I hope everyone is enjoying National Crochet Month, which takes place every year in March. What will you do to celebrate your love of crochet this month? Will you learn a new crochet technique or find a crochet designer who is new to you? Will you start or finish a crochet project? How about trying a new yarn that you’ve never used before?
If you’d like to learn Irish Crochet or Bruges Lace Crochet in person, please consider signing up for one of my classes at the IOLI Convention in Mesa, AZ. This convention takes place the week of July 20-26 at the Hilton Phoenix/Mesa. I’m really looking forward to teaching these classes and meeting new people there! To find out more about this convention, check out the IOLI website. There are lots of other lace classes being taught at the convention, as well!
March is also a month to be grateful, especially for the knowledge and ability to crochet. There is so much for each of us to be grateful for in our lives. I’m grateful for my family, friends, a place to live, good health, and so much more! Crochet is another blessing to me and I’m very grateful for the ability to do what I love! I’ve met so many wonderful people throughout my crochet adventures and made many friends, near and far, because of crochet!
To celebrate National Crochet Month, I’d like to share a small blessing with you this month. You can enjoy a 25% discount off every one of my crochet and knitting patterns right here on my website throughout the whole month of March. To take advantage of this discount, use the code “NatCroMo2020” when you checkout.
I hope you enjoy National Crochet Month by trying some new patterns and/or expanding your crochet skills and knowledge, either face-to-face with someone, through in-person classes or online classes. If you’d like to try a few of my free crochet patterns, check out my “Free Patterns” page!
It’s that time of year again: the time we celebrate all things crochet with National Crochet Month (NatCroMo) during the month of March. Crochet is so good for our emotional health! It’s relaxing, it can be challenging (if we push ourselves and learn something new), it results in some great gifts for family and friends, plus it can bring like-minded people together to encourage each other and learn from each other. I’ve met so many friendly, encouraging people throughout the 40+ years I’ve been crocheting, especially in the past 16 years that I’ve been a Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) member. If you’ve never heard of CGOA, check out their website. You’ll be glad you did!
National Crochet Month seems to grow each year! This year, there will be designer blog tours, crochet-a-longs (CALs) and all kinds of crochet celebrations throughout the month of March. To help celebrate National Crochet Month, I’m offering a 25% discount on all of my patterns here on my website, along with in my Ravelry shop. Just use the code “NatCroMo2019” in either shop to enjoy the discount! The 25% discount is good on all of my crochet patterns and ebooks (plus my knitting patterns in my Ravelry shop). The discount is good from March 1-31, 2019 (Arizona time).
How do you celebrate National Crochet Month? Do you follow designer blog tours? Do you take part in crochet-a-longs? Do you learn a new crochet technique? Do you buy more yarn (who needs an excuse to buy more yarn, though)?
How many crochet projects do you make each year? I made dozens of crochet projects this past year and I learned a few new techniques (maybe not totally new, but new to me). In June of 2018, I learned to do Planned Pooling. If you’ve never heard of it, you can watch some videos by Marly Bird on Youtube. Planned Pooling is a very different technique. Most patterns are written for the moss stitch (sc, ch 1), but I used groups of 3 dc in my project. In planned pooling, it’s not the size/gauge of each stitch that’s important, it’s the number of stitches in each color and their placement that matters. Here’s a photo of the planned pooling afghan that I made in a month from 9 skeins of Caron Simply Soft yarn:
I also learned to do corner to corner crochet (aka: C2C). I tech edited a few C2C patterns years ago, but I never actually did this technique until January of this year! When I saw some photos of an adorable Grinch Scarf on Pinterest, I knew the time was right to learn this technique and make the scarf, since I LOVE the movie “The Grinch”! Here’s a photo of that scarf for you to see:
Last year, my 2nd grandchild was born in September. His name is Ryker. Here he is wearing one of the many hats that I crocheted for him:
Baby Ryker
I crocheted lots of baby booties for him, too! Here are a few of them:
I also crocheted a top from a Chinese crochet pattern from April – June of last year. I love following foreign crochet patterns (I don’t read the language, I just follow the symbol crochet charts). This one has a gorgeous pineapple yoke and hem. Here’s that top for you to see:
These are only some of the projects I crocheted (or knitted) last year. To see all of them and get some ideas for your next crochet project, check out my Ravelry projects page.
I hope you find many enjoyable ways to celebrate National Crochet Month! If you haven’t already downloaded my FREE crochet patterns, you can find them here. If you like what you see in these free patterns, you may choose to use the 25% discount on my other patterns for sale this month!
