Our 3rd stop on this blog tour is with the very talented Ellen Gormley of Go Crochet. Ellen has been blogging for many years and always has something wonderful to share with her readers! She’s a very talented designer and one of the experts on the Knit and Crochet Now show.
Ellen Gormley (right) and Susan Lowman (left)
In 2010, Ellen took my Beginning Bruges Lace class at the CGOA Conference in Manchester, NH. She really took to Bruges Lace and started designing in it almost immediately. Last year, she had a booklet published by Annie’s called “Learn Bruges Lace”! Here’s a photo of Ellen and me in that class:
And here’s a photo of Ellen’s Bruges Lace booklet:
Learn Bruges Lace front cover
If you missed my blog post about Ellen’s booklet, you can read it here. Bruges Lace is a lot of fun. I’m not sure which I like better: Bruges Lace or Wiggly Crochet!!! They’re both wonderful crochet techniques!
Last year at the CGOA Conference in Reno, I had some of my wiggly crochet projects on display in the Designer Showcase that the extremely talented Doris Chan spent many hours organizing! Thanks so much, Doris!!! Many crochet designers participated in the Designer Showcase and it was a huge success!!! Here’s a photo of my Wiggly Fish Rug on display there:
Wiggly Crochet Fish Rug
I self-published this pattern last year. It’s available as a PDF download right here on my website (under “Patterns”), on Ravelry, and on Craftsy.
If you’ve never tried wiggly crochet, please download my “FREE” May Flowers Hot Pad & Coaster pattern on the Coats & Clark website. That way, you can give this crochet technique a try before purchasing any wiggly crochet patterns to see if you like it. After giving it a try, you might be “hooked” on wiggly crochet (pun intended!) like I am! And if you’d like to make some Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths, you can purchase my Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths booklet on the Annie’s website as a hard copy in the mail or as an instant PDF download for $8.95.
So head on over to Ellen’s blog today to read what she has to say about wiggly crochet and crochet in general!
I’m very excited to announce the publication of my newest crochet booklet, “Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths”, published by Annie’s! Here are photos of the front cover and the other 3 dishcloths that aren’t shown on the front cover:
Front cover of Wiggly Crochet DishclothsFour Squares dishcloth
Concentric Squares dishcloth
Diagonals dishcloth
This booklet includes photos, instructions and charts for 6 different wiggly crochet dishcloth projects. These dishcloths are made in an array of beautiful colors of Omega Sinfonia yarn, which is a light worsted weight cotton yarn. Each project measures from 10 ½” x 11” to 12” square, the perfect size for dishcloths. These dishcloths are fun to stitch and make fantastic gifts! If you’d like to order a copy of this booklet, you can find it on the Annie’s website.
If you aren’t familiar with Wiggly Crochet, let me tell you how it’s done. Wiggly Crochet is made in 2 steps. The first step is to crochet the foundation mesh. This mesh looks a lot like the open mesh of filet crochet, made with double crochets and chain-2 spaces. Here’s a photo of a Wiggly Crochet foundation mesh:
Wiggly Crochet foundation mesh
The next step is to crochet the “wiggles” onto the top of the foundation mesh, which makes these wiggles stick up and gives the wiggly crochet piece dimension and thickness, which is not found in most other crochet techniques. The wiggles are usually made up of double crochets worked on top of the foundation mesh: around the post of the double crochets and in the chain-2 spaces (not IN the chains themselves, but in the spaces created by the 2 chains). You work the specified number of double crochet in/around each post/chain-space, making a 90 degree turn each time to fill the appropriate areas with the wiggles. It’s the act of turning 90 degrees that makes these stitches wiggle and stick up instead of lying flat! Here’s a photo (taken from the top) of the first round of wiggles worked on a wiggly crochet foundation mesh:
Wiggles shown from top
Here’s a photo of those same wiggles (taken from the side), so you can see how dimensional they are:
Wiggles shown from side“Hot Stuff for the Holidays” booklet
