yarn – The Crochet Architect

April 8, 2019

Crochet Highlights of Japan Trip

I’ve always wanted to travel to Japan and last month, that dream came true! I LOVE Japanese crochet patterns and I wanted to visit the country where all this crochet loveliness originated! Since our youngest son was working in Japan for the first 3 months of this year, my husband and I seized the opportunity to travel there while he was still in the country. He’s back now (and we’re back, too), so it’s time I shared about the great crochet fun I had there (I’ll write another blog post about the other fun we had there being tourists and seeing some of their beautiful country)!

The highlight of the trip for me was visiting the Nihon Vogue Publishing Corporation main office, their Vogue Academy and their Keito Yarn Shop, all in Tokyo! I arranged for this tour several months ago through email with Mr. Toshiharu Tsuda, who works for them. He set up a fabulous tour of their 3 facilities! I had an absolutely wonderful time, especially at their corporate office and their Vogue Academy.

At the corporate office, which has 4 floors, I met several people: Mr. Toshiharu Tsuda, who I had been emailing for several months, Mr. Kenichi Funyu, who is an Adobe Illustrator extraordinaire and an editor at Nihon Vogue, Ms. Akiko Taniyama, who is the chief editor of Keitodama and Mr. Nobuaki Seto, the president of Nihon Vogue Corp! I felt like royalty there! They showed me all around their corporate office, including their Keitodama editing area. They brought out samples from the newest issue of Keitodama magazine (Vol. 181), too! They treated my husband and I to lunch in their cafeteria. Mr. Seto, the president, even showed us his office, along with several keepsakes he has; one made from his father’s ties! And he showed us their conference room with a bookshelf that runs from corner to corner along one long wall, filled with every issue of books and magazines that Nihon Vogue has published since the beginning of the company over 60 years ago (in 1954)! Wow! I was in crochet (and knit) heaven!

My husband and I with the Nihon Vogue staff

Books and magazines in Nihon Vogue editing department

Nihon Vogue bookshelf wall with every issue they’ve published!

After touring the corporate office and having lunch there, Mr. Toshiharu Tsuda took my husband and I to their Vogue Academy. This is where their certified instructors teach all kinds of crafts, such as crochet, knitting, porcelain painting, embroidery, quilting, sewing and lots more (even cooking classes)! They have 8 locations in Japan with 1,350 courses and 18,000 students! Wow! Now that’s serious teaching! The Tokyo location, which we visited, has 13 classrooms. Mr. Hiroki Hashimoto gave us the tour at Vogue Academy. He showed us every class that was in session and we could see what the students were making in each classroom. It was so much fun, especially in the 2 crochet/knitting classes! The students had finished or were working on garments in both classes. I was amazed at their skills and their projects!

The Tokyo Vogue Academy even has a store there with yarns, books, and lots of tools/supplies that students can purchase. I showed Mr. Hashimoto my 2 favorite Nihon Vogue books from their store and he was so nice to give me those 2 books!

After the Vogue Academy tour, Mr. Toshiharu Tsuda took us to the Keito Yarn shop. It was a somewhat small shop, but it was laid out very nicely. They had yarns from all over the world, making it hard to decide what I wanted to buy there! I bought 2 balls of Lana Gatto Nuovo Jaipur, a 100% combed cotton yarn, which is made in Croatia and 1 skein of Hasegawa, a silk/mohair blend, which is made in Japan! I look forward to knitting and/or crocheting with both of these yarns!

All in all, that day was magical for me! I LOVED meeting the Nihon Vogue employees, who were all very friendly and kind. I LOVED seeing their office, academy and yarn shop! I was surrounded with yummy goodness everywhere I turned! Their corporate office has a main lobby with tables covered in crocheted doilies and centerpieces! The entrance to their corporate office has a spinning wheel, which is part of their logo! And everywhere I turned, there were beautiful, inspirational things to see, from quilts on the walls to published books and magazines! That is a day I will never forget for the rest of my life!!!

