crochet techniques – Page 3 – The Crochet Architect

December 30, 2015

4 Crochet Resolutions for 2016

Who doesn’t love the new year? It’s a chance to start afresh and take a look at what’s important in life. I love to make goals for myself, even if I don’t achieve all of them! At least I’m moving in the right direction! Here are my 4 business goals for 2016:

Film some crochet videos and start a YouTube channel. I’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time, but never seem to make it a priority, so I haven’t even started on this goal. But I hope that 2016 will be different and that I’ll take the plunge into filming some crochet videos for others to enjoy and learn from to help increase crochet knowledge and skills throughout the world! I love to share my crochet knowledge with others and to encourage them, so this is a good way to do that (in addition to teaching classes in person)!

Publish 12 new crochet/knitting patterns. This is a big goal for me because my track record on self-publishing patterns isn’t this high! I only published 9 patterns last year and 4 this year (this year was hard because of the loss of my brother, getting a new puppy and taking a 2 1/2 week trip to China to visit our son and DIL). But I’m aiming to make this goal a reality by taking good photos of these 12 projects this weekend so I’ll be one step closer to achieving this goal! I have at least 12 new crochet/knitting patterns that are almost done, so I should be able to meet this goal (and possibly exceed it).

Blog weekly. Wow! This goal is also a big one for me because I have fallen short of this many times! But at least I get back up on the horse (or the blog) to try again! I will try a few different ways to schedule blogging into my life and see which one works best to stay on track with this one! Obviously blogging when I feel like it is NOT working! My emotions are way too fickle and I fall into slumps quite often!

Start and run a Ravelry group. This one is actually already started/done! Yesterday, I started a group on Ravelry to discuss my crochet and/or knitting patterns (and crochet in general)! And I have some friends who have already joined! Woohoo!!! I’ve had this goal for at least a year and I decided to stop putting it off. In the words of Shia LaBeouf, “JUST DO IT”!!! If you’d like to join this Ravelry group to ask questions about my crochet/knit designs or to simply discuss crocheting, you can find the group here.

I also have some personal crochet/knitting goals for 2016. I want to learn to do mosaic crochet in the round and brioche knitting next year. I have the books for both of these techniques, so I just need to make the time to learn them. I already know how to do mosaic crochet in rows, but not in rounds. I love teaching this technique because it’s so fascinating to see the design start to emerge with each new row that’s worked! Here’s a photo of a mosaic crochet project:

This is my mosaic crochet scarf pattern. This scarf is worked in rows with no ends to weave in because the ends are all turned into fringe when you’re done crocheting it! Mosaic crochet is worked with only 1 color of yarn in each row, so you don’t have to change colors across the rows. I LOVE this technique because I LOVE geometric patterns and it’s really fun to do! Here’s a photo of the mosaic crochet project worked in rounds that I want to learn to do in 2016:

This afghan is called “Sudoku” and the pattern is found in a leaflet called “Herrschners 2014 National Afghan Contest Winners Crochet Afghans”. You can find that leaflet for sale on the Herrschners website here. They also sell a kit to make the afghan here. I don’t know if I’ll take the time to make the whole afghan, but I’d like to make a few of the squares to learn how to do mosaic crochet in the round instead of in rows! The square in the center of the afghan looks the most interesting to me!

If you’re not familiar with Brioche knitting, it creates a thick knitted fabric that looks so intriguing! I have a book on Brioche knitting, as well as on the Twigg Stitch, which is Brioche knitting “on steroids”, as far as I’m concerned! Both of these knitting techniques should provide a good challenge, but I need to make sure that I’m having a good thinking day and not too many distractions to learn them (they seem intense to me as a fairly new knitter)!

So there you have it! I may change some of these goals throughout the year and possibly add to them, but at least I have a “plan of action” to move forward instead of stagnating!

What are some of YOUR crochet goals/resolutions for 2016? What new crochet and/or knitting techniques do YOU want to learn next year?

Happy crocheting,

Susan

September 18, 2015September 18, 2015

How Many Scarves Are Enough?