Isn’t that cool? I love this technique so much that I’ve previously had 2 crochet booklets published on it. The first one was “Hot Stuff for the Holidays”, published by Jeanette Crews Designs in 2003. There are patterns and charts for 6 “holiday-themed” hot pads and coasters in this one (for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, July 4th, Halloween and Christmas). This booklet is extremely hard to find, so if you find one for sale online (and it’s not too expensive), you might consider snatching it up! These designs are worked with size 10 cotton crochet thread (for all of us “threadies”!). Here’s a photo of the front cover of that booklet:
“Wiggly Crochet Rugs” booklet
The 2nd wiggly crochet booklet was “Wiggly Crochet Rugs”, published by Annie’s Attic (now just called “Annie’s”) in 2009. This booklet has 5 wiggly crochet rugs in it, complete with instructions and full-color charts. These rugs are made with yarn: the foundation mesh is made with sport weight yarn and the wiggles are made with worsted weight yarn. This booklet might be easier to find, since it was published just 4 years ago. Here’s a photo of that cover:
I’ve also designed some other wiggly crochet projects, which were published by Annie’s (mostly in Crochet World magazine from June 2008 to Feb. 2010). If you’d like to see all of them, please visit my Ravelry designer page. Oh, I almost forgot! I have a FREE wiggly crochet pattern, available on the Red Heart website. You can try this technique for free and see how you like it! Isn’t that great?
If you’re more of a “hands on” type of learner and would like to learn to do wiggly crochet, I’ll be teaching a Wiggly Crochet class at the CGOA Conference this year in Indianapolis. The class schedule hasn’t been made yet, but this class should be scheduled between July 17 and 21 (either from 9AM-12Noon or 2-5PM). To read about this CGOA Conference, please visit the CGOA website (look under the “events” tab on the left-hand side of the page). I would be thrilled to meet you and teach you how to do wiggly crochet in my class!
To celebrate the publication of my new Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths booklet, I’m doing a Blog Tour in February with several of my crochet friends/designers. Each person will blog (or post on Facebook) about this new booklet and possibly give away a copy to a lucky entrant. Please visit each of these blog posts to find out more about my new booklet, as well as reading the blogs of these extremely talented individuals!
The blog participants are as follows (dates to be announced next month):
At the end of the blog tour, I’ll be giving away an autographed copy of this new booklet to a lucky winner (US residents only please). To enter the contest, just leave a comment on this blog post telling me which of these dishcloth patterns is your favorite. It’s that simple! A winner will be chosen at random from all of the comments at the end of the blog tour. Good luck to you all!
If you’ve never tried wiggly crochet, you don’t know what you’re missing! If you have tried it and are looking for more wiggly crochet patterns, we have a few of them here at The Crochet Architect. Here they are for your viewing and crocheting pleasure:
Wiggly Flower Hot Pad & Coaster
Our Wiggly Flower Hot Pad & Coaster Set is the perfect pattern for learning to do wiggly crochet. The small size of the coaster is a quick project and the hot pad is a natural progression for increasing your wiggly crochet skills. The cotton crochet thread that is used makes them ideal for soaking up the moisture from any glass or pitcher in humid weather!
Wiggly Crochet Playing Cards Set
This Wiggly Crochet Playing Cards Set includes a centerpiece and 4 coasters: one for each of the suits of playing cards. This set is unique and would make a great gift for that special person!
Wiggly Crochet Fish Rug
When you’ve learned to do wiggly crochet and want to take your skills to the next level, this Wiggly Fish Rug is just the thing! It’s great in any fish-, seashell-, ocean- or tropical-themed bathroom. The texture of the wiggly crochet makes this rug “squishy” to walk on, too!
I hope you’ll give wiggly crochet a try and come to love it as much as I do!
I really love to crochet and to design new crochet patterns (basically, I love to make things!). But not just the typical types of crochet projects: scarves, hats, ponchos, shawls, garments, potholders, coasters, placemats, jewelry, etc. Sometimes I like to design something different and challenging. I get bored doing the same thing over and over. That’s why I like to change what I do from time to time!