Disclaimer: This blog post is longer than usual (but there are NO affiliate links in it)!!!
I can’t believe a month has gone by since my last blog post! Where does the time go? I thought I was supposed to have more time now that my kids are grown and out of the house!!!
It’s been a very busy 12 months since National Crochet Month last year. I went to China to visit my son, daughter-in-law and new granddaughter twice last year! Now I don’t have to go to China to see them. Yeah! They moved back to Arizona in January and I’m thrilled to have them back!!! Here’s a recent photo of Ruru (Rubekah) for you to see:
I’m in LOVE with her!!! And the crochet dress that I made her actually fit!!! This pattern was from a booklet called “Frilly Frocks” by Lucille LaFlamme. All of the dresses in that booklet are really cute! It was too cold the day we tried the dress on Ruru, so she’s got warmer clothes on underneath!
I also did something I’ve never done before in the past 12 months. I was the executor and trustee for my mom’s estate. My mom passed away in Feb. 2016 and left me to take care of her estate. I didn’t have a clue about what to do, but I learned a lot along the way. I think I’m all done with her estate because I got her trust tax return done and the K-1’s are in the mail to all of her beneficiaries. Whew! That’s a huge relief to have that behind me! I miss my mom very often, but I’m so glad to have the faith that she’s in heaven with my brother and daughter. I love you, mom! Thank you for all of your love and encouragement throughout my lifetime!
Okay, now on to National Crochet Month. In the past, I’ve taken part in the Crochetville National Crochet Month blog tour. But I decided to take a break from that this year for various reasons. You can follow the Crochetville National Crochet Month blog tour, read about the participating designers, receive some free crochet patterns and maybe win a prize by checking it out here.
Since I’m not taking part in the NatCroMo blog tour this year, I thought I’d talk about crochet and my designing career instead. I first learned to crochet as a teenager. My best friend taught me to crochet (thank you SOOOO much, Cheryl!). That was over 40 years ago and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning new crochet techniques and sharing what I’ve learned with others. In fact, I’ll be teaching 5 crochet classes at the CGOA Conference this July in Chicago (well, it’s actually in Itasca, just outside of Chicago)! Yeah! I LOVE teaching crochet classes at the conference!!! I meet so many fun, friendly crocheters there! You can read about all the classes that are being taught at the conference this year here. Registration will go live in 2 days (on March 8th), so you still have a little time to pick out your favorite classes and get your registration done right away so your favorite classes don’t sell out! The 5 classes that I’m teaching this year are Beginning Bruges Lace, Intermediate Bruges Lace, Beginning Filet Crochet, Intermediate Filet Crochet and Invisible Repairs (this is a brand new class on how to invisibly repair crochet projects and how to crochet an invisible seam in a crochet project).
Anyway, back to my story about crochet. I can’t remember the first thing I crocheted, but I know that soon after learning to crochet, I started crocheting doilies and anything with crochet thread. As I remember it, I think there were several reasons for this. One reason was that doilies usually change instructions in each round or two, which helps to keep my interest in the pattern (plus I think doilies are beautiful!). Another reason is that I’m somewhat of a “frugal” person and crochet thread isn’t that expensive! I could crochet several doilies for just a few dollars and that beat the price of many skeins of yarn to crochet an afghan! Don’t get me wrong, though. I also love to crochet afghans because they’re so useful and make excellent gifts! Speaking of gifts, I just finished crocheting 3 pairs of baby booties to be given as gifts for 2 people’s babies this month. Here they are:
As you can tell by the colors, these booties are for baby boys! I really enjoy crocheting baby booties because they don’t take long to make and not everyone can crochet them, so they’re more unique gifts at a baby shower (instead of the baby receiving dozens of baby blankets)!
I’ve spent hundreds of hours practicing my crochet skills and improving over the past 40 years. When my children were born, I wasn’t able to crochet as much. But after they got a little older and could do more for themselves, I soon got back into crocheting almost every day. When I was in my 30’s, I started designing a little, but never seriously. Then when we moved from Southern California to Arizona in 1995, I met 2 crochet designers in our small town who shared their designing knowledge with me and helped me get my designing career going! I am so thankful to Nanette Seale and Lucille LaFlamme for encouraging me and being so supportive! Thank you so much! You ladies rock!!!
My designing career officially got off the ground when I sold my first crochet pattern to Annie’s in 1999. It was my Snowflake Doily and Coasters Set. I’ve designed several hundred crochet patterns since then and I enjoy designing each and every one of them (some a little more than others, though). You can see all of my published crochet (and now knitting) designs on my Ravelry designer page here.