Crochet centerpiece in Nihon Vogue lobby

In addition to the Nihon Vogue tour, I also visited 2 craft stores and a 100 Yen store while we were in Tokyo, where I purchased yarns and crochet books! At the Yuzawaya store in Kamata (3 floors high), I bought a Disney crochet book for 1,111 yen and 3 skeins/hanks of cotton and cotton/acrylic yarn, both made in China. At the Okadaya store in Sinjuku (6 floors high), I bought 2 Nihon Vogue crochet books for 1,200 yen and 1,100 yen. At the 100 Yen store (called “Can Do”), I bought 4 skeins of cotton yarn made in China for 100 yen each! The exchange rate is currently around .009 yen to 1 dollar, so 1,000 yen is about $9.00. So as you can see, the yarn and books were quite reasonably priced!

Japan crochet books and yarn I got/bought

If you love to knit and/or crochet, Japan can be a wonderful place to purchase yarn/thread/supplies and books/magazines!

If you’d like to read about the rest of our trip to Japan, subscribe to my blog to get an email when a new blog post comes out.

Until next time! Happy crocheting!

Susan

October 2, 2017October 2, 2017

Delicious Yarns!

Have you seen some of the new color-changing yarns that are available in the US now? They’re gorgeous! I’ve been enjoying color-changing yarns for quite some time now. It’s hard to resist buying the newer yarns because the colors are so pretty! A week ago, I gave in to the urge to buy more yarn (again)! Here are some of the yarns I’ve been buying lately:

Have you seen the new Caron Cakes yarns? I think they’re only available at Michaels Craft stores. They came out last year (or the year before) with the basic Caron Cakes yarn, which is worsted weight and has 383 yds. Now they have Caron Cupcakes (the ones on the far left and right with the pompoms on top in the photo above). These cakes are light weight (#3) yarn with 244 yds per cake. There is a knit or crochet hat pattern on the inside of the yarn label. The pompom will look great on the top, if I make these into baby hats!

Then they have the Caron Big Cakes (the blue one in the photo), which is worsted weight, just like the basic Caron Cakes yarn (the Big Cakes looks and feels slightly thinner than the basic Caron Cakes yarn, though). The Big Cakes has 603 yds. The basic Caron Cakes yarn (the tan one in the photo) is 80% acrylic and 20% wool. The new Big Cakes and the Cupcakes are 100% acrylic. There is also a Tea Cakes and a Sprinkle Cakes, which I held off on buying this time around (what self-control I have!!!)!

Here are some of the Red Heart yarns that I’ve bought. I’ve been crocheting (and designing) with the Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable for several years now (the left and right skeins in the photo above). I love the colors they have and they work perfectly for my One-Skein Cowl patterns!

The center skein of yarn is the new Red Heart Super Saver Stripes. It is a worsted weight yarn with 236 yds (100% acrylic). I saw this yarn at my local Walmart last month and this color spoke to me! So I listened and added it to my collection of color-changing yarn! I LOVE the colors in this skein! I don’t know yet what I’ll design with it, but I will definitely enjoy the colors while I’m working with it (I love just looking at the colors in the skein, too)!

Lion Brand Mandala yarn

This cake is the new Lion Brand Mandala yarn. I saw this yarn on the same day last month at my local Walmart. It spoke to me, too! This yarn is another light weight yarn (#3). It is also 100% acrylic and has 590 yds in it. That’s enough for a nice, drapey crochet project (probably an accessory)!

Here’s a new design that I saw in the recent issue of Crochet! magazine (Winter 2017) that uses the Lion Brand Mandala yarn. It’s designed by Karen McKenna and is made with one skein of the #216 Sphinx colorway. Isn’t it gorgeous?

It’s a good thing that I like to crochet because I’ve found that acrylic yarn isn’t as good for knitting as it is for crochet! And I LOVE getting lots of yardage for my money, too!

I’m looking forward to designing some delicious crochet patterns with these yarns!

What draws you to a particular yarn? Is it the colors, like me? Is it the fiber content? Is it the yardage? Is it the price? Or is it something else?