If you’re anything like me, you can never have too many scarves! I LOVE to crochet scarves for many reasons. I can try out different crochet techniques (and not be committed to make an afghan or some project that takes up a lot of time and energy). Obviously, I can crochet a scarf in a short amount of time (like 2-6 hours for most scarves). Scarves make wonderful gifts for the Holidays! A crocheted scarf doesn’t break the bank, either! And some scarf patterns are a great way to use up scraps of yarn, too.

Well, I’ve gone and done it again! I have a new crochet scarf pattern for you. It’s my Crochet Mosaic Scarf and I really love this one! The pattern includes 2 versions of the scarf, so you can choose which one you’d prefer to make. Here’s the scarf, in the 2 versions that I designed:

The turquoise scarf is 4 rows wider than the black/pink/orange/yellow scarf. It’s made with light weight yarn, whereas the black/pink/orange/yellow scarf is made with worsted weight yarn. Both scarves are 4″ wide x 55-56″ long, plus the fringe.

And do you want to know the best thing about this scarf? THERE ARE NO ENDS TO WEAVE IN!!! I LOVE that! The ends are incorporated into the added fringe instead of weaving them in! Can I get an AMEN to that?

If you’ve never tried the mosaic crochet technique, it’s really quite easy and satisfying. The pattern takes shape as you crochet each row. I love this technique! The rows are crocheted in alternating colors (dark, light, dark, light), which creates the horizontal lines of the pattern. Each row is worked on the right side of the piece and a special stitch is used to make the vertical lines of the pattern.

I hope you’ll give this scarf (or any beautiful, fun, interesting, exciting scarf) a try. And put some on your holiday crochet gift list, too. You’ll have them whipped up in no time!

You can read more about this scarf and purchase the pattern for $4.95 on our Pattern Page here.

Happy crocheting,

Susan

March 16, 2015March 15, 2015

2015 Crochetville National Crochet Month Designer Blog Tour

I’m thrilled to take part in the 3^rd Annual Designer Blog Tour that Amy and Donna at Crochetville have put together. If you haven’t been keeping up with the blog tour that’s going on all of this month, you can read all about it and visit the many other designers’ blogs here.

One of the things we do for National Crochet Month is have a special charity that we’re supporting. This year the charity is Halos of Hope, which provides handmade hats to cancer centers across America. You can read all about them and find out how you can join in on their mission here.

Another thing that Amy and Donna at Crochetville are doing during March (National Crochet Month) is daily giveaways. If you haven’t checked those out and entered to win, you can find out all about them here.

All of the designers who are taking part for the whole month of March (National Crochet Month) are members of CGOA (the Crochet Guild of America). I’ve been a CGOA member for around 12 years now! Wow! Time really flies! To find out more about CGOA, check out their website here. I’m honored to have been the secretary on the CGOA Board of Directors since June, 2012, as well as co-chair of the CGOA Masters program. I’ll blog more about the CGOA Masters program on my CGOA Now blog post on March 27, as part of this Designer Blog Tour. So if you’d like some information about the Masters program, check out that blog post on March 27 here. I’m also working with Bobbie Matela from Red Heart/Coats & Clark this year to put together the CGOA Design Competition at the yearly conference in San Diego, CA this July! If you live anywhere near the west coast, this is your opportunity to attend an event that’s dedicated solely to the advancement of crochet!

If you’ve never been to the CGOA Conference (aka: the Knit and Crochet Show), you don’t know what you’re missing! It’s so much fun! You can read all about it here. TKGA (The Knitting Guild Association) is the knitting part of this conference. There will be lots of knit and crochet classes to take, a show floor with lots of knit and crochet vendors (with yarns, hooks, needles, patterns, etc to buy), fun events, a Masters Day for both TKGA and CGOA and new fiber friends to make! I love attending the conference each year where I either teach classes or take them (I’m taking classes this year). I love to learn more crocheting and knitting, don’t you? The K&C Show’s class schedule was posted last week and registration should open within the next week, I think. If you’re attending the conference, make sure you register early to get the classes you want to take. Once they’re full, you’re out of luck and you may have to take an alternate class instead of your first choice!

I hope you’re enjoying National Crochet Month and getting in lots of crochet time each day! I crochet year-round, so there aren’t too many days that go by without a crochet hook (or knitting needles) in my hands! I’ve been celebrating National Crochet Month by posting a photo and link to a FREE crochet pattern every day this month. Please check out my other blog posts to see the FREE patterns that you’ve missed! I hope you enjoy many of them and will keep watching my blog each day during the rest of March to get links to more FREE crochet patterns.

