Suzann at the Knit and Crochet Show
I’ll be teaching at the Crochet Guild of America’s Professional Development Day, Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM It is part of the Knit and Crochet Show held every year in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Professional Development Day includes panels of experts who talk about how to make money with crochet, lectures by successful crochet designers, and lots of information on how to profit by your passion for crochet.
I’m part of the afternoon program, where participants have a choice of three different, hour-long, round-table sessions.
My session is entitled “A Book’s Journey – from Idea to Book Signings.” Here’s the description:
You have a great crochet book idea, but where do you start–and end? How do you identify potential publishers? How do you pitch your idea? What basic points should you look for in a contract? How do royalties work? How can you organize your time to meet deadlines? What happens after you submit the final manuscript and projects? What should you do while you wait for your book to appear on the market? Once your book is out, how can you increase your book sales? Learn the answers to these questions and more in this whirlwind lecture.
When Crochet Bouquet was finally finished, I gathered most of my notes, sketches, inspirational materials, and some correspondence between me and my editor, and put them into a big ring binder. I bring it along to talks like the one I’m giving at Professional Development Day.
Here are some sneak peeks into the notebook: some leaves from the original proposal; a draft of the Thistle pattern; a couple of party invitations that inspired me.
It’s a wonder how much writing, how many corrections, how many random bits of inspiration, and how much communication goes into a slim volume like Crochet Bouquet.
For more information about the CGOA Professional Development Day and registration information, please visit the Knit and Crochet Show site. Hope to see you there!
Power, Flower
It’s been a long time since I used the “Earthen House” (formerly “House Building”) category on a post. Our new house was delayed for one reason and then another since about 2006. But now we are back on track. Hurray!
The power company came out a couple of weeks ago and installed poles and power lines to our place. The poles make our driveway look more real, somehow–like an actual road. It’s an amazing shift in perspective, and a tangible indication of progress.
“Look at the copper ground wires glistening in the setting sun,” I said dreamily, as we walk down the driveway one evening.
My daughter laughed. “Mom, you’re the only person I know who would get so excited about electrical poles.”
Power to us!
And now the flower. Unbeknownst to me, after enlarging a roadside trench to keep rainwater from overflowing into our yard and under our house, Charles planted “North Texas Wildflower Mix” in the disturbed earth.
What a surprise it was this spring to find poppies, cornflowers, scarlet flax, baby blue eyes, and sandwort growing along the ditch. We love the red poppies, but this pink and white poppy was our favorite. It makes me want to copy it in crochet!
Shawl? Or Not?
I was excited to see monk’s cloth in Walmart! It’s like the cloth that cross-stitchers use, with a very regular, square weave that is easy to see and easy to stitch into. “I can crochet right into the edge!” I said.
So I planned a square cloth shawl with a crocheted floral trim. I made the flowery bits, which would be joined as I crocheted along.
Luckily I thought to wash the cloth first. It shrank quite a bit. It also fluffed up a little, and a flaw that I found after getting the fabric home resolved itself and I can’t even see it now.
The decorative stitching added some interest to the stark whiteness of the cloth. And also, it was fun! I love decorative stitches, and it’s a good thing, because it took a long time to stitch across each side.
After zig-zag stitching around the cut edges, I folded the edges under and crocheted (*sc, sk 1 space in the fabric, ch 1*, repeat bet *s) all around the square.
Before starting the floral trim, I tried it on.
Oh no.
It looked like I was wearing a tablecloth.
I folded it this way. No joy. I folded it another way. Still no good. I squinted my eyes just so. Nope. I put it away for a day or two.
That did not help. It still looked like a tablecloth, and there’s nothing sillier than a plump, stern-looking, middle-aged lady wearing a tablecloth. Even if it has a pretty crocheted trim.
Well, now we have a new tablecloth.