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these new yarns. And I hope I haven’t enabled you too much to buy more yarn than you’ll ever use in your lifetime!!!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

April 1, 2016

Stash Busting – A Little at a Time

Do you ever get in a “stash busting” mood? I’m in one currently and I think it’s great to get into this mood every now and then (otherwise my stash would be uncontrollable, which some might say it already is!). I’m also in a “quick to make” project mode, especially after working on some blankets/afghans for several months! I have many single skeins of yarn in my stash with 100-150 yards in each skein. That’s not enough for a sweater or shawl, so I thought I’d design some skinny scarves with them. I’ve been wanting to have some skinny scarves that are more decorative than functional (they won’t keep me warm, but they’ll jazz up my outfits a little!). Here’s the first skinny scarf that I designed earlier this week:

First Skinny Scarf with FibraNatura Cobblestone yarn

It’s made with 1 skein of FibraNatura Cobblestone yarn in a pretty multi-color that will coordinate with many things in my wardrobe! I think this yarn is discontinued, but that’s okay with me. I still like the colors in it and I love how the colors change within one of the 2 plies. The other ply stays the same color (in this case it’s pink, which I love!), which tones down the color changing ply so it’s not too “in your face”! This yarn is 100% superwash merino wool and has 153 yards in the 50 gram skein. It’s a sport weight yarn, which is about the weight I wanted to use for this skinny scarf. I stumbled upon this skein of yarn at one of my local thrift stores last year for 99 cents! That’s a great price for a skinny scarf (or any scarf/project), as far as I’m concerned! Because there’s so much going on with the color changes in this yarn, I chose to use a simple stitch pattern to show off the colors of the yarn better. This scarf turned out exactly how I had imagined it and I think it’ll work out great in my wardrobe!

The 2nd skinny scarf that I started is going to be made with Plymouth Yarn Stained Glazz. I started this scarf last night, but when I looked at it this morning, I changed my mind to make it differently, so I frogged what I had started. According to our digital kitchen scale and a ruler, it was going to be about 27″ long, which isn’t anywhere near as long as I want it. So it’s back to the drawing board for this skinny scarf! This is a worsted/aran weight yarn with only 99 yards in the 50 gram skein. The yarn is a little heavy for a skinny scarf, so I have to be careful what stitches I use with it. I think it’ll make a pretty skinny scarf, too. It looks to be a one-ply, roving type of yarn, with solid black throughout and the rest of the ply changing colors with muted shades of red, orange, yellow, green and blue in it. It’s made with 51% wool and 49% acrylic fibers. I won this skein of yarn at the Halloween Party at the Annie’s Craft Festival last year (that was a ton of fun!). If you’d like to read about my adventures there, check out this blog post. Here’s what the Plymouth yarn looks like before this skinny scarf is made:

Plymouth Stained Glazz yarn for 2nd Skinny Scarf

What about you? What do you like to make with one skein of yarn? Do you like to make hats, scarves or something else? I’m not much of a hat person because of my curly hair. If I put a hat on, I’d better leave it on for the rest of the day, or else hide my flattened out “hat hair” at home (it’s really bad)!

I hope you’re enjoying the spring (or fall, if you live “down under”) and are taking time to enjoy the relaxing, creative benefits of crochet!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

February 5, 2016

Landscapes Cowl – 1 Skein Project

Last year at the CGOA Conference, I received 1 skein of Lion Brand Landscapes yarn in my goodie bag. When I saw the yarn, I instantly fell in love with the beautiful colors! I knew I wanted to design something with it, but what can a crocheter make with only 1 skein of yarn? It’s not enough for a garment or an afghan, so I decided to design an accessory to show off the gorgeous colors in this yarn.

One of my favorite accessories to design, crochet and wear is cowls. Adding a cowl to an outfit can really dress it up with very little effort! And if the cowl is long enough, you can decide if you want to wear the cowl long or doubled up.

So without further ado, here is my newest pattern, the Landscapes Cowl:

Aren’t the colors in this yarn gorgeous? I think so!

