and supplies on the show floor)!

If you can’t make it to a conference to learn in person, have you taken any online crochet classes? I’ve taken quite a few crochet (and knitting) classes online. I love the ability to watch them whenever I want, to rewind and rewatch parts that I didn’t understand or got distracted while watching them, take notes in the video and ask the instructor questions. Craftsy is having a 3 day, 50% off sale on their top classes, starting today! I LOVE SALES, don’t you?

You can check out their sale here. And if you’d like to narrow the list of sale classes to crochet classes, you can click on the “Yarn & Fiber Arts Classes” classification on the left-hand side of the page. This will give you the knitting, crocheting and spinning classes that are on sale. There are lots of other classes on sale, including classes on cooking, painting, quilting, and more (there’s a total of 214 classes on sale)!

I hope you’ll explore ways to learn more crochet techniques and improve your skills. It’s wonderful to be able to read crochet patterns, read symbol crochet charts, learn new crochet stitches or techniques, etc. I can’t imagine crocheting without this knowledge! It really opens up a whole new world of crocheting possibilities!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

November 6, 2015

Annie’s Craft Festival Review

I had a LOT of FUN last weekend! On Thursday, Oct. 29, I flew to Fort Wayne, Indiana to teach 3 crochet classes at the 1^st Annual Annie’s Craft Festival on Friday and Saturday. Yes, you heard that right. Annie’s will hold this craft festival once a year! The next one will be Sept. 16-18, 2016 at the same place, the Grand Wayne Convention Center in Fort Wayne, IN.

I absolutely LOVED teaching my 3 classes: Introduction to Irish Crochet, Polish Stars and Intermeshing! My students were fabulous and really enjoyed learning these 3 crochet techniques! The Irish Crochet class that I taught on Friday morning had the most students. There were 20 or 21 students in that class! I waited too long to take a photo of the class, as the students were packing up and leaving when I remembered to take a photo. Everyone was so patient with themselves and their rate of crocheting. The class project was an Irish Crochet rose, 2 leaves, a background and an edging. You’ve probably already seen it, but here it is again:

There were several things that I taught the ladies how to do in this project. By far the hardest is carrying the padding cord along the edge and working the edging, which turns twice to create the arches. I demonstrated these before the end of the class in small groups of students so everyone could see what I was doing. Also, creating the chain loops BEHIND the previous round of petals on the rose was new to most of the students. I think it’s always much better to learn something like this in person in a class rather than trying to learn it on your own! And working into the back loop of the sc on the leaves to give them the ridges was new to some of the students, as well.

All in all, everyone did great with their projects! One student finished crocheting her piece and another student only got the center rose done in the 3 hour class (she hadn’t done thread crochet before, so it took her a while to get the hang of the small thread and small steel crochet hook, which is totally understandable). Everyone else got to somewhere in between, with many of the students finishing the rose, both leaves and starting on the background mesh around these motifs. It really didn’t matter how fast or slow the students worked, as long as they understood how to work everything correctly.

On Friday afternoon, I didn’t teach a class. After eating a quick lunch, I sat in the Annie’s booth with Patty Lyons (a knitting teacher) and Ellen Gormley (a crochet designer and teacher, as well as the editor of Crochet! magazine), who have lots of videos with Annie’s (I only have 1 at this point in time). Patty took a photo of me wearing the same Japanese crochet cardigan that I wore in my Annie’s crochet video and holding my Annie’s video (she got a kick out of that!). Here’s that photo for you to see:

And here’s Ellen and me in the booth after Patty went to teach her afternoon class:

After being in the Annie’s booth for an hour, I walked around the marketplace and bought some pretty yarn, crochet thread and knitting patterns. Here are the “goodies” that I bought:

First, I bought two 5-packs of size 10 Lizbeth crochet thread. These packs are already color-coordinated for fall and autumn, which I thought were the same thing, but that’s how they’re labeled, so I’ll go with it! I can envision lots of beautiful designs using some or all of these threads!!! And they were on special (normally $19.95 each) for $15.80 each plus an additional 15% off! How could I pass them up at those great prices? Obviously, I couldn’t! I got all 10 balls for just $28.47. They’re normally $3.95 each before taxes!

The 2^nd thing I bought was 3 knitting patterns by Pam Powers. These are fabulous patterns. They’re photographed nicely, they’re laid out well, they’re printed on tri-fold heavy cardstock and they have wonderful charts, too. They were buy 2 (at $7 each), get 1 free! So I picked out my favorite 3 patterns to make or learn from to design other knitting patterns. I bought the patterns named Clair De Lune Shawl, Battenburg Lace Scarf and Brooklyn Boot Liners & Mitts. I really enjoyed meeting Pam in her booth and talking with her at the show. She has a book of knitting designs called “Dress-to-Impress Knitted Scarves” by Stackpole Books. I really like a lot of the projects in that book, so I’ll have to add it to my ever growing “wish list”!