But what about my shawl? I found some pretty fabric to match the flowery pieces I already crocheted. It’s not the kind of fabric you can easily crochet into, but I figured out a solution to that problem, and will report on it later.
Spiral Bind Your Copy of Crochet Bouquet
Curmudgea wrote a complimentary, heart-warming (my heart, for sure!) review of Crochet Bouquet. She brought up a subject that will have many of you nodding in agreement:
If I had one quibble, it would be that I wish the book were spiral bound so that it would lie flat on my lap when I’m working.
It makes good sense for craft books to be spiral bound. I imagine that the cost of spiral binding keeps many publishers from choosing that option. Also, when a book is on a shelf in a bookstore, the publisher really wants you to be able to read the spine–impossible with a spiral.
But never fear! Your local printing and binding shop comes to the rescue!
I took a copy of Crochet Bouquet to Staples Office Supply in Stephenville, Texas. Jessica, a helpful and friendly associate in the printing department, carefully shaved off the spine of the book. She adjusted the hole-puncher so the holes would be centered down the page.
We decided on a navy blue spiral, because the black spiral contrasted too harshly. Jessica inserted the spiral, trimmed and crimped it, and voila! Crochet Bouquet was spiral bound!
After cutting the binding away, the cover was still stuck to the first page. We left it that way. A 12mm spiral works best for Crochet Bouquet. If you like to write notes in your books, consider inserting blank sheets of paper before binding. You’ll have to trim them to size, and you may need a larger spiral.
The cost was $3.49 plus tax. If only all our problems could be solved so inexpensively!
Crochet Bouquet is Digital!
About a month ago, Amanda Carestio of Lark Books wrote to me with exciting news. Crochet Bouquet is now available as a digital book!
“We know that the knitting and crochet community has a large presence online,” Amanda said, later adding, “We’re doing our best to anticipate the market and to provide what crafters want in the format they want it.”
You can buy an e-copy of Crochet Bouquet at Zinio.com. Here’s the link.
When you buy a book from Zinio, you download the Zinio reader program, which is like a pdf, only more secure. The e-book pages look just like the paper book pages, with photos and illustrations.
At the moment, Amanda told me, digital readers like Kindle or the Nook do not support photography or illustrations. So for now, you’ll need to crochet at your computer. It’s a great solution for readers who like their craft books to lie flat. The computer screen is the next best thing to spiral binding!
And it looks like Crochet Bouquet is in good company. The March 17, 2010 issue of The New York Times said that best-selling author John Grisham has finally allowed his books to be issued as e-books. Before now, he was concerned about “piracy, pricing and the effect of digital editions on physical bookstores.” (“Arts, Briefly,” compiled by Dave Itzkoff, piece contributed by Motoko Rich)
I can’t comment intelligently about piracy, but the suggested retail price of the e-version Crochet Bouquet is the same as the paper version. Also, I think physical bookstores will be around for a long time yet. They’ve survived the onslaught of audio books and online discount bookstores, so they’ll most likely adapt and survive the e-book trend, too.
To my mind, the more ways a book can be available to readers, the better!
Ferns in February
Please join us in making a Fern leaf for February’s Crochet-Along!
Readers have adopted the Fern leaf (on pages 110-111) as one of their favorite patterns in Crochet Bouquet. (The other favorite is the Plain Pansy.)
The Fern is one of my favorites, too. Once you figure out how it works, the Fern is fairly easy to make. You can add leaflets or picots to alter its size and shape, as I did for this Christmas Tree Mat.
The Fern is a bunch of crocheted bumps or picots, separated by chain stitches or slip stitches. You begin at the base of the leaf, then
Following the pattern, work a series of chains and picots. When you have three picots right next to each other, you’ll know you are at the tip of the first leaflet (see inside the black box in Photo 1).
Work back along the chain you just made, slip stitching in each chain st, and making a picot across from each previous picot. Don’t sl st all the way to the end, because that’s part of the main stem. (Photo 2)
Continue making leaflets in this way. The fourth leaflet is one picot pair shorter than the first three. Now you have essentially worked “up” one side of the fern, as in Photo 3..
