travel – The Crochet Architect

October 9, 2023October 9, 2023

Lace sightings in Europe

Do you enjoy traveling and seeing other parts of the world? My husband and I, along with our youngest son (30 something), his wife and their 9 month old baby, took a nice, long, 5 week trip to Europe in August and September of this year. It was amazing! We went to 7 countries: Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and France. The weather was between the 30’s (near the glaciers in Switzerland) to the 90’s (in Italy and Paris), so we had to pack accordingly.

I planned to visit and see several places with lace during our trip and I was pleasantly surprised to see several more! The first place I/we visited was in Belgium. I knew about the city of Bruges (from Bruges Lace Crochet that imitates Bruges Bobbin Lace), so I planned to visit the Kant Centrum (lace center and museum) in Bruges during our trip. I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the lace center at all! The museum was very nice, but the highlight of the trip for me was actually taking a bobbin lace class while I was there! I had read online a few weeks before our trip that they were having “lace days” during the time we were going to be there. I found a class online that I wanted to take the exact day we were planning to be in Bruges and contacted them. They said the class was full, but they’d let me know if someone had to cancel. Low and behold, the day before the class, someone had to cancel and I was able to take the class! I was giddy with delight! I had planned ahead for taking the class, just in case I could get into it. My local bobbin lace teacher loaned me some of her beautiful bobbins and some linen thread for the class. The lace center said I could borrow a bobbin lace pillow during the class, so I didn’t have to bring my own pillow, which would have been with me during the whole trip, taking up extra room in my luggage.

During the bobbin lace class, I sat next to the nicest lady named Ruth. She let me use some of her blue film to cover the bobbin lace pricking pattern. And when the class was over, she carefully pinned my piece in progress to her bobbin lace pin cushion that a friend had made for her and gave me the beautiful pin cushion to safely take my lace piece home with me! Wasn’t that a loving gift from someone who was basically a stranger to me before the class? I will remember Ruth and be thankful for her kindness for the rest of my life!

My bobbin lace piece isn’t perfect, but I learned more during the class. I’ve improved since returning home and working on it more, as you can see by the bottom part of the lace being more even than the top. What do you think? This style of bobbin lace is called Milanese. It’s a style of tape lace, which is one of my favorite bobbin lace styles.

When we were in Norway, my son’s friend, Fredrik, who lives in Hamar, took us to the local mall. It was a large mall for the size of the town (at least I thought so). Inside the mall was a yarn shop. Of course, I went inside! I didn’t want to take up a lot of room in my luggage with yarn, but I found some size 80 DMC cotton thread for tatting and bobbin lace. I bought some for me and some for a few lacy friends!

I went into another yarn shop during our trip, this one was in Bergen, Norway. None of the yarn “spoke to me” and said “take me home”, but it was fun to look!

Another one of the highlights for the trip for me was going to the island of Burano in Venice. Burano is famous for lace! There is a museum there called “Museo del Merletto”. It had a lot of lace to see. The museum also had lace making books for sale. Some of them were on Aemilia Ars needle lace, which I love and am slowly learning to make! I have book 1 of 3 in the series of Aemilia Ars books, but it’s in Italian (I use Google translate to help me understand it, but I’ve found Google’s translations are a little odd for craft instructions). They had the books in both Italian and English! However, they only took cash for the books and we only had 20 euros between us. Since each of the books was 15 euros, I decided to buy the second book in the series. I would have LOVED to purchase all 3 books in English, but we didn’t have the time to get to an ATM and back before they closed. So I had to choose between the 3 books. I think I made the correct choice so I can practice needle lace and improve!

Another highlight of the trip was visiting the lace shop near the lace museum in Burano. The name of the shop was “Merletti dalla Olga”. They had hundreds, if not thousands, of lace items for sale there! There was a nice lady who worked there (I didn’t get her name or a photo of her), who took my husband and me to the third floor and showed us some pieces that are absolutely stunning! She showed us a needle lace tablecloth that took 10 years to make and costs $85,000 euros!!! It was exquisite, to say the least!!!

There was a very nice shop in Brussels, Belgium that I looked in, also. They had beautiful baby clothes and lace doilies, tablecloths, etc. It’s fun to see lace for sale and know that it’s still going strong in Europe!

I’ve been learning a new crochet lace technique called “Veronese Crochet Lace”. This technique comes from Verona, Italy. Since we visited Verona, I decided to wear a Veronese Crochet Lace necklace and earrings one day while we were there! Here’s a photo of my husband and me in Verona at the Arena, which was built in the 1st century and is still standing! It’s used for operas and more. In fact, our son and DIL went to the opera one night at the Arena while we babysat our grandson. What fun!