Did you know that you can make artistic, 3-D items in crochet? I’ve designed and crocheted several myself. I’ll show you those a little later in this blog post. But first, I’d like to show you some of the amazing things that some crochet artists are creating around the world. These projects are very inspiring and really amazing!!!
Lion Head from The Lionheart Project
The first artist I’d like to share with you is Shauna Richardson. Shauna spent 2 years and used 36 miles of Swaledale wool from the Derbyshire Dales to crochet three giant 29 foot lion figures, known as “The Lionheart Project”! These lions are an interpretation of the three golden lions on Richard the Lionheart’s coat of arms. These lions are amazing!!! It would be wonderful to see these in person! These are just a few of the photos of this amazing creation. In these two photos, Shauna is chatting with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire as they stand next to her project on May 1, 2012 in Chatsworth, England. The work will tour the East Midlands before moving to London’s Natural History Museum as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. There are more photos of Shauna’s work and this impressive sculpture here: www.shaunarichardson.com and www.lionheartproject.com. And here is a website where you can watch a BBC video on this project: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-17922125.
Display of The Lionheart Project
Crochet Pistols
Now for something a lot smaller! I saw these crocheted pistols online one day by Inger Carina and thought they were pretty amazing! I hadn’t seen any crocheted guns before I saw these. Isn’t it amazing what you can create with just a crochet hook, some crochet thread and some fabric stiffener (and some guns to mold them around, of course)? I would have never thought to crochet guns!!! Now that’s imagination for you! You can see more of Inger’s work at www.hellocraftlovers.com.
Piano covered with doilies
If you’re wondering what to do with all those doilies you’ve made and/or collected over the years, here is an idea for you. How about covering a piano with them? I think this covered piano is awesome!!! There are a whole lot of doilies covering this piano! Of course, I LOVE doilies!!! This was done by Joana Vasconcelos. You can see more of her work at www.joanavasconcelos.com.
These are just a few of the crochet artists in the world. Aren’t they amazing?
Well, my crochet art isn’t as nice as these fabulous pieces, but it’s not bad! First, here is my locomotive afghan and toy, which were published in the December 2009 issue of Crochet World magazine:
Locomotive Afghan
The locomotive afghan was made with 9 colors of Red Heart Super Saver yarn. It measures 48” x 60”. When designing this afghan, the first thing I needed to do was find a good photo of a locomotive at the desired angle I wanted. Since I had trouble finding a good photo, I took some photos of a plastic toy locomotive that we used many years before under our Christmas tree (it had optional smoke, too). After making a gauge swatch, I decided how many stitches and rows the afghan should have for the desired size. Then I imported the photo into my computer charting program and tweaked the colors in the chart to make a good intarsia pattern that didn’t have too many color changes involved.
Locomotive Toy
The locomotive toy was made with 5 colors of J&P Coats Royale Classic and Metallic crochet thread in size 10. Many parts of the toy are crocheted with 2 strands of crochet thread held together. I used plastic canvas, cut into various sizes, to provide a “skeleton” for the crochet to fit over for the body of the locomotive. I also used polyester fiberfill to stuff many of the pieces. Since I didn’t know much about locomotives at the time, I checked out some books at my local library with photos of locomotives. And I asked a friend’s husband with locomotive knowledge some questions about the names of the parts of the locomotive so I could label them correctly in the pattern! It was a long process, but I think it was well worth it! This locomotive toy was a challenge to design, but it was actually quite fun!
Here’s a tent, sleeping bag, beret, vest and ammo belt that I designed for a GI Joe (or similar) doll:
GI Joe Tent and Gear
This pattern was published in the August 2009 issue of Crochet World magazine (it was called “Camouflage Gear” in the magazine). The vest, beret, ammo belt and sleeping bag weren’t too difficult to design with the doll that I had received from the magazine editor to use. But the tent was a challenge!!! After trying several times to make the tent, I decided I needed to make a paper form of the tent first. Then I crocheted the pieces to fit the form. I cut a wire coat hanger and bent the wire a little to form the tent “poles”. I used pieces of a glue stick for the ends of the tent poles so they wouldn’t poke through the crochet pieces at the bottom corners of the tent. I even crocheted the door flap for the tent, with crocheted chains for tie straps to keep the door flap open or closed. I used Red Heart Sport yarn for the tent and sleeping bag and Aunt Lydia’s Classic size 10 crochet thread for the ammo belt, vest and beret. And I used bugle beads for the “ammo” in the ammo belt!
