Learning New Crochet Techniques in 2022

Irish crochet

Did you learn any new crochet techniques last year? Are there any crochet techniques that you’d like to learn this year? I love learning new techniques/skills and passing along what I’ve learned along the way to the students in my classes, whether that’s in person or through videos!

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be teaching 2 crochet techniques at the annual IOLI Convention (International Organization of Lace, Inc) in Mesa, AZ in July of this year! I’ll be teaching a 12-hour class on Irish Crochet and another 12-hour class on Bruges Lace Crochet! I’ll also be teaching a 6-hour class on Irish Crochet. This all takes place the week of July 17 – 22, 2022. For more information about this convention, check out the IOLI website here. There are lots of teachers and lace techniques being taught. It’s going to be a fantastic convention!

Registration for the convention opens in just a few days, on February 15. Classes fill up quickly, so get your registration completed and submitted right away if you’d like to attend one or more of these fabulous lace classes!

Here are photos of the projects in my 12-hour Irish Crochet and Bruges Lace Crochet classes at the IOLI Convention:

Irish crochet
Irish Crochet Class projects
Bruges Lace Crochet class projects

Here are direct links to my 3 classes:

12-hour Irish Crochet class

12-hour Bruges Lace Crochet class

6-hour Irish Crochet class

Irish Crochet is a fabulous technique. It is made with separate textured flower and leaf motifs that are joined together by various methods. I’ll teach you 3 ways to join your Irish Crochet motifs together in my 12-hour class and the 2 easiest ways to join them together in my 6-hour class. A padding cord is used to add more stability and thickness to the pieces.

Bruges Lace Crochet is made with narrow strips of crochet “tapes” that are joined together to form intricate shapes. You’ll learn to make several basic tapes, then jump in to making 3 gorgeous Bruges Lace projects in my 12-hour class.

Since I learned to do bobbin lace 4 years ago, I’ve been even more fascinated with all kinds of lace techniques: crochet, knit, bobbin lace and more! I’ve gone to several Lace Days that the IOLI Lacey Ladies Guild puts on in Phoenix, AZ and I’ve begun to learn a needle lace technique called Aemilia Ars. This is my first attempt at making that lace:

Aemilia Ars needle lace
My first Aemilia Ars needle lace piece

It’s by no means perfect, but it’s a start! I have a long way to go in improving my needle lace skills, but at least I’ve made the initial jump into learning how to do this gorgeous lace technique! It’s challenging to learn a new skill or technique, but it’s a great way to keep our brains active!

I’ve also made my first piece of Romanian Point Lace. The cord for this lace is made with a small steel crochet hook. The lace areas are made with a needle. Here’s that piece for you to see:

My first Romanian Point Lace piece

I hope you all have a great time learning new things and improving your skills this year. I look forward to meeting some of you at the IOLI Convention in July!

Happy crocheting and lace making!

Susan

Sign Up for July 2021 CGOA Crochet Classes!

I just love learning new things, don’t you? I’m very happy to announce that I’ll be teaching 4 online crochet classes next month for the annual CGOA Conference. I’ve taught each of these classes before in person and I’m excited to teach them online/virtually! The nice thing about online/virtual classes is there’s no travel necessary to attend the classes/conference. You can attend classes in the comfort of your own home, which saves lots of time and money! Each crochet class will be taught at Central Standard Time (US time zone) through Zoom. It will be fun to learn new things, so give it a try!

If you’ve never heard of CGOA (Crochet Guild of America), check out the benefits of membership here. I’ve been a CGOA member since 2002 and I started teaching at the CGOA Conference in 2009! It’s a wonderful organization with lots of crochet enthusiasts, including lots of crochet hobbyists, designers, editors and publishers! CGOA members enjoy discounts on classes and lots of other things.  

Registration ends soon, so register today for the classes you want to take!

Below are the 4 classes I’ll be teaching at the virtual CGOA Conference next month.

Invisible Repairs: Tuesday, July 20 from 9:00AM-4:00PM CST (with 1 hour lunch break)

Click on video photo for more information
  • Repair torn, cut, chewed or burned projects
  • Replace stitches and chain spaces, locking them to bottom strands in the row or round above
  • Invisibly seam first and last rows in a crochet cowl
  • Bring damaged crochet projects back to life again



    Intro to Irish Crochet: Friday, July 23 from 1:00PM-4:00PM CST
Click on video photo for more information
  • Introductory class
  • Learn to make basic Irish Crochet rose and leaf motifs
  • Learn to make a background for joining your finished motifs
  • Learn a simple Irish Crochet edging with picots



