If you love Mosaic Crochet as much as me, you’ll really enjoy learning this new technique!
I was introduced to this technique a few years ago by a lady named Stephanie on Ravelry. She had an afghan that was crocheted by her great grandmother in the 1980’s. She couldn’t figure out how it was made and emailed me photos. I looked at them and figured out how the afghan was made. I thought this technique was so unique and fun, so I decided to share it with all of you through some new patterns and a free YouTube video to go along with the patterns.
Do you love the look of reversible mosaic crochet projects? I certainly do! I love having projects with two “pretty” sides! And this technique is so much fun! You get a light side and a dark side with this Alternate Spike SC Mosaic Crochet technique.
To learn this new technique, check out my YouTube video.
And if you love this technique as much as I do, check out the patterns I’ve created for this fabulous technique! The 3 patterns I’ve created are my “Chain Links Scarf”, my “Geometric Mosaic Hot Pads” and my “Heart Mosaic Hot Pads”. Each of the hot pads patterns actually contains 2 designs for one low price.
I hope you enjoy learning this new Mosaic Crochet technique!
Do you love the look of Mosaic Crochet, but wish it was reversible? Well now it is, with no extra work!
I’ve been having fun with a hybrid style of Mosaic Crochet using Spike DC stitches (SPdc for short). With this style of Mosaic Crochet, you still work 1 row of each color and each row on the right side, like Overlay Mosaic Crochet. You work chain spaces, like in Inset Mosaic Crochet, but you only work 1 row of each color. Instead of working your dc, drop down dc, Anchored dc (or whatever you want to call them) in front of the other stitches, you work your Spike DC stitch “around” the other stitches, which makes your projects reversible!
Reversible Sashiko Mosaic Crochet Rug
I also have a brand new Mosaic Crochet pattern using the Spike DC Mosaic Crochet technique. This pattern is my Reversible Sashiko Mosaic Crochet Rug. It uses some Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn, along with some Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn that I’ve had in my stash for several years.
When I saw this Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn in the Hudson Bay color at my local Walmart store, I knew I had to design something special with it. I used this yarn, along with 3 coordinating solid colors of Lion Brand Hometown USA to design and crochet my Reversible Sashiko Mosaic Crochet Rug pattern. This pattern shows the contrast between the solid, dark colors and the lighter, multi-colored yarn perfectly!
You may ask me why I used the word “Sashiko” in the name of this pattern. Well, I’ve been looking at and playing/designing with Japanese Sashiko embroidery patterns for several years now and I LOVE them!!! They’re mostly geometric, which I LOVE! I’ve got more Sashiko crochet patterns in the works, so stay tuned for those in the near future. I’ve even started learning to do Sashiko embroidery! What fun!!!
So back to my new rug pattern. It’s made with 5 skeins of yarn: 2 skeins of the LB Wool-Ease Thick & Quick and 3 skeins of the LB Hometown USA (1 skein in each of the 3 solid coordinating colors). I used a size “N” crochet hook, which is 10 mm. I started and ended each row, turning the tails into fringe after crocheting all the rows of the rug. I absolutely love this rug being reversible!
To learn this technique, watch my new YouTube video, where I demonstrate the Spike DC Mosaic Crochet technique.
I also created a FREE download for a Spike DC Mosaic Crochet swatch that I demonstrate in the YouTube video. You can download the free chart, along with instructions for working the swatch with either my COM technique (with very little tails) or with traditional Mosaic Crochet, starting and ending each row (with 2 tails for each row).
I hope you’ll give this Spike DC Mosaic Crochet technique a try very soon. It’s a fabulous technique for crocheting reversible Mosaic Crochet projects with no extra effort!
There are several styles/methods for doing Mosaic Crochet. In my previous Mosaic Crochet video, I taught you how to do Overlay Mosaic Crochet. In my new video, I’ll teach you everything you need to know to successfully do the Inset Mosaic Crochet method.