Here is my Majestic Butterfly afghan that was published as a web bonus in Crochet! magazine’s Spring 2012 issue:
Majestic Butterfly Afghan
This afghan was made as a request from Cari Clement at Caron yarns. She liked my locomotive afghan at the CGOA Conference the year before and asked me to design an intarsia afghan for Caron. So I started looking for photos of butterflies to use. I finally found one and used the same computer charting program to import the photo (after deciding how many stitches and rows the afghan would need). I had to do a lot of tweaking on this one to get the colors to work and not have too many color changes throughout the rows. I think it turned out nicely!
And last, but not least, is my Dragon Ship, which was published as a web bonus in Crochet World’s February, 2011 issue. The reason it wasn’t published in the magazine itself, but as a web bonus, is the pattern was way too long!!! I also won a Flamie award for this ship last year! The ship is designed to look like the ship in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” movie! The editor for Crochet World magazine at the time, Michele Maks, asked me to design this ship well before the movie was released, so finding online photos of it being built wasn’t all that easy!
Dragon ShipThe head on my Dragon Ship
This dragon ship was the biggest challenge for me so far! I made at least 3 different heads for the dragon before I got one that didn’t look dorky!!! The dragon itself has a head, neck, wings and tail. I included teeth and a tongue in the open mouth, along with a goatee under the chin, horns, ears and bead eyes with eyelids on top of the head. The crochet stitches I chose for the sides of the neck and the tail look like scales! And I used some post stitches for added texture on the dragon’s wings. The ship includes a hull with embroidered port holes, deck, stern cabin (at the back of the ship below the tail), 2 masts, a sail, flag, lookout and side railings. I used 7 colors of America’s Best Crochet Thread, size 10 for this ship. I added cardboard pieces under the deck and under the top and front pieces of the stern cabin for strength and added shaping. I put poly pellets at the bottom of the hull and stuffed the rest of the hull with polyester fiberfill. I inserted wire at the bottom of the sail to help shape it. I stiffened the flag, lookout and 2 pieces that I made to attach the masts to the deck. My only regret is not engineering the masts and deck so the masts would not flop around! But all in all, I think this dragon ship looks pretty good!
I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at these pieces of crochet art (mine and the other designer’s pieces)! And I hope I’ve inspired you to try some crochet art in the near future!
You’ve probably seen crochet jewelry all over the place, but have you made any of it yet? I absolutely LOVE making (and wearing) crochet jewelry, whether it is one of my designs or someone else’s design!
Crochet jewelry that is made with cotton crochet thread (my favorite) is hand washable, so it will last for years! You can use any colors of crochet thread for making your crochet jewelry to coordinate with your wardrobe. The fasteners on crochet necklaces can be barrel clasps or buttons. Some are even long enough to fit over the head, so they don’t need any fasteners! Many crochet jewelry pieces take just a few hours to make, so they’re instant gratification projects, which I love!!!
Here are a few pieces of crochet jewelry that I’ve made from other designer’s patterns:
My Favorite Necklace
This is my favorite necklace, made with size 20 thread. The pattern is from a Magic Crochet magazine, Issue #64, Feb. 1990. I LOVE this necklace! It looks great on and is easy to clean when it gets dirty. I wear it a lot! I even made some coordinating leaf earrings to wear with it. The clasp is a simple button and crocheted buttonhole.
Necklace With Balls
This necklace is fun to wear. It’s made with size 10 thread and includes matching “ball” earrings. I think this pattern was from a Japanese book by Kazekobo.
Irish Crochet Necklace
This Irish Crochet Necklace was made with size 20 or 30 thread. It’s too fancy to wear with just anything! The chains near the back of the necklace (at the top of the photo) twist easily, so I don’t wear this one very often. This necklace may have been from the same book by Kazekobo.