The 3^rd thing I bought was 2 balls of beautiful yarns for knitting or crocheting. They are Louisa Harding Yarns Amitola and Lang Yarns Mille Colori Baby. I have some 1-skein projects in mind to design with these yarns!

While in the marketplace, I also met Linda Krag in the Cast Off Chemo booth. She is working hard to raise awareness and funds for the cancer research of Dr. David Krag that will do away with chemotherapy and cure cancer. For more information about Cast Off Chemo, please visit their website. Here’s Linda and her assistant in the Cast Off Chemo booth (Linda is on the right in the photo):

Cast Off Chemo has some very nice knit and crochet patterns for sale. All of the proceeds from the sale of their patterns go straight to the cancer research. You can see all of their patterns on their Ravelry page here. I got a skein of some really pretty pink yarn (by Wool2Dye4) from Linda to design something for this project. I’ll have to put some thought into what I can design with the 400 yards in the one skein of yarn. Of course I’ll let you all know what I design and when the pattern is available for purchase from Cast Off Chemo!

There was a Gala Banquet on Friday evening with Debbie Macomber as the keynote speaker, but I decided to relax that night and not try to do everything at the craft festival! Often, I try to do too much and suffer the consequences when I do! It’s rough getting old!!!

On Saturday, I taught the other 2 classes: Polish Stars and Intermeshing. Here are photos of the students in each of those classes:

As you can see, these classes were pretty small, but they were enjoyable and went great! All of the ladies in the classes (except for one who left early) learned the techniques. Two of the ladies in the Polish Stars class actually took my Irish Crochet class the day before, too! I was able to sit and demonstrate the Intermeshing to the 3 students in that class, which helped immensely!

At lunchtime on Saturday, I went out to lunch with 2 friends: Beth and Melissa. They both live in Indiana. Beth is one of the senior portfolio reviewers for the CGOA Masters program. She and Melissa work together and they both crochet. We had a delicious lunch at a nearby Irish Pub called J. K. O’Donnell’s. I had the lamb pasty and their potato & leek soup. It was SOOOO good (and reasonably priced, as well)! Here’s a photo of the 3 of us at lunchtime:

After teaching my afternoon class, I went to my hotel room and changed into my Star Trek Halloween costume (yes, it was actually Halloween that day). I met Beth and Melissa, who also had on their costumes, down the hall in the hotel. We went to the Annie’s Crafts & Cocktails Halloween Party. I had a blast! Here we are with our costumes on:

There was another lady there who dressed up in a Star Trek dress, too. She sewed her dress, whereas I crocheted mine. Here we are waiting for the room to open:

At the party, there were some carnival-type games to play to win tickets (like throw a yarn ball into a basket, toss an embroidery hoop onto the stem of a pumpkin and guess the weight of the yarn with the yarn label covered up). After winning tickets, you could cash them in for prizes. Here’s the “loot” that I won that night:

The Denise interchangeable knitting needle set was a bargain at only 8 tickets! And each of the skeins of yarn was just 1 ticket each! Woohoo! I got 13 skeins of yarn, the knitting needle set, some natural wool roving (I might try to spin with it), some yarn bobbins and some cable stitch holders. There was also a photo booth to take your photo for putting on social media (or just for personal use). Here I am posing in the photo booth:

Since my classes that were originally scheduled for Sunday were cancelled, I flew home on Sunday. I really enjoyed the 2 days that I was there and look forward to attending/teaching again next year!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into the fun that I had at the Annie’s Craft Festival. And I hope you’ll consider attending next year! Keep your eyes and ears open for more information about the 2016 Annie’s Craft Festival! I look forward to seeing/meeting you there!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

August 18, 2014August 18, 2014

2014 CGOA Conference Afterglow

Have you ever attended a conference that was so inspirational and fun that you wanted to go back every year? Well, I have. Let me tell you about the CGOA Conference that was held in Manchester, NH last month, from July 23 through July 27.

First of all, I taught 3 classes there (Shuttle Tatting, Symbol Crochet and my Faux Tatted Necklace). All 3 classes went great and my students were very eager to learn! A few of my students actually finished their projects in class or during the conference! And two of my shuttle tatting students really took off with their shuttle tatting! Here are photos of some students and/or their projects:

Jennifer Ryan with her Faux Tatted Necklace

Juanita's tatted necklace — Juanita’s tatted necklace

Jennifer Ryan is modeling her Faux Tatted Necklace that she finished during that 3 hour class. Isn’t her necklace beautiful? This necklace is actually crocheted to look like it’s tatted. Check out Jennifer’s website if you’d like to see some of her fabulous designs and photos of the yarn bombing at the conference! Jennifer headed up the yarn bombing and it was amazing! If you don’t know what a yarn bombing is, it’s a special display of crocheted pieces that are wrapped around stationary items, such as benches, poles, etc. The yarn bombing was wonderful, thanks to Jennifer’s hard work!