Inset Mosaic Crochet video
Inset Mosaic Crochet differs from Overlay Mosaic Crochet because Inset is worked with 2 rows of each color instead of 1. Because of that, you won’t need to finish off each row, creating tails/ends to deal with by weaving them in, turning them into fringe or crocheting a double border.
Both Overlay and Inset Mosaic Crochet are worked with 2 contrasting colors of yarn. You can use a DK weight, worsted weight or whatever weight yarn you desire.
This is a fabulous method of Mosaic Crochet! So if you’d like to learn it, check out my YouTube video. I also have a FREE download for the swatch charts that I used in the video, along with written directions for the swatch. You can find that download on my free patterns page.
Mosaic Crochet is one of my favorite crochet techniques. Have you heard of Mosaic Crochet before? It’s an absolutely wonderful crochet technique! With Mosaic Crochet, you can create something that looks much more complicated than it actually is! There are several styles of Mosaic Crochet. The Overlay Mosaic Crochet style is worked in alternating rows of a dark color and a light color (only one color of yarn is used in each row). Each row is worked on the right side, so each row starts and stops (joins and finishes off), creating ends/tails at the beginning and end of each row. I like to turn these ends into fringe, especially when making a Mosaic Crochet scarf. Then there are no ends to weave in on the project!
Overlay Mosaic Crochet video on YouTube
If you’d like to learn this fabulous crochet technique, I have a new YouTube video teaching the Overlay Mosaic Crochet technique. Check it out and let me know what you think! In this video, you’ll learn everything you need to know while crocheting a swatch along with me (there’s a free chart that goes with the video, as well). Then you’ll be successful with your Overlay Mosaic Crochet projects!
My style of Overlay Mosaic Crochet differs from other designers because I use an Anchored double crochet (Adc) stitch instead of a regular double crochet (dc). This eliminates gaps on the back of the mosaic piece and gives it more stability. You can learn the Adc in my “Improved Overlay Mosaic Crochet” YouTube video, as well as in my separate “Anchored Double Crochet” YouTube video for more success with your Overlay Mosaic Crochet projects.
Anchored Double Crochet video on YouTube
Flight of Stairs Scarf
While planning and creating this video, I decided to design another Mosaic Crochet Scarf pattern for your enjoyment. It’s been many years since I designed my first Mosaic Crochet Scarf pattern. They’re so much fun to crochet and wear! Since this new mosaic pattern looks like stairs, I’ve called it the “Flight of Stairs Scarf”. This scarf is easy to make, following the written instructions and the included charts in the pattern. It’s made similarly to the mosaic swatch in the video with a few differences. If you can crochet the swatch from the video, I’m sure you’ll be successful in crocheting this scarf!
If you’ve never done Mosaic Crochet before, give it a try! You’ll be glad you did!
I’ve just finished and released my first video to support one of my self-published crochet patterns. This video is for my Family Slippers pattern. The cuff is made with the mosaic crochet technique, which is one of my favorite crochet techniques! In this video, I demonstrate how to crochet the 4 rows of the mosaic pattern on the cuff. Mosaic crochet is a lot of fun and it’s exciting to see the mosaic pattern take shape in front of your eyes!!!
I have lots of other crochet videos planned to help you be successful with your crochet projects from my patterns. If you have any questions about my patterns (or certain parts of my patterns) that you’d like to see covered in a video, please let me know. I’m open to more video suggestions and look forward to bringing you more quality videos to help you advance your crochet skills and knowledge!
If you’d like to watch this new video, you can find it on my YouTube channel here.
Happy crocheting (and video watching/learning) to all of you!
Who loves learning new crochet techniques? I certainly do! And I love teaching new crochet techniques, too!
I’m super excited to announce that I’m teaching 6 crochet classes at the 2018 Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado from April 12-15! Woohoo!!! This will be my first time teaching there and I can’t wait to meet new crocheters, see crocheters who I already know, see the yarny goodness in the marketplace and have lots of fun!