The top of the fern is three very short leaflets all clustered together as you see inside the pink box in Photo 4.
For the second half of the fern, you crochet the leaflets as you did before, but instead of chaining between the leaflets, you slip stitch down the center stem. (Photo 5)
When you’re done, you will have worked down the other side, and ended back at the base of the leaf.
There are many ways to make a picot (pronounce it PEEKoh). For our Fern, make a picot like this: ch 3, sl st into the third chain from the hook. When the pattern says “ch 3, sl st picot” that means you “chain 3, chain 3, slip stitch into third chain from hook.”
The pattern has lots of information to help you figure out where you are on the leaf. However, if you find this information distracting, copy out the instructions on a piece of paper, leaving out the extra words. See this post for a more details on copying out patterns.
Irish Crochet Doily Crochet-Along
Our Irish Crochet Lovers group over at Ravelry is doing an Irish Crochet Doily Crochet-Along through March. We’re mostly working on different doilies, since we have some beginners and some experts and some in-between.
I chose a plate doily from a 1911 book called Irish Crochet Lace (Revised) by Sara Hadley. You can download it free from Antique Pattern Library.
This project is definitely for confident crocheters. Let’s just say the instructions are not up to the standards of the twenty-first century. Luckily the photos are clear enough that one can count.
It has two rounds of flowers around this center, with sixteen traditional Irish Crochet roses and sixteen flat flowers. It’s the perfect portable project!
Even More Irish Crochet
My Irish Crochet sample is growing, slowly but surely. I had to redo some sections of the background several times before I was pleased with it. See the pink line in the photo? It shows, more-or-less, the direction of the very simple background mesh I am crocheting between the motifs.
Inside the turquoise circle at the right, you can see how the background isn’t quite level with the corresponding rows elsewhere in the sample. That’s one section I will pull out and redo. Keeping rows even and level will get easier with practice.
One of my favorite tricks is to crochet a good-sized sample of the background stitch. It helps me get used to the stitch pattern for one thing. Also, I can use the sample to help me visualize how the ground will meet the motifs.
Here’s a photo of the background sample lying on top of the actual piece. In the pink circle the sample lines up with the background I have already crocheted. In the turquoise circle, you can see how the stitches might meet up with the flower motif. I will use this as a guide to help me place the stitches when I get to that point.
Speaking of Irish Crochet, I have been working on some class proposals for the Knit and Crochet Show in July 2010. One of the classes is about Irish Crochet. Wish me luck!
An Improvement to the Poppy Pattern
For Rounds 4 and 5 of the Poppy in Crochet Bouquet (pp. 65-66), switch to your petal color yarn. I’m using Opus 1 (with aloe and jojoba) by Zitron, and distributed in the US by Skacel.
In Round 4, your challenge is to correctly identify the second sl st of each petal. I orient myself with the long sc (from Rnd 3) between the petals. Once I find that, I know the next st is the first sl st of the petal, and voila! I insert the hook into the next st (the second sl st) for each petal of Round 4.
The photo shows Round 4 completed, and the blue arrow shows where to insert the hook for the first st of Rnd 5 (it is the second sl st of Rnd 4).
Before you begin Round 5, you need padding/gathering cords. The pattern says to cut six 6-inch lengths of yarn, but don’t do that!
Instead, cut six 12-inch (30cm) lengths of yarn. Fold each piece of yarn in half.
Follow the instructions until you get to the part that says, “begin working over one 6-inch length of yarn.”
Instead, insert your hook into the next stitch, in preparation for the sc. AND insert your hook into the fold of one 12-inch length of yarn. (Shown in photo.)
Finish the sc, catching the padding yarn in the stitch. (Shown in next photo.)
