Two Great Magazines!
I always look forward to receiving my copy of Crochet! magazine in the mail, but especially the current issue! In the Fall issue, there’s an article (by me–yay!) about the Russian Spoke stitch, or double bullion stitch, with step-by-step photos.
But we didn’t stop there. Carol Alexander, editor of Crochet! asked me to design a project that included the Double Bullion Stitch. I was glad to do this, using the lovely Ritratto yarn from the S. Charles Collection to make a capelet. The flouncy border is made with Double Bullion Stitches.
Two flowers in Crochet Garden feature the Russian Spoke stitch and its friend, the Russian Spoke Picot.
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Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood is a busy crafter, volunteer, and mom, who also publishes a magazine called CraftSanity. The magazine represents a broad range of articles of interest to fans of home-made and hand-made items, including canning, embroidery, weaving, and of course, crochet! You’ll also find interviews with artists and craftspeople and recipes.
In Issue 7 of CraftSanity, Jennifer published her interview with me–yay again! We had a great phone conversation and then she sent me questions to answer via email. Lark Crafts kindly gave permission to reprint the pattern for the Russian Picot Daisy. There was just enough room left to print the recipe for my favorite cooling dessert using our garden produce: Mint Ice.
More Information
Crochet! is the official magazine of the Crochet Guild of America. Click here for subscription information:
http://crochet.org/cgoamagazine.html
Buy copies of CraftSanity magazine here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/104131686/craftsanity-magazine-issue-7-print
TNNA in Columbus
Sparkling, thick-thin, and furry yarns offered a very optimistic view of the yarn industry at The National Needlework Association Summer Trade Show in Columbus, Ohio, last month.
The look of yarns goes in cycles, like all fashion-related products. We’ve gone to the conservative side in yarn design for the last few years. Time for a change! While manufacturers still offered basic yarns in brilliant new colors, I was happy to see crazy-fun novelty yarns, as well.
TNNA has a “Great Wall of Yarn,” with samples of new yarns from many manufacturers. I had already taped a bunch of samples in my notebook, when I saw the thoughtfully prepared yarn-sample books provided for participants. Next time I’ll know to look for those first!
You can probably tell from my sample choices which yarns I like best—SPARKLY!
Book Signing at Lion Brand Yarn Studio in New York
I can hardly wait to go to New York to visit the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, talk with fellow crocheters, and sign copies of Crochet Bouquet and Crochet Garden!
The book signing is at 6:00 p.m., August 6th, 2012, with seating starting at 5:30 p.m. If you would like to attend, please go to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio website to RSVP and for more information.
It will be a kind of homecoming for me. In the early 1990s I designed some afghans and sweaters for Lion Brand. I visited Lion Brand headquarters in New York and showed the Blumenthals some design swatches. They commissioned a couple of designs–I was so excited!
Aside from the lovely crocheted flowers in Crochet Garden, these are my favorite Lion Brand yarn designs. I designed the Kitty Dreams Blanket, made with Lion Brand Jiffy, for the Monsanto Designs for America program in the mid-1990s. The pattern is in a book called Cat Crafts: More than 50 Purrfect Projects, by Dawn Cusick. The book is available from used booksellers online, starting at around $1.00 plus shipping.
My daughter Eva (then about 7 years old) drew a beautiful blue fish. I just had to see if I could interpret it in knitting. Mosaic knitting seemed the best way to capture the detail in her drawing. The result: this Fish Rug made from a double strand of Lion Cotton. What is it with all these fish, anyway?
That reminds me–I’m teaching how to Knit Mosaic Designs and Chart Your Own at Interweave Knitting Lab New England in October. See sidebar for link.
Free Patterns and Instructions
Sometimes there just aren’t enough pages in a book! But luckily for us, the internet is the perfect place to share some of the patterns that we couldn’t squeeze into Crochet Garden: Bunches of Flowers, Leaves, and Other Delights.
Amanda and Shannon, the Needlework Team at Lark Crafts, featured free instructions for the Leaves and Berries Spray on their blog last Friday. The samples show the spray with crocheted berries, like the one above, and with button berries.
I’ve always loved my mom’s blue and white Zwiebelmuster (onion pattern) china. It seemed natural to study and sketch the flowers of this popular design when researching ideas for Crochet Garden.
A small border element (the pink arrow is pointing to it) on this Zwiebelmuster tray led to the Leaves and Berries Spray. You never know what small detail can inspire! Here’s a close-up so you can see it better.
The ideas for the Curlicue Sprays and Leafy Spray in Crochet Garden came from this china, too.
A Scarf Project
The Trillium Scarf, worked in Dale of Norway Yarns, is a colorful example of flower cloth. You’ll need Crochet Garden for the Trillium and Violet Leaf patterns. Instructions and step-by-step photos for putting together the Trillium Scarf at the Lark Crafts blog.
See You at TNNA!
Yarn shop owners, yarn manufacturers, and needlework professionals are getting pretty excited about The National Needlework Association Summer Trade Show, this coming weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
Dale of Norway Yarns is hosting a book-signing for Crochet Garden, at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 23. We’ll have a limited number of books to give away. And you can see this pretty Trillium Flower Cloth Scarf up-close and personal.
Hope to see you there!
See You at TNNA!
Yarn shop owners, yarn manufacturers, and needlework professionals are getting pretty excited about The National Needlework Association Summer Trade Show, this coming weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
Dale of Norway Yarns is hosting a book-signing for Crochet Garden, at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 23. We’ll have a limited number of books to give away. And you can see this pretty Trillium Flower Cloth Scarf up close and personal.
Hope to see you there!
Very First Video!