Here are the 6 crochet classes that I’ll be teaching at this year’s Yarn Fest:
Intermeshing Crochet class
Intermeshing Crochet
Thur., April 12 from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
I learned this fascinating crochet technique over 10 years ago and I really enjoy it! The front and back of Intermeshing Crochet pieces usually look different because of how and where you make your stitches. It’s a really, really cool technique! It’s the same technique as in the “Interlocking Crochet” book by Tanis Galik. If you’ve tried this technique on your own and you can’t understand it, I’d be happy to help you figure it out in this class!
Beginning Bruges class
Beginning Bruges
Thur., April 12 from 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
I’ve enjoyed the Bruges Lace crochet technique for many, many years! I LOVE anything lacy and this technique is lots of fun! It looks very much like the Bruges Bobbin Lace that’s so intricate and time-consuming. I just learned to do bobbin lace (2 weeks ago) and soon I’ll be able to do “real” Bruges Lace with bobbins instead of a crochet hook! But I still love to do Bruges Lace in crochet! This technique can be done with yarn instead of crochet thread for those who aren’t comfortable with smaller crochet hooks and crochet thread.
Irish Crochet Intro class
Irish Crochet Intro
Fri., April 13 from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
I’ve been crocheting doilies with crochet thread for decades now, some of them in Irish Crochet! While my good friend, Kathryn White, was working on her Irish Crochet book for Annie’s about 5 years ago, she taught me some more Irish Crochet (she’s an expert in Irish Crochet)! I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned with you in this class!
Magical Mosaic Crochet class
Magical Mosaic Crochet
Fri., April 13 from 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
I can’t remember how long ago I learned mosaic crochet. There are so many variations on how to work mosaic crochet. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses (like is it reversible, how many stitches can you work in a row, are they anchored, etc). I started working on a new crochet design a few weeks ago with some mosaic crochet in it and I enjoy this technique very much. I’m sure you will, too!
Fantastic Filet class
Fantastic Filet
Sat., April 14 from 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM (6-hour class)
I’ve done Filet Crochet for almost as long as I’ve been crocheting (over 40 years now)! I absolutely LOVE this crochet technique! You don’t have to enjoy thread crochet to enjoy the Filet Crochet technique. I’ve made filet afghans, shawls and more with this technique (using yarn)! In this 6-hour class, I’ll teach you everything you need to know to be successful with basic filet crochet, as well as more advanced filet crochet (like increases, decreases, diagonals and lots more!).
Polish Star class
Polish Star
Sun., April 15 from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
This is one of the slightly newer crochet techniques to me. It’s a lot of fun and I enjoy it, too! You work basic crochet stitches according to the pattern. Then you weave the loops to create the Polish Stars! It’s so much fun to see the stars take shape right before your eyes! If you’ve ever seen this technique and wanted to give it a try, I’d love to have you in this class!
To read more about my classes and all the fabulous classes being offered this year, check out this link. To read more about the Interweave Yarn Fest, check out this link.
I hope to see many of my friends and meet new friends there! If you read this blog post and you sign up for some of my classes, please drop me a note and let me know! Or tell me in class!
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?
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.
Five days after returning home, I’m still basking in the afterglow of last week’s CGOA Conference (aka: the Knit and Crochet Show) in Indianapolis, Indiana! It was 5 days of fun, fun and more fun! I taught 6 classes there: Mosaic Crochet, Crochet Pattern Writing, Beginning Bruges Lace, Intermediate Bruges Lace, Wiggly Crochet and Reading/Understanding Crochet Patterns. The times of my classes were: Wednesday night from 6-9PM, Thursday from 9AM-5PM with a 2 hour lunch, Friday from 9AM-noon, Friday from 2-5PM, Saturday from 2-5PM and Sunday from 9AM-noon. It was a busy schedule, but I endured and actually had enough energy to teach each class. I had between 5 and 16 students in each class, which is ideal for me (and for them). Every student was a joy to have. They were all eager to learn what I had to teach them during the class. And I believe that they all enjoyed the class(es) they took, which is always a plus! I took 2 photos in the Beginning Bruges Lace class (I tend to forget to take photos when I’m busy teaching). Here are the ladies on the left-hand side of the room and the ladies on the right-hand side of the room:
Ladies on left-hand side of room in Beginning Bruges Lace class
Ladies on right-hand side of room in Beginning Bruges Lace class
Don’t they look focused on their work?