For this cowl design, I used an easy stitch pattern (so the colors of the yarn would grab a person’s attention, not fight with a complex stitch pattern)! This cowl pattern has a 2 row repeat, making it easy to memorize and quick to stitch. I used 1 skein for my small cowl in these photos (5 1/2″ wide x 48″ circumference), but you could use 2 skeins for a wider and longer cowl (the pattern includes instructions for a large size of 8″ wide x 60″ circumference). Either way, it’s an economical project to crochet with only 1 or 2 skeins of yarn! And since I love symbol crochet charts, I made a chart for each size of the cowl (the charts are included in the pattern).

I’m curious! Have you had the pleasure of crocheting with Lion Brand Landscapes yarn? If so, how do you like it? Are you in love with the colors, like me? The color I used was #204 Desert Spring. But there are lots of other really pretty colors in this yarn. You can see all of the colors available in Landscapes yarn on the Lion Brand website here. There are solid colors, as well as self-striping colors, like the one I used in my cowl. This yarn is worsted weight, 100% acrylic and has 147 yards in each skein.

I seem to really be drawn to self-striping yarns these days! They’re so pretty! And the changes in colors help to keep my interest in the project, especially when the stitch pattern is easy! Since the projects made from self-striping yarns have lots of different colors in them, you can wear the items you crochet from them with lots of different outfits!

I hope you’ll give self-striping yarn, like Lion Brand Landscapes, a try soon. You won’t regret it! And if you enjoy easy-to-stitch projects where the yarn does all the work (well, most of the work), check out my Landscapes Cowl pattern here. It’s only $4.95 for the full pattern, including symbol crochet charts. You can crochet as many of these cowls with the pattern as you’d like!

As always, if you have a question about one of my patterns, I’m just an e-mail away! I’m more than happy to help YOU be successful with your crochet projects made from my crochet patterns! And if you’d like to join my group on Ravelry to discuss my crochet patterns, to ask a question about one of them or to join in a CAL (crochet-along), I’d love to have you join us! You can find my Ravelry group here.

Happy crocheting,

Susan

P.S. If you’d like to follow my blog, simply enter your e-mail address in the “subscribe to blog via email” spot near the top, right-hand corner of this page. I plan to bring you more interesting crochet content/patterns this year and for many years to come!

April 23, 2015

Crochet a Shawl for Less Than $5!

Are you looking for a crochet project that won’t break your bank? I have just the thing for you. Here’s my “Keepsake Lace Shawl” that was originally published in the May/June 2010 issue of Crochet Today magazine. The pattern is available for FREE through the Coats & Clark archives here:

In the past 3 weeks, I’ve crocheted 2 of these shawls with just one skein of yarn each from Michaels! The yarn is called “Loops & Threads Woolike”. It is a light fingering weight yarn with 678 yards in the skein, made with 85% acrylic and 15% nylon fibers. And the best part is it retails for just $2.99! Yes, you heard me right. You’ll get 678 yards for just $2.99 (plus tax)!!! Now that’s a great deal for yarn!

Here is one of the shawls I crocheted last week. It’s for my Mom for Mother’s Day:

Mom's Keepsake Lace Shawl front — Mom’s Keepsake Lace Shawl front

Mom's Keepsake Lace Shawl back — Mom’s Keepsake Lace Shawl back

To read more about this shawl, you can see my Ravlery project page here. If you’re looking for a relatively quick, inexpensive shawl to crochet, you might want to consider this shawl and yarn!

The original pattern is for a 60″ long shawl. This shawl is about 42″ long with 9 pattern repeats across. I started with a foundation chain of 251 chains so I wouldn’t run out of yarn (I knew I wouldn’t have enough yarn to make it the full length and I didn’t want to go buy more yarn). I think the length is very nice! This color of yarn is called “beige” and the other shawl I made was with the color “mauve” (which is much more like burgundy).