    Reading & Understanding Crochet Patterns: Monday, July 26 from 1:00PM-4:00PM CST
Click on the video photo above for more information.
  • By learning how to read a pattern, you’ll be able to crochet exciting new projects
  • Learn the rules for reading a crochet pattern
  • Learn abbreviations, right/wrong side, right/left side, right/left front
  • Bring your crochet pattern questions to be answered
  • We will make some practice swatches in class



    Fantastic Filet Crochet: Wednesday, July 28 from 9:00AM-4:00PM CST (with 1-hr lunch break)
Click on the video photo above for more information.
  • Learn the basics of Filet Crochet
  • Learn open mesh, closed mesh, lacets and square mesh
  • Learn increases, decreases and diagonal stitches
  • Learn to read a Filet Crochet chart
  • We will be making a beginning Filet Crochet project and intermediate swatches

I hope to see/meet many of you in my CGOA classes next month!

Here’s a link directly to the CGOA web page to read about all the classes being offered at this year’s CGOA conference and to register for classes.

Happy crocheting to all of you and keep on learning!

Susan

Teaching Crochet in Alaska

Alaska retreat projects

A few weeks ago, I flew to Anchorage, AK to teach 4 crochet classes to 11 wonderful ladies in the Ididachain Crochet Guild! They are one of the many local guilds/chapters of CGOA (Crochet Guild of America). This was their Fall Retreat, which they held at a camp in Big Lake, AK. The area was absolutely beautiful and relaxing, right next to the lake. And each of the ladies was friendly and eager to learn what I had to teach them! The camp had great accommodations and delicious food! And the weather was perfect! I had so much fun!!!

This was my first time being in Alaska, as well as the first crochet retreat I’ve attended and the first retreat I’ve taught at! What a wonderful experience I had (except for having to wear a face mask in all 3 airports and on each of the 4 flights I took to get there and back to AZ)!

The crochet topics/techniques I taught there were:

Faux Knitting (how to knit with a crochet hook)

Irish Crochet (the basics)

Filet Crochet (beginning to intermediate)

Invisible Repairs (how to repair damage to any crochet project)

Here is a photo of all of us at the retreat:

I really enjoyed getting to know these ladies. Each of them has been crocheting for a different length of time and each has their favorite type of crochet projects to make! Some of them are Alaska natives and some of them are transplants from other parts of the US. I want to say “Thank You” to each of you for making me feel welcome! You’re the best!

I want to give a HUGE “Thank You” to Mickey for asking me to teach at the retreat, picking me up at the airport, driving me to the hotel, giving me a personal tour of the new JoAnn Fabric “flagship” store in Anchorage, helping to alleviate my fears involving the need to take a Covid test before flying to Alaska and so much more! Thank you to Debbie and Amy for driving me to lunch and the yarn shop (Fiber N’ Ice) the day before teaching. Thank you to everyone at the retreat (and everyone in the guild) for the beautiful gift of 2 hanks of local hand-dyed yarn from Denise at the Fiber N’ Ice yarn shop! I hope you each learned a lot and will use some of what you learned in your crochet projects (and/or repairs).

Here are photos of the yarn/fiber I bought, along with the 2 hanks of yarn that the guild gave me as a thank you gift:

This sparkly yarn is gorgeous! The color is called “Aurora” for the Northern Lights! I’m not sure what I’m going to make or design with it yet, but it’ll be something substantial, since each hank has 400 yards of superwash yumminess!

Here are photos of the students’ class projects/samples and the other projects they were working on in the evenings:

Here are photos of the beautiful lake:

This was a trip that I won’t forget! I’d go back to Alaska in a heartbeat! It’s gorgeous there, especially since I live in a desert state with lots of brown instead of green!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this update and the eye candy!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

Big Announcement!

I’ve been keeping very busy with various projects during the first 3 months of COVID-19. If you’re anything like me, you’ve completed lots of crochet projects, too! But that’s not all I’ve been doing.

Since my husband retired last year and has more time on his hands in retirement, we figured it was time that I got started on one of my business goals/dreams! So without further ado, here’s my big announcement!

I’ve started a YouTube crochet channel!!!

I’ve wanted to do this for many years, but I’m not very “tech savvy”! However, my husband is! He’s got so much more knowledge and patience than me with anything electronic! I have plenty of patience with other things, like crochet and teaching, but NOT with electronics and tech things!

Starting my YouTube channel has not been without it’s challenges! We’ve had all kinds of issues with the audio and have put in countless hours to try to correct it. It’s sometimes still an issue, but we’re improving all the time. The lighting hasn’t been as much of a challenge because we already had the lighting for photographing my crochet patterns.