Here are some crochet jewelry pieces that I’ve designed for Crochet Today magazine over the years:
There is a large, clear crystal sandwiched in the center of the 2 sides of crochet in my Crystal Pendant Necklace! It’s pretty cool!!!
Bouquet Earrings May/June 2012
The Bouquet Earrings were made in white for a bride, but can be made in any flower color you choose!
Winter Berry Earrings Nov/Dec 2012
The Winter Berry Earrings are made with some shiny crochet thread, called Anchor Artiste Metallic. It’s a very pretty thread. The photo doesn’t do it justice!
Here are some of the other crochet jewelry pieces that I’ve designed:
This is my Beaded Shells Necklace, available for purchase at TheCrochetArchitect.com. The pattern comes in 2 versions: long and short. They both have small beads throughout, but the longer version includes 1 large center bead and 2 medium beads.
Faux Tatted Necklace with buttonsFaux Tatted Necklace with beads
This is my Faux Tatted Necklace pattern, also available for purchase at TheCrochetArchitect.com. This necklace is actually crocheted to look like tatting, which has rings, chains and picots. This pattern can be made with buttons, beads or charms. It is a fun project to make with heirloom buttons or buttons with memories attached!
I love making these crochet necklaces and earrings because they’re so versatile!
For my Faux Tatted Necklaces (I’ve made quite a few), I’ve used many different colors of size 10 crochet thread and beads or buttons to coordinate with some of the outfits in my wardrobe. This necklace doesn’t have a clasp, so you just pop it over your head and wear it (it’s great if you have an injured hand, wrist or arm!). I should be coming out with a pattern for a coordinating Faux Tatted Bracelet and Earrings soon, so you can wear a complete set of Faux Tatted jewelry, if you like!
Why not make some crochet jewelry for your next project? If you do, please drop me a line and let me know how it turned out!
My Intermeshing Pendant Necklace (aka: Double Take Pendant Necklace) was just published in the Summer 2012 issue of Crochet! magazine. Here are some photos of the necklace:
Pendant Necklace
Both sides of Pendant Necklace
I designed this necklace pendant in the Intermeshing Crochet Technique where each side is different, as you can see in the second photo. You can learn more about this technique at Tanis Galik’s website here: www.InterlockingCrochet.com. She calls it “Interlocking Crochet”, which is the same as “Intermeshing Crochet”. She has a full book of beautiful Intermeshing/Interlocking Crochet patterns, called “Interlocking Crochet”, which is published by Krause Publications. On her website, you can see photos of some of the projects in her book, along with a link to order the book from Amazon. I have this book and it is very nice!
Anyway, back to my necklace. This is a small project that would be perfect for learning the Intermeshing/Interlocking technique of crochet. There are some step-by-step photos in the pattern, which are very helpful in understanding how the technique is done. Unfortunately, you’ll find a few mistakes in the pattern that were added during the technical editing process (many of the turning chains were moved from the end of the rows to the beginning of the wrong rows!). Here are the corrections for this pattern:
Row 2A: Remove “ch 2” at beginning of row.
Rows 2B, 3B and 4B: Change “ch 4” to “ch 2” at beginning of row.
Rows 3A and 4A: Change “ch 2” to “ch 4” at beginning of row.
Row 5A: Add “ch 4” at beginning of row.
Also, in the “Pattern Notes”, it says “After sewing pieces together”. That should say “After weaving pieces together”. These pieces aren’t “sewn”, they’re “woven”!
If you’d like to learn the “Intermeshing Crochet” technique in person, I’ll be teaching a class on Intermeshing at the CGOA Conference in Reno, NV in September, 2012. For more information about both of the CGOA Conferences, go to www.knitandcrochetshow.com. For specific information about my Intermeshing class, go to http://www.e-offinger.net/knitandcrochet/fall-classes.cfm. The class number is S209C and it’s going to be held on Saturday, September 15 from 2-5PM. I’d love to meet you in my class and teach you the Intermeshing technique!
I think Intermeshing is a fun, fascinating technique and it’s almost limitless in what you can make!