In honor of National Crochet Month, I’m giving a 25% discount on all crochet patterns on my website, from today through March 31. So you have just over 2 weeks to purchase any Crochet Architect patterns that you want with this “special” National Crochet Month discount. The discount is only available on this website, not in my Ravelry, Craftsy or Etsy shops. To purchase your patterns with this discount, just input the discount code of “NatCroMo2015” when you check out. You can see all of my patterns here.

I love lots of crochet techniques and one of my favorite techniques is Wiggly Crochet. It’s one of those crochet techniques that is so interesting and fun to do! If you’re a fan of Wiggly Crochet, like me, you’ll find many exclusive Wiggly Crochet patterns right here on my website. If you’re curious about Wiggly Crochet, check out my tutorial here and my blog post here with a link to a FREE Wiggly Crochet pattern! You can see all of the Wiggly Crochet patterns available on my website here.

I hope you’ll enjoy the blog posts, tutorials and crochet patterns on my website. If you’d like to follow my blog, simply subscribe to my blog with your e-mail address. Your e-mail address will not be shared or sold. It will remain confidential, I promise!

In my crochet designs, I strive to create classic designs that are pleasing to the eye, well-balanced and color-coordinated. I hope you enjoy them! If you ever have a question about one of my crochet patterns, please send me a message at the bottom of my “About Me” page and I’ll answer your question ASAP!

I’ve been a crochet designer for over 15 years now. It’s been a blast doing what I love to do! I look forward to the next 15 years of designing and teaching crochet!

Happy crocheting,

Susan Lowman

October 1, 2014September 30, 2014

“Tunisian Crochet for Baby” Book Review and Giveaway

Are you a big fan of Tunisian crochet? I really enjoy the rhythm of this wonderful crochet technique. I enjoy putting the stitches on the hook and taking them off. In my mind, Tunisian crochet is like marrying the best of crochet and knitting! In fact, many of the stitches in Tunisian crochet look just like knit stitches (at least on the right side of the work). If you’ve never tried Tunisian crochet, what are you waiting for? Why not give it a try today?

I recently came across a new Tunisian crochet book with baby patterns in it. It’s called “Tunisian Crochet for Baby” by Sharon Hernes Silverman. The book is published by Stackpole Books and retails for $21.95. It has 140 pages with 23 patterns, along with instructions and step-by-step photos for working basic crochet stitches, as well as Tunisian crochet stitches. There are projects for every skill level, too. I recommend this book if you’ve done Tunisian crochet before and are looking for some really cute Tunisian crochet baby projects to make. There are blankets, hats, a pullover, pants, a headband, mittens, a hoodie, a skirt, a poncho, a turban, a nursery box, washcloths, a cocoon, as well as a christening gown, bonnet and booties. Here are some of my favorite projects from this book:

This is the Harlequin Blanket. It is worked in the entrelac method of making squares and attaching the new square to the previous square as you go, so there are no seams involved. I’ve seen this technique before, but I’ve never tried it. I intend to do that one of these days because it looks like it would be relaxing to make, but have enough interest to hold my attention!

This is the Sherbet Stripes Blanket and Hat. I LOVE the colors in this set! And I also love how the hat is made with Tunisian knit and purl stitches, which look just like a knitted hat! The blanket is made with Tunisian simple stitch and edged with crocheted shells. I’m looking forward to learning to decrease stitches in Tunisian crochet by making this baby hat someday soon!

This is the Nursery Box filled with the Washcloth Quartet (4 different washcloths). I LOVE quick projects, and these washcloths are just that. They’d make great baby shower gifts for any mother-to-be!

Besides the wonderful projects, another thing I really like about this book is the charts showing which stitches are worked in each row or round. I’ve never seen Tunisian crochet charts before (or never really noticed them). I really like being able to see visually what the written instructions are saying to do!

So if you’re looking for a really nice book with Tunisian crochet projects to make for babies, I hope you’ll consider adding this book to your crochet library! You can check out all the projects in the Look Book that Stackpole Books has on their website here. The book is available in paperback or as an ebook in pdf format through Stackpole Books here or as a printed book through Amazon here.