I really like this yarn AND the amount of yards you get for only $2.99 (or less with a 40% off coupon)! If you don’t have a Michaels store near you, you can always order this yarn through their website here!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at this crochet shawl pattern and this wonderful yarn!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

New Ripple Cowl Pattern

We all love scarves for keeping our necks warm during the cold winter months! I know I do! But there’s one thing even better than a scarf because it doesn’t fall off easily or become crooked with wear. That item is a “cowl”! If you’ve never heard of a cowl, it’s basically the same thing as an “infinity scarf”, which is a scarf that is joined together at the ends into one big, long tube. There are no ends to be concerned about being straight or even when wearing it. You just put the cowl over your head and wrap it around your neck once or twice, depending on your preference of length and neck warmth! And presto! You have a beautiful and functional accessory to proudly wear or give as a gift. And it’s one of those gifts that doesn’t have to be a certain size, too!!!

This year, I started designing lots of scarves and cowls, since they’re a lot of fun to crochet and wear (and don’t require sizing!). I recently had my first cowl design published in the Dec. 2014 issue of Crochet World magazine and I have a new cowl pattern for you right here on The Crochet Architect. It’s called the “Unforgettable Ripple Cowl”, named after the Red Heart Boutique “Unforgettable” yarn that I chose for this cowl. This yarn comes in some absolutely “gorgeous” colors! It’s 100% acrylic, so it’s machine washable, which is a big plus for anything you might get dirty (not that I get my cowls dirty, but it could happen and I want to make sure I can get it clean without felting it)! I really enjoy crocheting with this soft, squishy yarn. Anyway, here is my new cowl design:

Aren’t the colors pretty? I chose a ripple stitch pattern for this design because I like the way the changing colors are shown off to their best advantage. It’s also an easy pattern to memorize and crochet, as well as being quick to make! This cowl uses only 1 skein of the Unforgettable yarn, making it an economical project, too. There is only 1 seam to sew to join the bottom and top edges to form the tube-shaped cowl, as well as 2 tails to weave in (that’s not bad considering all the beautiful colors that change on their own!).

Here’s a photo of the cowl worn doubled:

I’m really going to enjoy wearing this cowl during the winter, which isn’t too far off now (we had our first frost on Sunday night, so winter is right around the corner here in the higher elevations of Arizona!).

Have you started any new scarf or cowl patterns lately before winter hits where you live? Do you have someone on your Christmas list who loves scarves and cowls?

To purchase the “Unforgettable Ripple Cowl” pattern, just check out our “patterns” page!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

May 12, 2014

Yarn Control and Keeping my Sanity!

Have you ever been happily crocheting away and the skein of yarn you’re using starts falling apart in front of your eyes? Well, that happened to me over the past month while working on a crochet design for a publisher. I was crocheting a project that is done in the Fair Isle technique. Oh, you haven’t heard of that technique yet, you say? Karen Whooley has designed a lot of projects in the Fair Isle Crochet technique, which is similar to the Tapestry Crochet technique, but not quite the same. You can see some Fair Isle projects that Karen Whooley has designed over the past 7 years on her Ravelry designer page. Check out Karen’s Fair Isle Crochet class on Craftsy, too. It looks like it would be a great class to take for those who want to learn to do Fair Isle Crochet!

In Karen’s Fair Isle Crochet technique, she works her single crochet in the BACK LOOP of the stitches (this is different from Tapestry Crochet, which is worked in BOTH LOOPS of the stitches). Karen also carries the non-working color on top of the stitches, encasing it until needed again, just like in the Tapestry Crochet technique. I worked my project in this style of Fair Isle, which worked very well, since the stitches don’t slant (like they do in Tapestry Crochet) and the back of the project looks as neat as the front!

Anyway, back to the trouble I was having with my yarn misbehaving! Since I was using 2 colors in each row of my project, I had to change back and forth between the colors often. And since I always crossed the colors the same way each time (whether that is correct or not, I’m not sure!), the 2 yarns wrapped around each other after a certain number of color changes. So I had to take one skein of the yarn and unwrap the 2 yarns, bringing the skein over and under the strand of the other color yarn many times so they wouldn’t get tangled. But that wasn’t too bad, all things considered. What was bad was how the skein of yarn that I handled a lot to unwrap the 2 yarns starting falling apart on the outside like this:

After working many rows of my project and having the skeins do this, I decided to do something about it! So I purchased some yarn sleeves to keep the outside of the skeins intact! Here’s one of the skeins with the yarn sleeve in use:

This yarn sleeve really saved my life (that may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but not too far from it)! I had never used or owned a yarn sleeve before, but it was time to give them a try. And I’m so glad I did. The yarn sleeve worked really well at keeping the yarn together when I handled it so much. And that saved a little of my sanity! When I told a friend of mine that I had bought the yarn sleeves to use, she said I could do the same thing with some panty hose! I hadn’t thought of that, but it sounds like it would work. Have you used something else to keep your yarn under control like this?