Continue crocheting as per the instructions, working over this double strand of yarn as you go. Stop crocheting over it after the last sc of the petal. For the next petal, pick up a new folded strand of yarn.
Now why, oh why, do we need this padding yarn? Here is a photo of the first completed petal of Round 5. It’s flat. But poppies aren’t flat. So pull the ends of the padding yarn to gather the petal (the blue arrow in the photo).
And guess what?! The petal isn’t flat anymore! Here you see the first petal from above and from the side.
I recommend that you finish crocheting all the petals first. Then tighten the padding threads. Once you are satisfied with the shape of the poppy, tie together the two ends of each padding thread in a square knot. In the photo, the light blue circle surrounds the knot of padding cord ends.
Arrange the petals as described in the instructions: three petals to the front and three to the back. Use the ends to tack the petals in place. Probably you will feel you are having to overlap them quite a bit to get the desired effect. Finally, weave in the cut ends.
A Mill in Mora
We usually pass through Mora, New Mexico, very early in the morning on our way home from the Taos Wool Festival. For the first time this year, I drove through Mora at exactly the right time to visit the tantalizing Tapetes de Lana (Carpets of Wool) gallery.
The walls of this large gallery are lined with hand-woven rugs, looms stand along one of the room, and the center is filled with hanks of yarn and handcrafts made by people who live around Mora.
Most of the rugs are woven in the subtle colors of natural wools and naturally-dyed wools. They looked timeless and elegant, but I was drawn to a rug in stripes of bright red, forest green, and yellow. The lady who was minding the gallery said with a smile, “That rug is made of acrylic yarn. Some of our ladies still prefer to shop at Walmart for their supplies.” I didn’t mind–sometimes I buy yarn at Walmart, too. And the colors–wow!
The gallery lady was Carla (she didn’t give me her last name), the founder of this non-profit organization. Tapetes de Lana and its associated mill help small ranches to bring their wool, mohair, and alpaca to the market. In addition, local craftsmen can sell their work in the gallery.
Carla offered to show me and two other customers around the mill. It was built within the last few years, from the ground up, with funding from a grant. The mill sometimes buys fiber from small ranches, but it also does custom millwork.
Our tour started just outside the door, where employees skirt the fleeces, picking away the badly soiled or felted areas. Inside we saw mechanical pickers which separate and loosen the fleeces, washing vats, and a tumble dryer that takes its own sweet time, spinning at one half revolution per minute (1/2 rpm).
The carder was at least 20 feet long and 8 feet wide, with multiple drums ranging from very coarse to very fine. It produced ropes of roving, which were fed into the spinning machine. The industrial plying machine was mesmerizing. I could have stood there watching it for a long time.
I think all the equipment in the mill was second-hand. The carder came from the bankruptcy sale of a well-known mill in North Carolina. Some other equipment was handed down from Brown Sheep Company, after they upgraded their mill in Nebraska. Go to the Tapetes web site to see pictures of this amazing collection.
“You must be very proud to know that you are responsible for all this,” I said to Carla when the tour was over.
“It was exciting at first, but then it turned into a lot of work,” said Carla. She looks forward to a day when it isn’t quite so intense, when everyone doesn’t have to multitask so much.
That day may come soon. Carla and her colleagues are developing a yarn that they hope yarn stores will want to stock. In the meantime, they sell small runs of yarn in the gallery, including special blends like alpaca/merino.
The lure of the shop’s soft alpaca blend yarns was strong, but the natural sheen of this indigo-dyed and natural Cotswold wool yarn was too much for me to resist.
If you’re driving on Highway 518 in New Mexico, I hope you’ll stop by Tapetes de Lana and the Mora Valley Spinning Mill. Or if you would like to buy or retail some unique yarns from fiber produced by small-business ranchers, please contact the Mill at:
Tapetes de Lana and the Mora Valley Spinning Mill
Highway 518, Junction 434
P O Box 1135
Mora, NM 87732