As a bonus for this blog tour, I’m having a giveaway for a pdf download of this book. The giveaway runs through October 8^th. To enter the giveaway and receive a complimentary, instant pdf download of this fabulous book, simply leave a comment on this blog post to be entered. The lucky winner will be randomly drawn and announced on October 9^th. Good luck and happy crocheting!

Susan

September 23, 2014September 23, 2014

Contemporary Celtic Crochet

What do you like most about crochet? Are you someone who loves the textures that you can make in crochet with a solid color of yarn? I definitely do! One of the crochet techniques that uses a lot of crochet stitches with texture is Celtic crochet.

I’d like to share some information about a book that I recently got by Bonnie Barker, who I met at the CGOA Conference this year in July. Bonnie is a sweet person and has a lot of talent, both in crochet and in music. Bonnie wrote the lyrics for a song called “Ripping Out is Hard to Do” that she, Jennifer Ryan (another crochet designer) and Terri Mitchell (Bonnie’s neighbor) performed at the conference this year. Here’s a photo of the 3 of them performing this song:

From left to right: Terri, Jennifer and Bonnie

The song was a “riot”!!! Bonnie wrote the parody lyrics, which were sung to the tune of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” by Neil Sedaka. As you can see in the photo, Bonnie played the guitar, Jennifer sang the song and Terri did the silly acting out of the words. What a hoot!!!

Now back to some crochet seriousness! Bonnie has a new crochet book this year called “Contemporary Celtic Crochet”, published by Fons & Porter Books (an imprint of F&W). Here’s a photo of the front cover of the book:

This 128 page book retails for $24.99 in the US and contains 24 designs, from scarves to sweaters, vests, baby blankets, sweater wraps and much more. I’ve never seen a sweater wrap before and perhaps you haven’t, either. I’ll explain what a sweater wrap is later on in this blog post. But for now, I’d like to tell you a little about this book and share photos of my favorite designs in it with you so you can decide if this book is something you’d like to add to your crochet library.

One of my favorite projects in this book is the Kells Cabled Sweater. It’s a V-neck sweater with a beautiful edging along the bottom of the sleeves and sweater. The sleeves are loose and comfortable looking in the photo. See for yourself:

Doesn’t this look like a comfortable sweater? It definitely does to me!

Here are a few photos of another one of my favorite projects in this book:

This is the Baby Feet Baby Blanket. Aren’t these baby feet adorable? I don’t think I’ve ever seen baby feet on a baby blanket like this before! This is a pattern that I’ll definitely be looking closer at when my grandchildren start arriving (hint, hint!).

Okay, so what is a sweater wrap? According to Bonnie’s book, she first saw this style of garment while visiting the west coast of Ireland. Bonnie says in the book, “A sweater wrap is a wrap that thinks and acts like a sweater. It is a practical choice when you don’t want to wear a sweater, yet a stole alone is just not quite warm enough. The added back panel attached to the stole keeps you just as warm as you want to be.” Here are some photos of one of the 4 sweater wraps in the book, modeled by one of Bonnie’s daughters:

I think the bottom edging on this sweater wrap is really nice! Each of the 4 sweater wraps is made with different Celtic Crochet stitches. They’re all very nice and don’t require any shaping, like sweaters do, so they’d be much easier to crochet.

Here’s the other baby blanket in this book:

This is the Hialeah Honey Baby Blanket. It sure has LOTS of texture!!!

And here is the backpack and purse, which I really like, too:

The backpack and purse have a basket weave pattern to them.

Bonnie even included a Celtic Cross Afghan in the book. Here is a photo of that afghan (and a coordinating pillow right above it) with a lot of texture, as well:

This is a really nice looking afghan and I love the edging on it, too! Since I’m a Christian, this afghan has a lot of meaning to me.

Unfortunately, I can’t show you photos of all the projects in this book. But I can tell you that there are 36 pages of instructions and step-by-step photos of how to crochet the special stitches and Celtic stitches in this book. These stitches include the arrow, baby feet toe popcorns, back post and front post double crochet, back post and front post treble crochet, basket weave, braided cable, buttonholes, cable, Celtic cross, Celtic weave, diamond, honeycomb, knotted fringe, knurl, low back ridge, low front ridge, popcorn, front post and back post ribbing, shadow box, shell with picot, single crochet ribbing, wheat, woven and more! These stitch instructions are fabulous!!!