When I was done with my project, I decided to use my handy yarn winder and turn all the leftover skeins of yarn into neat “cakes” so they’d fit better into the box for storage. They’ll also be easier to use the next time I need to design something with these yarn colors instead of pulling my hair out in the middle of the project trying to untangle them! This is how some of the yarns looked before winding them up for storage:

And this is how they looked after winding them up:

Don’t they look organized and ready to use again? These 8 yarn colors above, plus black, are the colors I used in the project I just completed, which I recently shipped off to the publisher. I can’t show you the project now, but I can show it to you in July or August, after it’s published.

If you’re looking for a way (or 2) for controlling your yarn, I hope you’ll give yarn sleeves and winding the yarn into cakes a try! And if you’re looking for a new/different crochet technique to try, why not try the Fair Isle Crochet technique? It’s actually quite fun and the results are spectacular!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

November 15, 2013December 5, 2013

Book and Yarn Review: “Baby Washcloths & Afghan Squares” book and Omega Sinfonia yarn

Last month, I got the book, “Baby Washcloths & Afghan Squares” by Lisa Carnahan, published by Annie’s. This is a knitting book, not a crochet book. But since I now know how to knit, as well as crochet, I wanted to give some knit washcloths a try. Here is a photo of the front cover of this book:

Baby Washcloths & Afghan Squares book (front cover)

This is a very nice book with some nice washcloth patterns. I especially like it because I’m a relatively new knitter and my knitting skills are still a work-in-progress (I’m not ready for the TKGA Masters program by any means, yet!).

It was hard to pick which washcloth designs I wanted to make from this book because I like them all! But I finally chose the Zigzags and the Triangles washcloths to make. Here are photos of these 2 washcloths in the book:

The washcloths in this book were made with Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic, which is a DK weight yarn. Since I didn’t have any of that yarn, I used some Omega Sinfonia that I had left over from the “Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths” book I did for Annie’s. I LOVE this yarn! It’s a sport weight 100% cotton yarn that comes in many gorgeous colors. It is 3.52oz (100g) and has 218 yards (200m) for $4-5, so the value is good (and you can buy it for even less than this with a coupon!). I started knitting a pretty pink sweater this month from 5 balls of Sinfonia that I bought on sale for $3 each to learn more about knitting and shaping sweaters! It should be really nice!

But back to the baby washcloths! These washcloths don’t use that much yarn, so using left overs is perfect for these projects. In my opinion, these washcloth patterns aren’t just for babies. Since pretty much all of them are geometric designs, they can be used for much more than babies. At 8” (20cm) square, I think they’re a great size for facial washcloths and smaller dishcloths, too. I LOVE the drape of them and the stitch pattern keeps my interest instead of knitting rows of all knit or all purl! I also LOVE how quick they are to make. I can make a washcloth in just 1 or 2 evenings while watching TV (I’m not that fast of a knitter, yet, either!). Okay, here are photos of my washcloths for you to see:

What do you think? I think I did pretty well for being a new knitter (since July of this year).

There are 10 solid washcloths and 1 striped washcloth (done with slipped stitches) in this book. There’s even an afghan made with all 10 of the solid squares and 10 of the striped squares in the book (the afghan can be seen on the cover of the book and there is a full-size photo of the afghan inside the book). Here’s the striped washcloth for you to see:

You can see larger photos of all the washcloth blocks in this book and purchase it online on the Annie’s website here. If you love to knit washcloths and dishcloths, you’ll really enjoy this book!