Also at the conference, I did my first book signing (in the Annie’s booth) on Thursday night, during the Shopping Floor Preview. I should have a photo of that soon (hopefully). It was a lot of fun and I will probably do it again at the CGOA Conference in Charlotte, NC in October of this year. I signed my new “Jewelry to Crochet” book, published by Annie’s, that I blogged about on June 30th. The folks from Annie’s were giving copies of my new book away during the book signing. I met many nice ladies (and a few men, too) at the book signing.
We had our CGOA Members Meeting on Thursday night before the Shopping Floor Preview. Since I’m a CGOA Board member (I’m the Secretary), I was seated at the front tables with the other Board members. Here’s a photo of Jane Rimmer (the CGOA Treasurer) and me there:
Jane Rimmer and me at the CGOA Member Meeting
Jane and I are also the 2 Co-Chairs of the CGOA Masters Committee. We make the policies for the Masters program, make corrections to the program, as needed, and answer questions from the Masters portfolio reviewers (I’m a portfolio reviewer, too). Six out of the ten portfolio reviewers were in attendance at the conference. We all met and had lunch together on Thursday. Here we all are:
CGOA Masters reviewers at conference in Indi
From left to right are Phyllis Nabakowski, Beth Hall, Jane Rimmer, Kathryn White, me (Susan Lowman), Linda Dean and Patti Giorgi. We have 2 levels of portfolio reviewers (junior and senior) and each portfolio is reviewed by 2 reviewers (one from each level). To find out more about the CGOA Masters program, check out the CGOA website here: www.crochet.org.
On Wednesday, Jane Rimmer and I went to the TKGA (The Knitting Guild of America) Masters Day, which was an all-day event. We took this day to find out how TKGA runs their Masters Day so we can put on a CGOA Masters Day at the CGOA Conference next year. It was time well-spent! We learned a lot and will be starting to prepare for our very first CGOA Masters Day soon.
On Friday night, we had our Fashion Show and Dinner. The food was excellent and the fashion show was great, as usual. I laid low and didn’t have to model this time, so I enjoyed the show. Here are a few photos from the fashion show:
Shari modeling her Ebb & Flow shawl design
Kathy modeling her jacket design
Andee modeling her scarf design
Dragon shawl in fashion show
Also at the Fashion Show Dinner, I met Donna Stinson and Terri Geck from Coats & Clark. Here’s a photo of the 3 Coats ladies at the dinner:
The dynamic trio from Coats & Clark
From left to right are: Donna Stinson, Terri Geck and Bobbie Matela (who I met years ago and enjoy seeing each year at the conference).
I spent some time with several friends at the conference, too. Here are some of my friends and me with big grins on our faces:
Shari and me
This is Shari White, who is my first mentee in CGOA and my roommate at most conferences.
Kathy and me
This is Kathy (Kathryn) White, who I met at the CGOA Conference in 2011 in Greensboro, NC. Kathy lives 2-3 hours away from me, in Arizona, but it took going to the conference in NC to meet her!!!
Marcella and me
This is Marcella Clayton, who I met in the Crochet Pattern Writing class I taught on Thursday. Marcella showed me her design in class and I encouraged her to show it to an editor at the Meet & Greet on Saturday morning. Needless to say, Marcella sold her first crochet design that morning! Go Marcella!!!
