During the month of June, I’ll be participating in a “Round Robin” with 3 other crochet teachers from Annie’s online video classes. During the next 3 weeks, I’ll have a special “guest” blogger (once a week)! The teachers who are participating in this guest blogging tour, as well as their class/classes are:
Ellen Gormley: “Learn to Crochet”, “Crocheting With Beads” and her new class coming very soon, “Learn to Crochet Lace”
Jenny King: “Learn to Bavarian Crochet”
Robyn Chachula: “Learn to Crochet Jewelry”
Susan Lowman: “Crocheting With Thread” and “Beginner’s First Doily”
I’ve met these wonderful crochet designers/teachers (Ellen, Jenny and Robyn) at CGOA Conferences over the past 12 years. They’re very friendly and talented ladies! We all enjoy sharing our crochet knowledge with others through our crochet classes and patterns!
We’ll each be sharing some information about our classes, crochet techniques, inspiration and more during the next 3 weeks in June. Plus, each of us will be giving away a FREE class to a lucky winner at the end of the month, too! So when you read the “guest” blog post on my website from one of the other crochet teachers during the next 3 weeks, check out her website and enter to win!
You’ll also have a chance during the next 3 weeks to enter the giveaway on my website to win my crochet class, “Crocheting With Thread”. Just leave a comment in the comments section at the bottom of the “guest” blog post during that week’s post to enter. I’ll pick one lucky winner and will post the winner’s name on June 30th.
Please check back each week to read the guest blog post from one of the other 3 crochet teachers (or subscribe to my blog to receive an e-mail every time I post a blog entry so you don’t miss any blog posts). You’ll have many chances to win a free crochet class from Annie’s during the month of June!
If you’re new to crochet or you learned to crochet from someone else, how do you know if you’re crocheting correctly? Do you hold the hook correctly? Are you holding your yarn correctly? Are you yarning over correctly? These are some of the questions you may be asking yourself. Whenever I’m doing something in crochet incorrectly, I really appreciate someone telling me the correct way to do it so I can improve my crochet skills and knowledge. So I thought I’d share with you the correct way to do a “yarn over” in crochet.
Every stitch in crochet uses a yarn over at some point in time, whether it’s at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the stitch (or in all 3 places). There are many good crochet books written that explain and show how to do the yarn over and the crochet stitches formed by the yarn over correctly. Also, in this age of the internet and internet/website videos, there some great crochet videos to watch that will show you a multitude of fabulous crochet stitches and techniques. I think it’s wonderful to have so much helpful information at my fingertips to learn more about crochet. You probably share this enthusiasm for learning new crochet stitches and techniques, too!
But you know the saying: “Buyer Beware”! Disclaimer:NOT ALL CROCHET VIDEOS ARE CORRECT!
I’d love to be able to say that all of the crochet videos I’ve watched on the internet are sharing the correct information, but that’s simply not true. I’ve seen some videos where the person demonstrating the stitch is saying “yarn over”, but she’s simply grabbing the yarn (with the yarn in front of the crochet hook) and isn’t doing the yarn over correctly. To do a “true” yarn over, you must bring the yarn around the back of the crochet hook, over the top and to the front, like this:
Yarn Over done correctly
If you’re not making your yarn overs in this manner, then you’re doing them incorrectly. Here’s the incorrect way to do your yarn overs:
Yarn Over done incorrectly
Do you see the difference? When you’re doing your yarn overs correctly, the yarn goes over the top of the hook from the back to the front. It doesn’t just sit in front of the hook to grab it: that’s NOT a “yarn over”!
To see some crochet videos, including the correct way to do a yarn over, please visit the CGOA website here if you’re right-handed or here if you’re left-handed. In each of these videos, Kim Guzman, a respected crochet designer, teacher and author, shows how to do a yarn over correctly. The yarn over is used for making the chain, single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet and treble crochet. It’s also used for many other crochet stitches and techniques, including Filet Crochet, Bruges Lace, Wiggly Crochet, Tunisian Crochet, Hairpin Lace, Broomstick Lace and more. As a CGOA Board member, we discussed adding crochet videos to the CGOA website last year and Kim was enthusiastic about doing them for us (thank you so much, Kim). Kim is a wonderful crochet teacher with lots of knowledge and patience! So check out the crochet videos on the CGOA website to make sure you’re doing your yarn overs correctly! And if you don’t know about all that CGOA (the Crochet Guild of America) has to offer, then check out the rest of the updated CGOA website while you’re there!
As one of the co-chairs and a portfolio reviewer in the CGOA Masters program, I enjoy discussing crochet stitches, techniques and patterns to find out how some people work their stitches (correctly and incorrectly). I learn so much from these discussions! They help me to understand how the written crochet instructions can be interpreted in different ways, which in turn helps me improve my pattern writing and technical editing skills! I’m all for improvement throughout my life!
Are there any crochet stitches, techniques or patterns you’d like to discuss?
Have you ever wanted to learn to crochet with crochet thread? How about learning to crochet doilies? I’m a huge advocate for crocheting with thread. I really love thread crochet and I know some of you do, too.
In previous blog posts, I told you about the online class I have with Annie’s called “Crocheting with Thread” and my experience going to Berne, Indiana in January to film the class. But did you know that I now have a short online class with Annie’s called “Beginner’s First Doily”? It’s a mini class to teach you how to make a beginning doily. This mini class is excerpted from the full-length class on “Crocheting with Thread” and it’s a great way to get your feet wet with online classes. The cost of this mini class is only $4.95. What a bargain!!! If you sign up for this class and decide to take the full length class later on, you’ll get $5 off of the full length class.
To read all about this mini class and to get started on crocheting your first doily, just click on the “Crocheting with Thread” class link on the right-hand edge of this page (it’s also on many other pages of my website). It will take you directly to the online videos on the Annie’s website.