The first conference I ever attended was for the Society of Craft Designers (no longer in existence) in Sept., 2001 in Phoenix, AZ. It was close enough for me to attend without too much cost and I met a lot of crocheters there (I remember Carolyn Christmas and Darla Fanton from that conference). Darla Fanton told me about CGOA (the Crochet Guild of America) and invited me to join. I joined the next year (in 2002) and I haven’t looked back since! Through CGOA I have met so many other crochet professionals, including designers, magazine editors, publishers, etc. It’s a fantastic group of crocheters who are in love with crochet! We support each other, encourage each other, teach each other and have lots of fun at the annual crochet conference! There are local CGOA chapters throughout the US, too. Unfortunately, there is no CGOA chapter near me, but I attend 2 other groups of crochet enthusiasts during the year (monthly and/or weekly) to stay in touch with other crocheters and encourage each other regularly.
In Jan., 2002, I attended the HIA (Hobby Industry of America) trade show in Anaheim, CA. It was there that I met Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss, who owned American School of Needlework at that time. If you haven’t heard of Jean and Rita, just do a Google search and you’ll be in awe of the number of books that they’ve published/produced in their lifetimes! In fact, Jean Leinhauser started Leisure Arts way back when! Two years after meeting Rita and Jean, they were looking for technical editors for their new company, Creative Partners, LLC. I applied for the position and passed their editing test (much to their surprise)! So I was on my way to being a technical crochet editor! Less than 2 years later, I started technical editing for Crochet Today magazine, too. I was kept quite busy editing for both companies and I learned so much about writing a good crochet pattern when I was tech editing a lot. Looking back on those times, I’m not sure how I kept my sanity with so much work to do (I must be getting older)!
Anyway, the next addition to my crochet career came when some of my class proposals were accepted for me to teach at the CGOA Conference in 2009. I remember that like it was yesterday! My middle son got married in June, 2009 and the conference was at the end of July. A few weeks before the conference, my husband and I were taking a nature walk nearby and he was taking photos. I had my camera in my hand and before I knew it, I slipped on loose gravel, fell down and broke my left wrist! I couldn’t believe it! How could this happen before I was scheduled to teach at the conference? Would I still be able to teach my classes? Well, the following week, I had surgery to repair my broken wrist. My husband printed and bound the rest of my class handouts and was a HUGE help! So my classes didn’t have to be cancelled after all! With my left arm in a sling, my bags were all packed and I headed to the airport, where I got lots of help with my luggage! Once inside the terminal, I took one look at the escalator (with my arm in the sling) and turned around to find the elevator instead (I couldn’t hold onto the handrail and my carry-on bag with the same hand!). I taught 4 classes at the 2009 conference in Buffalo, NY with lots of help from some wonderful crocheters in my classes (and from Jean Leinhauser, too)! I even did my best to teach my shuttle tatting class to my students “one-handed”!!! I have many fond memories from that conference. My roommate even helped me with some of the “logistics” of getting dressed with one good hand, including how to put on jewelry one-handed! I even modeled the top and skirt that I crocheted to wear at my son’s wedding in the fashion show at the conference that year! I have a few photos that I’d like to share from that conference.
Jean and Rita
This is Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss. Sadly, Jean passed away in 2010, but Rita is still producing knit and crochet books.
Waiting for editors
This is my roommate, Shari White, me, Andee Graves and Joyce Bragg waiting to show our crochet designs to the magazine and book editors who were there to talk with the crochet designers.
Modeling at CGOA Conference in 2009
This was me modeling the outfit that I crocheted for my son’s wedding at the CGOA Conference. If you look closely, you’ll see the wrist brace on my left wrist! I didn’t care! It was tons of fun to model the outfit, even if it didn’t come out exactly how I wanted it! Oh, I was modeling the shawl that my roommate, Shari, crocheted from my pattern in Crochet Today magazine, too!
Well, that’s the story behind my crochet career. It’s probably more than you wanted to know, but I think it’s fun to find out how some people got their start as professionals in the crochet industry. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about my beginnings in the crochet industry.
What are you planning to do for National Crochet Month? Have you already gotten a start on learning a new crochet technique, starting a project that you’ve always wanted to crochet or buying some new yarn? Please share how you celebrate National Crochet Month in the comments below.
I’m thrilled to take part in the 3rd 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.
Six Wiggly Hot Pads & Coasters
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!