At the CGOA Conference last year in Manchester, I encouraged another new designer, Patricia Ritchie, to show her designs to the editors at the Meet & Greet, too. This is the first published design by Patricia Ritchie:
Petite Spring Hat from Crochet World magazine, April 2013, designed by Patricia Ritchie
Candle cover – a “thank you” gift from Patricia Ritchie
Isn’t it gorgeous? Patricia is so sweet and her design is fabulous!!! She gave me a little “thank you” gift in one of my classes this year. That was very nice and totally unexpected! Here is the candle cover that Pat made and gave me last week:
On Saturday morning, we had the Board meeting at 7AM (I’m sure glad I’m a morning person!). It went well and we got a lot accomplished. I can’t tell you what we discussed because it’s still a “secret”! But all will be revealed in time.
On Saturday night, we had the first ever “CGOA Fun Night”! It was great!!! Amy Shelton, of Crochetville, was the emcee. We had “Show and Tell” throughout the room. We also played “Let’s Make You Squeal”, where Amy called out an item’s name and the first person who had that item in their crochet bag (or purse) squealed with delight to win a prize. There were lots of prizes given out that night, as well as prizes at the Member Meeting and the Fashion Show Dinner (we love prizes in CGOA!).
We also love all the goodie bags filled with fiber goodness that are donated by many sponsors of the CGOA Conference. A big “thank you” to Lion Brand, Red Heart and Annie’s for the fabulous goodie bags! We really appreciate your support of the CGOA Conference!
On Sunday afternoon, the conference was over (boo hoo!). But I made lots of fabulous new memories of fun times with lots of wonderful people. I always feel so energized after a CGOA Conference!
If you’ve ever thought about attending a CGOA Conference, you really should. It’s almost a week of fiber-loving events spent with like-minded people. We speak the “language” of crochet all week! Everyone is so friendly and encouraging of each other. If you can’t make it to a CGOA Conference, I hope you at least have friends who you get together with regularly to crochet together and encourage each other with your crochet projects.
I hope everyone who reads my blog is a member of CGOA (Crochet Guild of America) or at the very least, has some crochet buddies they crochet with on a regular basis. I’ve been a CGOA member since 2002 and I love it! CGOA is a great organization and is getting better all the time. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a Board member now! We’re planning some great additions for CGOA and the CGOA website in the coming years. If you’d like to find out more about CGOA and all that is available to CGOA members, just check out the website at http://www.crochet.org.
There will be 2 CGOA Conferences this year: one in Indianapolis, IN in July and one in Charlotte, NC in October. I’m pleased to be teaching 6 classes at the CGOA Conference in Indianapolis in July. I love teaching crochet and I always have a great time at the conference. My students are very eager to learn and I meet so many nice people there, who are also having a great time! It’s almost a week of being surrounded by other crochet enthusiasts and all of us speaking the same crochet language!!! What could be better?
The classes I’ll be teaching at the conference in July are:
MAGICAL MOSAIC CROCHET on Wed, July 17 from 6-9PM
CROCHET PATTERN WRITING 101 on Thur, July 18 from 9AM-noon and 2-5PM
BEGINNING BRUGES LACE on Fri, July 19 from 9AM-noon
INTERMEDIATE BRUGES LACE on Fri, July 19 from 2-5PM
WONDERFUL WIGGLY CROCHET on Sat, July 20 from 2-5PM
READING & UNDERSTANDING CROCHET PATTERNS on Sun, July 21 from 9AM-noon
I love Mosaic Crochet, Bruges Lace and Wiggly Crochet. I’m so glad that I get to teach them again at the CGOA Conference this year in Indianapolis. To see the full schedule of classes and to register for the conference, visit http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com or http://www.crochet.org/event/KCSRegistration2013. If you’re planning to go to the conference and you haven’t registered for your classes yet, you really should do it soon. Several of the crochet classes are already sold out, including my Mosaic Crochet and Beginning Bruges Lace classes. There are only 2 spaces left in my Intermediate Bruges Lace class and 1 space left in my Crochet Pattern Writing class as of the time that I’m writing this blog post. To see which classes are sold out and if the class(es) you’re interested in taking are close to being sold out, you’ll need to go to the registration page on the CGOA website (https://crochet.site-ym.com/events/register.asp?id=298542). Click on each of the class times to open the drop down menu of classes. That’s where you can see which classes are sold out. Since the registration process is different than last year, you won’t see the sold out classes on the Knit and Crochet Show website like in past years.