We went into a lot of churches in Europe. They were spectacular! The architecture is wonderful to see. And the stained glass windows! Oh my!!! Many of them had beautiful bobbin lace or crocheted lace altar cloths. Here are a few of them:

It was lots of fun to see so much lace in Europe! I’m sure I’ll find more lace there when/if we go back for another trip/vacation! Have you seen lace, crochet, knitting, etc in Europe? If so, where? Where was your favorite place to see lace in Europe?

We had a wonderful time on our trip. We saw so many beautiful, stunning, scenic places in each of the countries we visited. And we got in lots of “grandparent” time, which was a blessing!

Happy crocheting and lace making!

Susan

May 2, 2022May 2, 2022

Crochet Sightings and Vacation Highlights

Last month, my husband and I took a 3 ½ week trip in our motorhome from Arizona to Texas and back. We met up with some good friends, Dan and Janine, for the first part of the trip and had a great time! We did lots of sightseeing, ate delicious food, did some walking and hiking, met up with an old friend, Kathy, and her husband, Randy, did lots of driving (my husband drives the motorhome while I crochet) and all around had a great experience! I even saw some crochet and other crafts on our trip!

Since we moved into our new home 7 months ago, we’ve been doing a lot of renovations (painting, decorating, etc). It was nice to get away from all the work, relax and see God’s creation!

Here are the places we went and things we saw on our trip:

Benson, AZ – saw/toured Kartchner Caverns

Tombstone, AZ and Bisbee, AZ – walked around and saw the sights

Kerrville & Fredericksburg, TX – did some sightseeing and shopping

San Antonio, TX – did some sightseeing, went on a riverboat/gondola ride, toured the Alamo, ate dinner at the Chart House restaurant that revolves at the top of Tower of the Americas (a tower that was built for the 1968 World’s Fair)

Houston, TX – went to the Space Center Houston and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

Galveston, TX – toured the Bishop’s Palace (the 1892 Josephine and Walter Gresham house)

McDade, TX – stayed at Hummers Homestead Alpacas (a Harvest Host)

Austin, TX and Moody, TX – stayed and hiked at 2 Texas State Parks

Waco, TX – went to Mammoth National Monument and Magnolia Farms (Chip & Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper HGTV show fame have a very nice area in Waco for shopping, relaxing, eating and playing outdoor games)

Here are the crochet/crafting highlights of the trip:

These are some cute crochet baskets that were at Magnolia Farms in Waco, TX. I think the same baskets that are on display on shelves are hung on the walls. Basically, from what I can see, the baskets are crocheted with rope and include a handle. I think they’re very cute (and stylish)! I’ve got some yarn that might work really well to crochet some of these beauties for my new home!!!

Crocheted rope baskets at Magnolia Farms in Waco, TX

More crocheted rope baskets at Magnolia Farms

Crochet rope baskets on wall at Magnolia Farms

This was a display at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. This was a free museum filled with crafts that are made from reclaimed/recycled materials. The display was called “Nothing Goes to Waste”. I thought this display, made with film slides, was absolutely awesome! So creative!!!

Close up of slides used in artistic piece at museum

Close up of mannequin covered in film slides at museum

Here’s a hyperbolic crochet piece on display at that museum. I’ve never done hyperbolic crochet before, but this is what it says online about it: “To crochet a hyperbolic structure you simply increase stitches at a regular rate in every row. The more often you increase, the more quickly the model will ruffle up.”

This piece of art was crocheted with 8mm film strips! Wow!

Art piece crocheted from 8mm film strips

Close up of film strips used to crochet piece at museum

Here are a crochet popcorn bedspread and a quilted bedspread that I saw in the Bishop’s Palace in Galveston, TX, along with the beds that these bedspreads were on.

Crocheted bedspread at Bishop’s Palace in Galveston, TX

Here is a crochet piece that was on the ornate dresser at the Bishop’s Palace, along with the dresser that it was on.

This is an embroidered piece with a bobbin lace edging that I saw at the Bishop’s Palace.

And this is the front of the Bishop’s Palace. It was an awesome place with lots of wood in the interior and lots of history!

These are some of the alpacas that we saw at Hummers Homestead Alpacas in McDade, TX.

Alpacas at Hummers Homestead Alpacas in McDade, TX

And this was the inside of their alpaca products store. They’re part of Harvest Hosts, which is a membership group where you reserve a spot at a participating host to stay in your RV for a night or two. In exchange for a spot to stay, you patronize their establishment. I bought 5 ounces of alpaca roving to spin on my Electric Eel Wheel spinning wheel (once I work up the courage to spin alpaca fiber)!