Happy crocheting (and knitting),

Susan

November 13, 2012November 13, 2012

Winding Yarn into a Ball

Have you ever bought some gorgeous yarn that’s in a hank instead of a ball and asked yourself “How am I going to wind this into a ball”? Obviously, you can’t crochet or knit something with the yarn if it’s in a hank and not a ball or it would tangle uncontrollably! I bought some gorgeous lace weight bamboo yarn at the CGOA Conference in Manchester, NH this year and decided I’d better wind it into a ball so I can use it sometime soon. I love the colors that are in this yarn, don’t you?

Here’s a look at the tag that came on this gorgeous yarn to see how much yardage I got for my money:

This yarn was sold by The Fiber Studio LLC in Henniker, NH. I think the yardage is great for the price and the fiber content (1,361 yards of hand-dyed bamboo yarn for only $16.20)! Anyway, I should have plenty of yardage to crochet something gorgeous, after I decide on the perfect item to make/design with it. I can’t wait!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t own a yarn swift yet. However, I do own both a manual and an electric yarn ball winder. I was blessed to win a Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder at Professional Development Day at the CGOA Conference a few years ago! What a treat! It’s a big time saver, as well as a muscle saver, especially when winding this many yards of yarn!!! But it’s not foolproof. You have to keep an eye on it and make sure nothing goes wrong, so don’t leave the room while it’s winding the yarn! I had a big mess of yarn once when the yarn slid off the winder while it was being wound! If I had been in the same room, I would have noticed it sooner and wouldn’t have had as big of a mess! The electric yarn ball winder does an excellent job of winding the yarn and I really enjoy having it. Here’s a picture of the box for the electric winder:

This electric yarn ball winder is available from many websites and at some local craft stores. You can watch a demo video of this yarn winder on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt83Fui5rDA.

I use my manual yarn winder when I have small amounts of yarn to wind. It hooks onto the table (the table can’t be too thick, though) and you have to manually turn the handle to wind the yarn or crochet thread onto it. I will often slide half of a toilet paper roll onto the center of the manual yarn winder before using it to wind crochet thread so there is a “core” inside the thread when I’m done. It helps to keep all the neatly wound thread together later on. Here’s a picture of the manual yarn winder:

Well, back to my invisible yarn swift (I’ll buy one sometime, I promise!). Since I wanted to wind this yarn and not have it terribly tangled, I had to improvise on a yarn swift. So I put 2 dining room chairs back to back in my kitchen and placed the hank of yarn over the back of the 2 chairs to hold it in place. Then I moved the chairs to the appropriate distance apart to support the yarn. Here’s what the yarn looked like around the back of the 2 chairs:

Improvised Yarn Swift — Improvised yarn swift

After I was satisfied with my makeshift swift, I removed the strand that was tied around the hank. Here’s what the ends looked like before freeing the tied ends:

There was another 1 or 2 strands of yarn/thread tied around the hank that I removed, also. Then I started winding the yarn with the electric yarn ball winder. Since this yarn is somewhat slippery, I had to tie a knot in the end (to keep it from slipping off) before placing the end into the groove in the center of the yarn ball winder!

Guiding Yarn on Chairs — Guiding yarn from chairs to winder

Now a real yarn swift would have rotated and done most of the work for me, but I don’t own a swift, remember! So I had to become a “human yarn swift” and guide the yarn above the chairs (because obviously, my chairs don’t rotate)!!! I got a bit of a shoulder and arm workout but not too much!

It took me quite a while to wind the yarn, but it was definitely worth it. Now I’ll be able to use this yarn when I have an idea of what it wants to be (and when I have the time to devote to this project)!

Doesn’t this look nice and neat? This electric winder really does a nice job. I can pull the yarn from the center or the outside of the ball, whichever I choose.