I hope everyone who attends the conference gets into the classes they want to take the most. There are some really fantastic classes being offered by 21 knit and crochet teachers. If you’ve never been to a CGOA Conference before, you can even request a buddy to help answer all of your questions and direct you to where the classes are located.
Mosaic Crochet
Mosaic Crochet is worked in 2 colors (or more). The color is changed every row or two and some of the stitches are worked in front of the other color in a row or two below the previous row to make the vertical lines. It’s a great technique and really fun to see the pattern come to life before your eyes!!! Lily Chin has a book on Mosaic Crochet called “Mosaic Magic: Afghans Made Easy”. She’s designed some great afghans in Mosaic Crochet in this book.
Beginning Bruges Lace
Intermediate Bruges Lace
If you’re not familiar with Bruges Lace Crochet, it’s made to look like the intricate Bruges Lace from Belgium. In the crochet version of Bruges Lace, narrow strips or tapes are made, then joined to form circles, squares, triangles and more. The Russians have some really awesome Bruges Lace designs in their crochet magazines. And many Magic Crochet and Decorative Crochet magazines have Bruges Lace designs in them, as well. Bruges Lace Crochet can be combined with traditional crochet techniques, as well, or even with Irish Crochet. I love Bruges Lace and really enjoy designing in this fun crochet technique.
Wiggly Crochet
I’ve been enjoying the Wiggly Crochet technique for many years. You may be familiar with some of my wiggly crochet designs. This is another really fun technique to learn. I was first introduced to this technique when a friend asked me to crochet a new hot pad for her. Her grandmother had crocheted a wiggly crochet hot pad for her many years before and it had seen its better days! I had never seen wiggly crochet before and was intrigued with it. So I analyzed the stitches and crocheted a new hot pad for her. Then I got to thinking that I could design some Wiggly Crochet hot pads with designs on them instead of just concentric squares, like my friend’s hot pad. So I got out my graph paper and colored pencils and started drawing different shapes until I came up with some designs of my own in Wiggly Crochet. I love the textural, dimensional look to Wiggly Crochet. It is a great technique for hot pads, coasters, rugs and more! You can see all of my Wiggly Crochet designs on my Pinterest board here: http://pinterest.com/susanlowman1/wiggly-crochet-patterns/. I love Wiggly Crochet so much that I have 3 Wiggly Crochet booklets published! And I have a few self-published designs in Wiggly Crochet here on my website, too. If you’re intrigued with Wiggly Crochet, I hope you’ll give it a try very soon.
I love to teach others more about crochet in my classes, whether it’s a crochet technique, learning to read crochet patterns or learning how to write crochet patterns (for new designers). If you’re a new designer and you’re struggling with writing patterns for your designs, I’d love to have you in my Crochet Pattern Writing 101 class. I’m aiming to cover all the bases of pattern writing in this full day class! I’ve been designing and writing crochet patterns since 1999 and I’ve edited crochet patterns for nearly 10 years. I’ve learned a lot along the way and I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with my students!!!
If you’re planning to attend the CGOA Conference and we haven’t met, yet, please leave a comment on this blog post and let me know. I’d love to meet you at the conference this year! I look forward to seeing many friends and making new ones at the CGOA Conference in July.