Alpaca roving from Hummers Homestead Alpacas
to spin into yarn

Here are a few other highlights (not craft-related):

While we were in Texas, we saw lots of bluebonnets blooming. They were everywhere and we loved them! In case you didn’t know, they’re the Texas state flower (and snakes like to hide in them).

This forest photo was taken at McKinney Falls State Park. This was our favorite place where we stayed during the whole trip!

Hiking at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, TX

It was really nice to get away, but it’s nice to be back home, too!

I hope you enjoyed this look at our trip and all the crafts I saw while on our trip.

Happy crocheting, crafting and traveling,

Susan

February 1, 2013February 1, 2013

My Trip to Berne, IN

Last month, I had the pleasure of traveling to Berne, IN for a secret project. I can’t tell you what the project was yet, but stay tuned for the big news to be announced in 3 – 4 weeks! Unfortunately, I can’t confirm or deny any ideas of what I was doing in Berne, so please don’t ask!!! Just be patient and wait for the big news when it comes! Like I said, it’s a “secret”!!!

If you’ve never heard of Berne, IN, you can learn more about this quaint little town on their Chamber of Commerce website. Apparently, the population is only about 4,400! That’s a lot smaller than my town of 39,000 and a far cry from the big metropolitan cities across the US. Since I’d never seen any Amish people in real life (besides on TV), I was fascinated when they drove by in their horse and buggies! I got a decent photo of one of them for you to see.

Here’s a photo of Main Street with the famous clock tower in Berne in the background:

I stayed at the Black Bear Inn & Suites in Berne on U.S. 27. It was a nice place to stay with comfortable rooms. I had a Jacuzzi suite, but I didn’t know how to work the Jacuzzi, so I just had a warm bath one night instead of a Jacuzzi bath! If you know me, you understand my “challenges” with anything electronic or with buttons that I can’t read without my reading glasses!!! I still have a “stupid” phone and I’m quite happy with it, thank you very much! Here are a few photos of the Black Bear Inn, along with the buggy they have outside by their sign:

I had some time to do a little sightseeing one afternoon, so I browsed in some of the shops on Main Street. I went into the Engine House Quilt Shop and talked with Carol, the employee there that day. She showed me some really nice rayon embroidery thread by EdMar Co. I bought 5 skeins of Frost, which is a 3 ply thread with 16 yards per skein. I’m going to use this gorgeous thread, which has a beautiful sheen, for crocheting a new design or two. If you’d like to learn more about EdMar rayon thread, which is used for Brazilian embroidery, please visit their website. These are the embroidery threads I bought for designing:

Aren’t they pretty?

I had a great time in Berne and met some fantastic people there. I also had the pleasure of touring the Annie’s offices while I was in Berne. If you’re somehow not familiar with Annie’s, please take a look at the Annie’s website. They produce/publish patterns and kits for many different crafts, including crochet, knitting, paper crafts and more! I saw and talked to Carol Alexander, the editor of Crochet World and Crochet magazines, who I’ve met at many CGOA Conferences over the years and took a picture of her cubicle in the office. Here is her cubicle:

Carol Alexander's cubicle at Annie's — Carol Alexander’s cubicle at Annie’s

I met Brenda Gallmeyer, who I had contacted in 2011 about some tech editing I did for Annie’s (then called DRG). I also met some other people, but I don’t remember all of their names (that happens as we get older, doesn’t it!). Here are a few photos outside of the Annie’s office:

Front door of the Annie's office — Front door of the Annie’s office

Me by the Annie's Sign — Me by the Annie’s Sign on a windy day!

I met 2 photographers at the Annie’s office and one of them gave me a tour of the photography studio with all their props, lights and cameras! That was really nice! Since my husband and I are learning to photograph my crochet designs for self-publication, it was really interesting to see. I even learned how they store and use some of their props. I was told that they use 2 sheets of painted wood behind the props for a colored wall. To hide the line where the boards meet, they just remove it from the photo with Photoshop! It’s too bad we don’t have room in our house for lots of wonderful photo props. I would love to have a photo studio like theirs!!! Here are some pictures of their photo studio:

Camera & Lights at Annie's Photo Studio — Camera & Lights at Annie’s Photo Studio

Photography Props at Annie's Photo Studio — Photography Props at Annie’s Photo Studio

More Photo Props at Annie's Photo Studio — More Photo Props at Annie’s Photo Studio

All in all, it was a very nice trip and the weather wasn’t bad, either. It got up to the 50’s one day while I was there, which is warmer than it was back home in Prescott, AZ (I really expected the weather to be worse than it was in Berne, so I was pleasantly surprised)! There was light rain one day, but the rest of the time it was dry. I was in Berne for 3 full days, with 2 additional days for traveling. I got a few crochet projects made on the airline flights on the way there and back, too. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would love to return there again someday!

Happy crocheting,

Susan