If you use another method to wind your yarn into nice, neat balls, please share it with all of us here at The Crochet Architect! Or if you own an electric yarn ball winder, let us know how you like it!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

May 19, 2012June 11, 2013

Continuous Crochet Motifs

I bought a crochet book last year called “Continuous Crochet Motifs” from a Japanese seller on EBay. I paid $40.00 for this book, which is a lot to spend on a crochet book, but it is very much worth the money! It is a Japanese book with only Japanese writing inside, but it has crochet symbol charts throughout the book, which I can easily read. I quickly digested the book and learned this technique, in which motifs are made continuously, meaning there are less ends to weave in at the end (hooray!!!). You have to follow the symbol charts very carefully, but the book also includes a front section where there are both symbol charts and step-by-step photos of the motif being worked. It’s a great book and if you’re at all intrigued by this crochet technique/method, you might want to buy one of these books someday. Kristin Omdahl has a book with this technique called “Seamless Crochet”. I don’t have her book, yet, but I plan to get it soon. Here is what the Japanese Continuous Crochet Motifs book looks like on the front and back covers:

Continuous Crochet Motifs book back cover — back cover of book

Keep in mind that when you’re using only one color, there are only 2 ends to weave in “total” because you work the motifs continuously, no matter how many motifs you make, and only fasten off at the end! That’s a huge improvement on weaving in 2 ends for every motif made!

A few weeks ago, I decided to use this technique to design something for the CGOA Design Contest, which will be held at the CGOA Conference next month in Manchester, NH. The deadline to enter something into the contest is June 6. I need to get it done within the next few weeks so there will be time for my entry to travel to the destination where it needs to be by June 6!

I can’t tell you what I’m designing, but I can tell you that I’m using some Red Heart Luster Sheen yarn to make it. I love this yarn! It is a size 2 (fine weight) yarn and is 100% acrylic. It provides beautiful drape and the colors are really nice. Here’s a photo of the yarn I’m using:

You can see that the bottom skein is different from the rest. That’s because Coats & Clark is repackaging this yarn into 3.5oz/100g skeins (they used to be 4oz/125g). There are 307 yards/281 meters in the new skeins, so it still goes a long way! The bottom color is from my stash and the top 3 colors are new. I’m using their cherry red, black, orange and vanilla colors. Since I’m using so many colors in this design, there will be plenty of ends to weave in. But I will only have 2 ends to weave in of the color that I’m using continuously around the other motifs to join them all together. That will almost CUT IN HALF the number of ends to weave in! Now that’s a big improvement in my book!!!

I used Luster Sheen yarn in my Two-Way Rose Pin design (you can see it on Ravelry here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/two-way-rose-pin). I also used Luster Sheen yarn when I crocheted a filet afghan to be photographed in the book “Afghans for All Reasons & All Seasons”, which Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss produced for Leisure Arts. Here’s a link to a photo of that afghan on Amazon (it’s on the front cover in the top right-hand corner): http://www.amazon.com/Afghans-Reasons-Seasons-Leisure-Arts/dp/160140672X#reader_160140672X.

Small Motif wrong and right — wrong and right motif

I noticed last week that I made one of the motifs wrong for this project, so I had to rip out a whole row of work! Ugh!!! I had only worked the second round and left out the first round in each of the motifs (that’s what happens when I’m preoccupied and don’t look at the symbol chart I made!). Here’s how the motif looks (the left motif is missing round 1, but the right motif has both rounds worked):

: joined and unjoined round 1

I took a few minutes to decide if it was going to make a difference before ripping it out, though. I decided it would look better if I made the motifs the right way (the chain spaces are more pronounced in the correct motif on the right), so the extra time would make a difference in the look of the project. When I ripped it out, I decided to engineer the motif a little differently. Originally, I had designed it with 2 rounds and both rounds were joined at the end. However, I tried it with not joining the first round and only joining the second round. Here is a photo of the difference between the two joinings:

The motif on the left is joined at the end of both rounds. The motif on the right is joined at the end of the second round only. I see less bulk in the joining area, so that’s what I’m going to do for these motifs. The new motif goes straight from the last sc in the first round to the first sc in the second round without the usual “sl st” at the end of the round and “ch 1” before the first sc of the next round. What do you think? Do you like the newer motif better or do you not see any difference between them? I know, it’s very minimal, but if I had to rip them out anyway, I might as well make the change!

Let’s hope I stay on schedule and get this done in time for the contest (if I don’t get distracted with something else along the way)!

Happy crocheting,

Susan