Bonnie and her husband, Craig, traveled to Ireland on a business trip in 2012. The inspiration for Bonnie’s designs in this book came from that trip. Here is a photo of Bonnie and Craig in Ireland:

Bonnie also included some photos in her Celtic Crochet book of places in Ireland that she and Craig visited on their trip. It looks like a beautiful country!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at “Contemporary Celtic Crochet”. You can see and purchase the book on Amazon here or through Interweave here. To read about Bonnie and follow her designing career, check out her website here.

Happy crocheting,

Susan

September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

Design Inspiration behind Snowflake Afghan

Have you ever wondered where designers get the inspiration for their designs? Well, inspiration comes from many places. For me, it can come from seeing something in a store, on a website or in a book. It can also come from seeing a garment or accessory that someone is wearing. My newest design, “It Takes All Colors Snowflakes” afghan, was inspired by a knitted sweater in my own closet! I don’t always get inspired by my sweaters, but this sweater was truly inspiring to me! It’s an older sweater and has seen its better days, especially around the bottom of the sleeves. But I love the snowflake pattern on it and the bright colors that were used, so I knew I had to use this design in a crochet pattern someday. Here’s a photo of the sweater (and a close up photo of it) for you to see:

Here are photos of my snowflake afghan to compare to the sweater:

I used 8 colors (plus black) of Red Heart “With Love” yarn to make this afghan. It’s worked in the Fair Isle crochet technique in which each row is worked on the right side. The tails are all turned into fringe on the left and right edges afterward, so there are no tails/ends to weave in (yahoo!). Fair Isle crochet is a great technique that yields a fabulous finished design! And since the non-working color is worked over instead of being carried across the back, the afghan is reversible, too! Here is a close up photo of a section on the back of the afghan to see:

You can find this pattern on the Mainly Crochet website here. If you’re not familiar with Mainly Crochet, it’s an online magazine started by Michele Maks, the former editor for Crochet World magazine. I met Michele in person at a CGOA Conference (possibly in 2009, but I could be wrong about the year!). Michele purchased quite a few of my crochet patterns during the years that she was the editor of Crochet World! She started out as a designer several decades ago, before she was the editor for Crochet World magazine. She’s a fabulous designer and a great magazine editor with a keen eye! A few years after leaving Crochet World, Michele decided to start her own online magazine called “Mainly Crochet”. The Mainly Crochet website went live in the summer of 2013 and has been going strong ever since! It is a subscription magazine that costs $24 per year. There are over 190 patterns on the website now. They’re all accessible to paid subscribers to download as PDF files onto their computers or tablets. Mainly Crochet has a lot of fabulous patterns by many talented designers! There are patterns for all skill levels and for all types of projects: from afghans to accessories to doilies and lots more! Check it out!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the inspiration behind my “It Takes All Colors Snowflakes” afghan design and will give this crochet technique a try.

Happy crocheting,

Susan Lowman

July 3, 2014

NEW Wiggly Crochet Tutorial!

Do you know what Wiggly Crochet is or is it one of those crochet techniques that you’ve never heard of before? Have you tried to do Wiggly Crochet, but haven’t been successful? I have a new tutorial for you on how to do Wiggly Crochet. I think you’re going to LOVE it, just like I do!!!

Here’s a sample of a few projects done in Wiggly Crochet:

Can you see how this hot pad is 3-dimensional? Not all crochet techniques do that, but Wiggly Crochet does!

I learned to do Wiggly Crochet over 10 years ago and I’ve enjoyed it tremendously ever since then. I’ve designed a bunch of Wiggly Crochet projects, too. And I have a friend to thank for introducing me to Wiggly Crochet. Thanks so much, Vicki!

To read about how I learned to do Wiggly Crochet and to learn how it’s done so you can enjoy it, too, check out my new Wiggly Crochet tutorial here.

Happy Wiggly Crocheting!

Susan

May 12, 2014

Yarn Control and Keeping my Sanity!