Three months ago, we took apart our guest bedroom and converted it into our video studio. Here’s a look at our new studio:

I’ve got a handful of videos published on my YouTube channel right now and dozens/hundreds of ideas for lots more videos to help YOU be successful with your crochet projects! Right now, I have videos for absolute beginners, from how to hold the hook and yarn to how to make the basic stitches and your first crochet project. I’ll be doing videos on lots of crochet techniques and stitches, as well as videos to support my self-published crochet patterns. I love lots of fabulous crochet techniques, but trying to explain how to do them in a written pattern can be challenging. Having videos to accompany my written patterns will be very helpful to explain and demonstrate the more complex parts of the patterns.

I’ve been teaching crochet for 15 years now and I learn a lot from my students, which helps me be a better teacher. I learn how things can be interpreted differently by others and how I can explain things better to my students.

Here’s the link to my YouTube channel.

If you’d like to check out my YouTube crochet videos and subscribe to my channel, that would be wonderful! Please let me know what type of crochet videos you’d like to watch to help you learn the stitches and techniques that interest you. My goal is to help you in your crochet journey so that you enjoy crochet more every day!

Every good venture needs a mascot, right? Well, here’s our mascot, Maggie, who usually lays down either under the side table covering or behind my chair while we’re working on videos. She just loves being with us and is so quiet in the video room! She’s come a long way since we brought her home almost 5 years ago! She used to chew a lot of things and very rarely does she chew anything of ours now.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at my new YouTube channel and will take a look at my videos to help you be successful and increase your crochet knowledge and skills.

Happy crocheting,

Susan

Learning New Things in the New Year!

Irish crochet

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope you had a wonderful 2019 and are looking forward to a great 2020!

What kind of New Year’s resolutions do you have for this year? I’m resolving to self-publish more patterns this year than I did last year. Last year I self-published 4 designs: Scarfie, Cowlie & Hattie; Sassy Stripes Baby Blanket (knit); Polish Stars Potholder; It Takes All Colors Snowflakes Afghan. But that’s more than the previous year when I didn’t self-publish ANY designs! However, I was working hard on my 2 Annie’s videos in 2018 (Crochet ER: Fixing Damage & Mistakes and Learn Filet Crochet), so self-publishing took a back seat that year! If you’d like to take a look at my new Annie’s videos, you can find the Crochet ER video here and the Filet Crochet video here.

I have a stockpile of crochet and knit designs that I’ve designed over the past 5 years and they’re beginning to get out of hand! So my biggest New Year’s resolution is to self-publish a good amount of those patterns this year (and over the next few years, as well!). I like to make sure my patterns are as clear as they can be before publishing them, so I don’t like to rush things! And I also get distracted with other things along the way (are any of you like that or is it just me?)!

A year or two ago, I came up with a new twist on a crochet technique and I’m eager to release a few patterns using that new technique twist to the public so you can enjoy this new twist, too!

Did you learn any crochet techniques last year? Are there any crochet techniques that you’d like to learn this year? I love learning new techniques/skills and passing along what I’ve learned along the way to the students in my classes, whether that’s in person or through videos!

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be teaching 2 crochet techniques at the annual IOLI Convention (International Organization of Lace, Inc) in Mesa, AZ in July of this year! I’ll be teaching a 12-hour class on Irish Crochet and another 12-hour class on Bruges Lace Crochet! I’ll also be teaching two 6-hour classes on Irish Crochet. This all takes place the week of July 19 – 25, 2020. For more information about this convention, check out the IOLI website here. There are lots of teachers and lace techniques being taught. It’s going to be a fantastic convention!

Here are photos of the projects in my 12-hour Irish Crochet and Bruges Lace Crochet classes at the IOLI Convention:

Irish Crochet class projects
Bruges Lace Crochet class projects

Here is a direct link to my 12-hour Irish Crochet class. And here is a direct link to my 12-hour Bruges Lace Crochet class.

Since I learned to do bobbin lace 2 years ago this month, I’ve been even more fascinated with all kinds of lace techniques: crochet, knit, bobbin lace and more! I’ve gone to a couple of Lace Days that the IOLI Lacey Ladies Guild puts on in Phoenix, AZ and I’ve just begun to learn a needle lace technique called Aemilia Ars. This is my first attempt at making that lace:

My first Aemilia Ars needle lace piece

It’s by no means perfect, but it’s a start! I have a long way to go in improving my needle lace skills, but at least I’ve made the initial jump into learning how to do this gorgeous lace technique! It’s challenging to learn a new skill or technique, but it’s a great way to keep our brains active!

I hope you all have a great year learning new things and improving your skills. I look forward to meeting some of you at the IOLI Convention in July!

Happy crocheting and lace making!

Susan