Here’s a photo of the doily made in both classes:
Beginner’s First Doily
This doily is made with size 10 crochet thread, but you could make a larger doily with size 3 or 5 crochet thread, if you’d like.
All of the projects in the full-length class are made with either size 10 or size 5 cotton crochet thread and a size 7 (1.65mm) or a size 0 (3.25mm) steel crochet hook. Since size 3 and size 5 crochet threads are so close in size, you can easily substitute size 3 for the projects in the class that are worked in size 5.
In case you haven’t seen the projects in my full-length “Crocheting with Thread” class, these are the other 6 projects included in that class:
Seed Stitch BookmarkV-Stitch Bookmark
There are 2 bookmarks. One is a seed stitch bookmark and the other is a V-stitch bookmark. They’re both beginner/easy projects to get you started with thread crochet. I demonstrate working the rows and the edging on these projects in the video, as well as how to make the tassel in the V-stitch bookmark project.
Flower PinFlower Pin Card
This is the flower pin. If you’ve never worked a crochet project in rounds, this is an easy project to learn how to crochet in rounds. The folks at Annie’s even used this flower to decorate a handmade card! I think the card is very pretty! The instructions for the card are included in the class handout, as well.
Towel Edging
Here’s the towel edging that I designed for the thread class. It can be made with 2 edges of shells (shown in the green edging) or with only 1 edge of shells (shown in the turquoise edging). You can use size 10, 5 or 3 thread for the edging. I’ve woven some ribbon through one of the rows of the edging for added visual interest. A towel with a crochet edging such as this would make a great gift any time of the year!
Filet Coaster
The class also includes a filet crochet coaster project. If you’ve never done filet crochet before, I’ll teach you how to read a filet crochet chart in the class. A filet crochet chart is almost always included in filet crochet patterns to help shorten the pattern and to make it easier to follow “visually”. I’ll take you step-by-step with this coaster, teaching you how to work the open and closed mesh in filet crochet. The coaster has an edging and 2 layers for added absorbency!
Necklace & Earrings Set
What thread crochet class would be complete without some crochet jewelry? The necklace and earrings in this class are worked in the round with size 10 thread. The necklace has 2 crocheted “chains” for more strength when it’s worn. You can make this thread crochet jewelry set in any desired colors to coordinate with your favorite outfit!
Each of the 7 projects in the full-length class includes a symbol chart for all of the “visual” people out there! If you’re not familiar with symbol crochet charts, you’ll LOVE them! They are a visual representation of the project itself, showing what stitches are worked in the project and where each stitch is worked. I love symbol crochet charts and I think you will, too!
I really enjoy taking crochet classes to expand my crochet knowledge and skills. Whether I take an online class or an “in-person” class, they’re all very enjoyable and I learn a lot from them! And I love to teach crochet classes, as well. I hope you’re continually learning new crochet skills and techniques to challenge yourself, too.
Please check out both of my thread crochet classes and all of the other fantastic online classes by many talented teachers on the Annie’s website. There’s a lot more that we can all learn about crochet and Annie’s has been in the crochet industry for decades!
Okay. Either you’ve been patiently waiting for the big announcement since I returned home from my trip to Berne, Indiana in January, or you’ve forgotten about it and gone about your day-to-day lives (which is probably more believable!). Well today is the “big reveal”, so to speak! The reason I went to Berne, IN was to film a crochet video class for Annie’s. It’s not just any crochet video; it’s a “thread crochet” video! You may have some idea of how much I LOVE thread crochet by now. I would be thrilled if more crocheters came to love thread crochet as much as me! There are some very talented thread crochet designers out there: Kathryn White, Patricia Kristoffersen and many more. If you’ve been thinking about jumping into the world of thread crochet, I hope you’ll consider taking my online video class through Annie’s. I would love to have some of my blog followers take the class so we can get to know each other more and I can help you advance your crochet skills and knowledge (isn’t that what blogging and teaching should be all about anyway?).
You can read all about my “Learn to Crochet With Thread” online video class and watch a few sample segments of the video here. This is my first crochet video and I hope to do many more in the near future!
If you don’t recognize me in the video or in the photo, it’s because I’m wearing makeup in them (I haven’t worn makeup for years). They had a hair and makeup stylist named Amy who did my hair and makeup for the video each of the 3 days I was there. It’s a shock to see myself made up, but it’s probably better that way (I have fair skin and I’d blind everyone without the makeup, so it was necessary!). I’ve heard that when you’re doing photography or videotaping, the colors get washed out under the studio lights, so they added more color to my face to compensate for that! Amy was fantastic, as was everyone involved in producing the video. In the studio each day were: Laura Scott, the producer (the one in charge); Nicole, the video editor; Scott and Turner, the videographers; Allison, the production assistant and Amy, the hair and makeup artist.
Okay, just for fun, here I am before and after makeup:
Before MakeupAfter Makeup
I had a blast filming the video in Berne. Everyone on the set (especially the cameramen) made me feel relaxed. They were very professional and easy to get along with. We all had the same goal in mind: to produce a great video! I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Berne and filming the video. I hope you enjoy the free video segments of my “Learn to Crochet With Thread” class at Annie’s and seriously consider taking the class (if you’d like to learn to crochet with thread, that is).
Here is another photo of my trip to Berne (inside the video studio):
The whole crew
This is the crew and me after the video was finished. From left to right: Turner, Nicole, Laura, me, Amy, Allison and Scott. Don’t we look happy that it’s all over?
I think everyone did a fabulous job. Thanks so much for the hard work that each one of you did, especially you, Laura! Let’s do it again some time!
I hope you enjoyed this little look inside the video studio at Annie’s and will consider taking an online video class through Annie’s to further your crochet skills and knowledge.