Have you ever been happily crocheting away and the skein of yarn you’re using starts falling apart in front of your eyes? Well, that happened to me over the past month while working on a crochet design for a publisher. I was crocheting a project that is done in the Fair Isle technique. Oh, you haven’t heard of that technique yet, you say? Karen Whooley has designed a lot of projects in the Fair Isle Crochet technique, which is similar to the Tapestry Crochet technique, but not quite the same. You can see some Fair Isle projects that Karen Whooley has designed over the past 7 years on her Ravelry designer page. Check out Karen’s Fair Isle Crochet class on Craftsy, too. It looks like it would be a great class to take for those who want to learn to do Fair Isle Crochet!

In Karen’s Fair Isle Crochet technique, she works her single crochet in the BACK LOOP of the stitches (this is different from Tapestry Crochet, which is worked in BOTH LOOPS of the stitches). Karen also carries the non-working color on top of the stitches, encasing it until needed again, just like in the Tapestry Crochet technique. I worked my project in this style of Fair Isle, which worked very well, since the stitches don’t slant (like they do in Tapestry Crochet) and the back of the project looks as neat as the front!

Anyway, back to the trouble I was having with my yarn misbehaving! Since I was using 2 colors in each row of my project, I had to change back and forth between the colors often. And since I always crossed the colors the same way each time (whether that is correct or not, I’m not sure!), the 2 yarns wrapped around each other after a certain number of color changes. So I had to take one skein of the yarn and unwrap the 2 yarns, bringing the skein over and under the strand of the other color yarn many times so they wouldn’t get tangled. But that wasn’t too bad, all things considered. What was bad was how the skein of yarn that I handled a lot to unwrap the 2 yarns starting falling apart on the outside like this:

After working many rows of my project and having the skeins do this, I decided to do something about it! So I purchased some yarn sleeves to keep the outside of the skeins intact! Here’s one of the skeins with the yarn sleeve in use:

This yarn sleeve really saved my life (that may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but not too far from it)! I had never used or owned a yarn sleeve before, but it was time to give them a try. And I’m so glad I did. The yarn sleeve worked really well at keeping the yarn together when I handled it so much. And that saved a little of my sanity! When I told a friend of mine that I had bought the yarn sleeves to use, she said I could do the same thing with some panty hose! I hadn’t thought of that, but it sounds like it would work. Have you used something else to keep your yarn under control like this?

When I was done with my project, I decided to use my handy yarn winder and turn all the leftover skeins of yarn into neat “cakes” so they’d fit better into the box for storage. They’ll also be easier to use the next time I need to design something with these yarn colors instead of pulling my hair out in the middle of the project trying to untangle them! This is how some of the yarns looked before winding them up for storage:

And this is how they looked after winding them up:

Don’t they look organized and ready to use again? These 8 yarn colors above, plus black, are the colors I used in the project I just completed, which I recently shipped off to the publisher. I can’t show you the project now, but I can show it to you in July or August, after it’s published.

If you’re looking for a way (or 2) for controlling your yarn, I hope you’ll give yarn sleeves and winding the yarn into cakes a try! And if you’re looking for a new/different crochet technique to try, why not try the Fair Isle Crochet technique? It’s actually quite fun and the results are spectacular!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

February 21, 2014April 1, 2014

Book Review: Tunisian Crochet Baby Blankets by Sharon Silverman

There are so many wonderful crochet techniques that I enjoy and Tunisian Crochet is one of them. It’s a technique that yields a wonderful fabric that is similar to knitting. With Tunisian Crochet, you add loops to the hook and then work them off. It’s fun and relaxing to do!

I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Sharon Silverman, yet, but I’ve enjoyed her Tunisian crochet designs and books for many years. You can read all about her and see her designs on her website here and on her Ravelry page here. Sharon has a new Tunisian book called “Tunisian Crochet Baby Blankets”, published by Leisure Arts, that I’d like to review for you. Here’s the front cover of Sharon’s book:

Tunisian Crochet Baby Blankets front cover

This fabulous book has 8 baby blanket designs, each worked in various Tunisian Crochet stitches. There are 4 “easy” blankets, 3 “intermediate” blankets and 1 “intermediate plus” blanket. You’ll find lots of instructions and diagrams teaching you how to do these Tunisian stitches in the book, if you’re unfamiliar with some of them. Also, Leisure Arts has videos on their website showing how to work the stitches within each pattern of this book. You can find the videos for this book here. The book has a little video camera symbol printed next to each section of the pattern that includes an online video, so if you’re uncertain about that stitch, just watch the online video. It’s almost like having your own personal crochet teacher right there with you! Online videos are fabulous and I’m so glad that Leisure Arts has starting including them in their new books.