The light blue necklace was made by Juanita. This is a real tatted necklace, not a faux tatted crochet necklace. Juanita had it almost done on Sunday after taking my shuttle tatting class on Thursday. She really took to tatting like a duck takes to water! Juanita took my Faux Tatted Necklace class, too, and finished that necklace shortly after the class.

One of my tatting students wrote a short blog post about learning to tat. You can read Lindsey’s blog post and see pictures of her finished and/or in-progress tatting projects here.

I’m very proud of all my students. They all learned the subject of the class, whether it was shuttle tatting, faux tatting or symbol crochet. They each worked at their own pace and understood what I was teaching them. I had a blast teaching and enjoyed meeting all of my students! They were fabulous!!!

When I wasn’t teaching classes, I was taking classes. Since I learned to knit last summer, I decided to take 2 knitting classes this time. Both teachers were excellent. The first knitting class I took was “Russian-Style Continental Knitting” by Galina Khmeleva. Obviously, Galina is Russian! She had some fantastic stories and her laid back style of teaching was refreshing! I learned a few things in that class that will help me with my knitting, including an easier and faster way to cast on stitches with the long tail method (I was doing it the hard way before, but not anymore!). Here’s a picture of Galina:

The 2^nd knitting class I took was by Michelle Hunter. It was called “Spice Up Your Stitches”. Michelle is/was an elementary school teacher and it showed in her fabulous teaching method, which left no one behind and kept the whole class on task! She did a lot of demonstrating and encouraging, which was wonderful! I learned many different stitches and stitch patterns in that class. I’m even using one of them already to design a knit cowl with some gorgeous yarn! Here’s a photo of the swatch I made in Michelle’s class:

I haven’t blocked it and I don’t intend to block it, since it’s just a swatch for learning purposes. As you can see, I learned many new knitting stitches and techniques in Michelle’s class, including bobbles.

Now, lest you think that’s all I did at the conference, I’ll tell you about the other things I did. I took the Wednesday morning event called “Get Your Geek On”. There were a bunch of us there discussing various “geeky” things about crochet, such as how we hold our hook, yarn, etc. It was fun!

On Wednesday afternoon, I was one of 3 presenters at the first CGOA Masters Day (it was half a day, but you get the idea). We talked about the CGOA Masters program in general, reviewed some swatches, talked about gauge, reviewing your own work, organizing Masters portfolios, as well as joining smoothly, finishing off and weaving in ends neatly. We had a great turnout with around 30 attendees. They were all eager to learn more and get their questions answered. I think it was a big hit!

On Wednesday night, I was one of 3 judges in the CGOA Design Competition. The other 2 judges were Karen Manthey and Jenny King. There were 82 original, inspirational entries and it was sometimes hard for the 3 of us to agree on the first, second and third place winners in each of the 5 categories. To see a list of the winners and photos of their winning entries, check out this blog post on Doris Chan’s website. Doris Chan heads up the design competition. She works tirelessly and does an amazing job of organizing everything before, during and after the conference. Thank you so much, Doris, for all of your hard work! The grand prize winner was by Dot Drake again this year. Here’s a photo of her gorgeous top:

2014 Design Competition grand prize winning entry by Dot Drake

There were tons of fish, a mermaid, seashells, an octopus, a seahorse and lots more in this fabulous crocheted top. The photo doesn’t look quite as good as the actual piece up close and personal!

On Saturday morning, I attended the CGOA Board meeting, since I’m the secretary on the CGOA Board of Directors. It’s always nice when we can have our board meeting face-to-face instead of through conference calls! The CGOA Board members make decisions on how to improve CGOA and where we should be heading each year. It’s an honor to be on the Board and to help steer CGOA in positive directions! This past year, we’ve updated the CGOA website to add crochet videos and to update the look of the website with a new banner, which I had the privilege of creating for CGOA.

On Saturday night, we had our banquet and fashion show. I enjoy modeling in the fashion show and being part of the “behind-the-scenes” of the models backstage!

I met 2 wonderful ladies at the conference: Samantha and Kristin. I also met a lot of new people to me in my classes (both the classes I taught and the classes I took). I love meeting new people. That’s one of the nicest things about the conference. And we all speak the same language of crochet!!! Here’s a photo of Samantha wearing an amazing vintage crochet dress at the CGOA Banquet/Fashion Show and a close up photo of some of the stitching in this amazing dress:

close up of Samantha's vintage dress — close up of Samantha’s vintage dress

All in all, it was a fantastic conference. No, not everything went perfectly. When does it? But we all enjoyed ourselves and learned more about crochet by attending.