Wow! Who would have guessed that posting a video on YouTube could be so exciting? Well, it is! And I hope this will be the first of many.
“Suzann Thompson, Crochet Author” tells the story of how a regular kid grows up to be a crafty author. It’s really a movie-ized audio slide show, but it’s a start! I hope you’ll watch.
Here’s a slide from the show. Can you read it? It says “Thank You, Readers.” This means you.
Crochet Garden at TNNA, Columbus, Ohio
Imagine a market where yarn shop owners go to buy stock for their stores. It’s like the best dream ever! That’s what’s in store at The National Needlework Association Summer NeedleArts Trade Show in Columbus, Ohio, June 23-25, 2012.
The show is open to TNNA members, like yarn and needlework shop owners, manufacturers, publishers, designers, and teachers. In other words, people in the business of yarn- and needle-crafting.
I’m going to be there, signing copies of Crochet Garden at the Dale of Norway Yarns booth (booth numbers 510 and 512). I am so excited!
Kathryn, a knitting guild friend from way back in our Austin days, introduced me to Dale of Norway Yarns years ago. I fell in love with the deliciously bright colors of Heilo and Baby Ull. As a color-lover, I was impressed that a person could buy yarn in so many different qualities of one color. The patterns were gorgeous, too. The knitted baby clothes were just darling.
The bright colors of Dale of Norway Falk were perfect for these Trilliums (pages 126-127 of Crochet Garden).
The Summer NeedleArts Trade Show is for TNNA members, but if you can’t go as a member of TNNA, please encourage your local yarn shop owners to drop by and say hello.
If you are a needlearts professional, and you haven’t joined TNNA, visit the TNNA website for more information about this helpful.
Tallahassee Has Yarn!
In the days of my youth, I heard actual people say in all seriousness, “It’s too hot in Texas to knit.” It’s true—the fact that they said that, I mean.
I didn’t understand at the time how it could be too hot to knit. Now, at a much advanced age, I still don’t understand!
One might assume it was too hot and humid to knit in Florida as well, but the knitters of Tallahassee obviously don’t think so, because Tallahassee supports three yarn shops!
Charles and I visited the lovely, green, tree-ful city of Tallahassee in May, when the white crape myrtles and jasmine were in bloom. While he attended an archeology conference, I went yarn shop hopping.
Yarn Therapy was my first stop, where Marianne (she’s in the photo) gave me a quick tour of her great sock yarns. She has several brands, including some that are custom-dyed for the shop. I had to buy Pagewood Farm Denali Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in the Watermelon colorway for some socks for myself. I love those colors together.
I managed to slip in a mention of my crochet books. Marianne and Heather wanted to see them, and I happened (!) to have some copies in the car. We took pictures, and they posted the photos on the internet right away. Technology can be so much fun.
After a delicious Thai lunch, I went to the Railroad District for more yarn shopping at Really Knit Stuff. Paula gave me a big Texas greeting when I walked in. She’s from Texas, but hasn’t lived there in a while. I can’t blame her for choosing Tallahassee. I loved her hairstyle, which was a long braid with yarn as one third of the braid.
She stocked Classic Elite Yarns Liberty Wool, a long-repeat variegated yarn. She cleverly provided knitted-up samples, so customers could see the range of colors in a skein. I left with some Liberty Wool to make a flower-cloth scarf of Russian Picot Daisies (from Crochet Garden). Here’s the beginning of it.
The Railroad District has quirky and colorful shops and workshops, including the flower building above. Outside the bookstore there, I saw evidence of Tallahassee’s hospitality for dogs. Our hotel had a similar spread.
Tallahassee looks small from the air, because the many trees hide the buildings. It’s a good place. I would visit again.
Mexican Hat Step by Step
The roadsides around our house are abloom with Mexican Hats, aka Hat Flowers, so it seems a good time to do a Mexican Hat Step by Step.
The pattern is on pages 24-26 of Crochet Garden. You choose whether to make one or two rounds of petals. For this tutorial, I made the double flower. The photos are to supplement the crochet instructions in the book.
Both flowers start with the tall center, a tube of single crochet worked round and round through Rnd 7. Be sure that you’re inserting your hook from the outside of the tube.
In Rnd 8, you make ch-3 loops around and then stuff the tube. Now it looks like Photo 1.
You close off the tube with Rnd 9, cut threads, and weave them in.
Rnd 10 starts the first round of petals in the ch-3 loops you made in Rnd 8. In Photo 2, you can see burgundy centers of four petals created in Rnd 10, along with the first part of Rnd 11 (yellow thread).
To give the petals their characteristic shape, their edges are pinched together with stitches. Rnd 12 pinches each petal and it creates ch-3 lps as the foundation for the next round of petals. You are still working in the same direction, but you have to look on the underside of the flower to insert the hook.
Photo 3 shows a completed Rnd 12 from the underside of the flower. Each petal has a sl st at one side of its base, a ch 1, then another sl st on the other side of its base. This is what pinches the petal into shape. Between the petals you’ll see the ch-3 lp that forms the base for the next round of petals.
Since I was going to use the burgundy and yellow threads again for the second round of petals, I fastened them off but I didn’t cut them.
In Photo 4 you can see the first petal of Rnd 13 peeking from between two petals. When Rnd 13 is done, the underside looks like Photo 5.
Rnd 14 completes the petals.
In the sepal round (Rnd 12 of the single flower, Rnd 15 of the double flower), you are once again pinching the petals together and at the same time, you’re creating the green sepals, as in Photo 6. The sepals are little green spikes that curl out from between the petals.
I’m hoping my daughter will make some tutorial videos for me this summer. The Mexican Hat seems like a good candidate for a how-to video. What do you think?