Here are photos of some of my favorite Tunisian blankets in this book:

This is “Bright Stands” and is done with color changes, which I think look fabulous in Tunisian crochet because the stitches are nice and square, not distorted as they are in some other methods of crochet color changes. The instructions in the book show you how to do the color changes for this afghan. I absolutely LOVE the geometric design that Sharon has used in this afghan!

This is “Basket Weave Blocks” and is done with 2 types of Tunisian stitches, which gives it that wonderful basket weave texture!

This is “Bubbling Bobbles”. I’ve never done bobbles in Tunisian crochet, so I’m going to have to give this one a try!

This is “Color Waves”. As you can tell, it’s done in ripples. I’ve never done ripples in Tunisian crochet, either, so this is another one I’m going to try out in my “spare” time!

These are just 4 of the Tunisian baby afghans in this book. To see all of the afghans in the book, check out this page on Ravelry. Here’s the link for this book on the Leisure Arts website. It’s available in both printed book (for $9.99) and in e-book (for $7.99) formats. And it’s also available on Amazon.com in print, as well as for Kindle.

If you’ve never done Tunisian Crochet before, I hope you’ll give it a try with this wonderful book. And if you’re looking to learn more Tunisian Crochet stitches, you’ll find plenty of them to learn in this fabulous book!

Happy crocheting (and Tunisian crocheting),

Susan

February 6, 2014February 9, 2015

Wiggly Crochet Article

Wow! Where did the month of January go? Like many of you, I’ve been busy (with lots of crochet time and family time) and the month just flew by!

So here we are in February already and I have some big news for you. I’m excited to tell you that I wrote my very first crochet article on Wiggly Crochet for the Feb/Mar 2014 issue of Crochet Today magazine. This is the cover of that magazine:

To see the fabulous projects in this issue, just visit the Crochet Today website here. This issue is still available for purchase at many craft stores, so if you’d like to learn to do Wiggly Crochet, what are you waiting for? It’s a lot of fun!!!

Included with the article that teaches you how to do Wiggly Crochet, I designed a Wiggly Crochet Heart swatch that you can make into a pillow, since it measures 12” square (that’s a perfect pillow size!). Here’s a photo of the Heart swatch pattern that’s in the magazine:

I used Red Heart “Luster Sheen” for the foundation mesh and Red Heart “With Love” yarn for the wiggly stitches. This pattern, along with the wiggly crochet chart and some symbol charts, are included in the Feb/Mar 2014 issue of Crochet Today.

I hope you’ll consider learning Wiggly Crochet. It’s a great technique that yields 3-dimensional projects that are perfect for hot pads and coasters, to absorb heat or moisture. I taught a class on Wiggly Crochet at the CGOA Conference in 2010 (in Manchester, NH) and again in 2013 (in Indianapolis, IN). My students loved learning to do Wiggly Crochet and I think you will, too!

Over the last 12 years or so that I’ve been designing crochet patterns, I’ve had 3 books with Wiggly Crochet patterns published: “Hot Stuff for the Holidays” by Jeanette Crews Designs in 2003, “Wiggly Crochet Rugs” by Annie’s in 2009 and “Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths” by Annie’s in 2013. While the first 2 books are out of print, the dishcloths book is still available here. And since Jeanette Crews Designs went out of business, I got the copyright back to the patterns in that book.

If you already know how to do Wiggly Crochet and you’re looking for some Wiggly Crochet patterns, we have some here at The Crochet Architect. We have a wiggly fish rug pattern, 7 wiggly hot pad & coaster sets (most are for specific holidays) and a wiggly playing card set (with the 4 suits: hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades). Check out these patterns and more on our pattern page.

What new crochet technique do you plan to learn this year?

Happy crocheting (and wiggly crocheting),

Susan