I would be remiss if I didn’t show you the beautiful tiered cake that one of my mentees, Carlotta Craig, crocheted for CGOA’s 20^th Anniversary this year! Isn’t this fabulous? Here’s a photo of Carlotta and me, too. She is one very talented and humble lady!

Carlotta's fabulous CGOA cake — Carlotta’s fabulous CGOA cake

Next year’s CGOA Conference (aka: Knit & Crochet Show) will be held in San Diego! I can hardly wait!!! My husband and I used to live there back in the 80’s, in our “BC” days (before children). We had a little sailboat and sailed around Mission Bay on some weekends. My brother and sister-in-law still live in the area and my mother-in-law lives just 2 hours north of San Diego. It’ll be great to see all of them again (who can resist staying longer to get together with relatives?)!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into my week at the 2014 CGOA Conference. I hope you’ll be able to attend the conference soon. You won’t regret it!!! For more information about the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA), check out the CGOA website here.

Happy crocheting,

Susan

March 7, 2014March 7, 2014

2014 CGOA Conference Classes

Don’t you just love learning new crochet stitches and techniques? I do! And I love teaching others new stitches and techniques, too.

I’m very excited to be teaching classes at the CGOA (Crochet Guild of America) Conference this year! This conference is special because 2014 is the 20^th Anniversary of CGOA!!! This year’s conference will be held from July 23 – 27 at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, NH, where we’ve had the conference many times before.

The 3 classes I’m teaching are:

1) Tatting the Old-Fashioned Way on Thursday, July 24 from 9 AM – 5 PM

2) Simplifying Symbol Crochet on Friday, July 25 from 9 AM – noon

3) “Faux” Tatting Crochet Necklace on Sunday, July 27 from 9 AM – noon

You read that right, I’m teaching tatting, not crochet for one of my classes! From time to time, we have a few classes that are similar to or related to crochet and knitting, but not crochet or knitting. In 2011, the fall conference was in Greensboro, NC and Maggie Weldon taught a class on lace pottery. I took that class and LOVED it! My pottery didn’t turn out as nice as hers, but I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the class! Since Maggie lives near Greensboro, she took our class projects home the first night of the class and fired them in her kiln. Then she brought them back the next day and we finished them up in the 2^nd half of the class. You can see Maggie’s amazing lace pottery on her website here. I absolutely LOVE her lace pottery!!!

There have been some classes taught at the conference on making buttons from Fimo clay, too. Of course, many crochet and/or knitting projects use buttons, so buttons are related to the needle arts!

Okay, back to my tatting class. I’ll be teaching shuttle tatting in this class, not needle tatting. If you’ve always wanted to learn to shuttle tat, I’d love to have you in my class. You’ll learn everything you need to be successful in tatting, from how to wind the shuttle through making rings and chains to create your first tatted piece. Two tatting shuttles are included in the class fee, so you’ll only need to bring the appropriate sizes of crochet thread, along with an eagerness to learn! If you want to take this class, please sign up early because this class fills up quickly and I’ve limited it to only 20 students. Here’s a look at the tatted necklace you’ll be making (starting) in the class:

In my Symbol Crochet class, I’ll teach my students how to read and follow symbol crochet charts, which are much easier than following a written crochet pattern. We’ll read and follow charts for projects in rows and in rounds. Once you can read and follow a symbol crochet chart, you’ll be able to make anything you want, even Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian or Spanish crochet patterns with crochet symbols, without having any knowledge of the language! Here are some crochet symbols that you’ll learn in the class:

I love making crocheted jewelry and my Faux Tatted Necklace is one of those pieces of crocheted jewelry that I love to make! I designed this necklace about 5 years ago to look just like the tatted necklace that is part of my shuttle tatting class. But you don’t need to know how to tat to make the necklace in this class! The necklace is crocheted with size 10 crochet thread and approx. 23 buttons, beads or charms of your choice. I think it looks great! I’ve made many of these necklaces in various colors to go with different outfits in my wardrobe. The wonderful things about the necklace are that it’s completely washable and there’s no clasp to fiddle with, since the necklace is big enough to go over your head! The class fee covers the cost of the pattern. You choose (and bring) the thread color and buttons, beads or charms that you’d like to use for your necklace. Here’s one of the necklaces that I’ve made:

If you’ve never been to a CGOA Conference (aka: Chain Link Conference or Knit & Crochet Show) before, you don’t know what you’re missing! It’s a fabulous time to meet other crochet enthusiasts. You’ll learn more crochet techniques and stitches to further your crochet skills and knowledge at the conference and come away with many new friendships to last a lifetime! Check out the full schedule of crochet and knitting classes here.

If you’re not a CGOA member, yet, there’s no time like the present to join! Just go to the CGOA website and check out everything that CGOA has to offer! It’s wonderful to belong to an organization that is dedicated to furthering the art of crochet!

Happy crocheting,

Susan