Three Crocheters with something in common....

....they're all exactly TEN YEARS OLD and attended the 2007 National CGOA Chain Link Conference in Manchester NH! (In fact, Casey's birthday is only ten days away from McKenzie's; I don't know when Katie's is.) All three became good friends in a short time. Casey and Katie were fabulous models in the fashion show. It was short notice for McKenzie this year but she might want to try it next year. I do know McKenzie wanted to be backstage more than she was so we can arrange that next July, right, Katie's mom? (Above photo taken by McKenzie's mom; below by Casey's mom.)

CGOA Conference: Meet McKenzie

McKenzie is a remarkable 10-year old crocheter whose mother and grandmother are such close friends of mine that "close friend" feels odd to say and "family" feels better. Not only do McKenzie and I have a serious interest in crochet in common but I just found out that Ananda is a long-time crocheter just like her mom, Lucy!! This was their first crochet conference, which was a short road trip for them. Since the conference will likely be in Manchester next year, I'm betting that Lucy will be coming with Ananda and McKenzie if she doesn't want to miss out on any more hugs than she already has. (That's Ananda on the right and a very sleep-deprived me on the left.)

There's a pack of 10-year-old crocheting girls who roam the conferences now (McKenzie makes 3). I don't have permission from all of the moms to post a photo of the three so you just have to imagine it!

One thing that McKenzie wanted to learn was how to make a popcorn. People: she learns so fast, she could have been a professional crocheter who invented stitches in a past life. After working a small swatch of popcorns, we turned it into a wrist cuff, and she never took it off, even to sleep. We put 2 "buttons" (Clones Knots) on it. She learned that stitch so well that she did the 2nd one, and swooped that hook through all the loops in one fast pass. The first time.

She witnessed the frantic completion of the Chaps I wore in the fashion show (I need to blog about that!) and wanted to know what some of the less common stitches were that I was doing, so get this: she learned how to do a foundation sc, foundation dc, a split sc, and a linked dc! Ananda too!

That's not all. Then McKenzie and I did a special class together the next day with the amazing Kathie Earle of Ireland, our international teacher for 2007. Here's a pic of McKenzie and me in the market after class and she's wearing a gift from Kathie pinned to her shirt.
I had taken one of Kathie's classes a long time ago and knew she'd be wonderful for McKenzie (patient, flexible, creatively freeing, among many other stellar qualities). This was McKenzie's first time crocheting with thread and a tiny steel hook and she set about it with her signature competent focus and left that class a threadie with TWO completed Irish roses. By the way, this means she also reads and follows patterns--I'm a witness.

Okay so is there anything about crochet that McKenzie finds daunting? In the market a vendor showed her a book and she said, "No thanks, it's too easy for me." She chose Sasha Kagan's lovely new Crochet Inspiration and found the next thing she wanted to learn: a ripple stitch pattern so that she could make a headband. I looked at the page and thought, "Wouldn't it be so much better if she could use the symbol diagram for it? She does great with written instructions though. I don't want to overload her, but I don't want to underestimate her." So I explained what the symbols were there for and I told her why I prefer them, and it was up to her. She opted to try the symbols and I'd say it took her 5-7 real minutes of concentrating on them and trying them out to say, "I like them better too." And that was it.

I can't imagine bullions would be daunting because clones knots weren't. I bet she's freeforming right now. A freeform book was her first purchase (I think it was Jenny Dowde's but was possibly Prudence's?) and was already acquainted with everyone in the freeformers' booth by the time I found her and her Mom!

I learned to crochet around 8 or 9 and was completely immersed in it at 10. I can't fathom what it would have been like to attend a crochet conference at that age!!

CGOA Conference: The Shopping

Or, "Which Yarns Did a Designer Buy at Full Retail?"
My yarn buying habits have gradually changed since I began designing professionally. Yarn accumulates in my house regularly whether I buy yarn or not, because yarn companies send me yarn to play (design) with and extra skeins for sold designs.
This doesn't stop me from buying yarn, though it does slow me down. It does change what I buy. For example:

1. I don't buy the yarn of a company I design for unless I know that it's a project that's only for myself or a gift.

2. I hesitate to buy yarn that is discontinued or seems likely to be soon, because if it inspires a design out of me, I won't be able to sell it as is. (Occasionally I can talk myself into buying it anyway.)

3. This one's dangerous: If I have a vague design idea, or am curious about a theme or a developing trend, I'll start buying a ball of this or that if it has anything to do with what's on my mind. For example: bamboo. I now have a ball of every kind of bamboo yarn that has crossed my path.

4. There are yarns that I really want to see and touch before I buy them, even for designing, rather than formally request yarn from the company or purchase it online or wait for my yarn shop to stock it.

In the photo above, you might detect an organic and color grown cotton theme developing (see #3). I'd have bought some O-Wool if I'd seen it too. I bought the Patagonia handpainted cotton because it was a very good sale price! All of the above came from Elegant Ewe's booth. I also bought some beautiful hooks.

In the 2nd photo, Gene Ann was having a last day sale of 4 for 3. You see, when I love a yarn, I want an excuse to buy more than 1 skein but how many more? Gene Ann guided me.

These are all Kollage yarns, and the designer in me welcomes getting to know a new-to-me yarn company. The stripey yarns on the far left are stretchy and I have a thing about stretchy. So of course I had to buy one, or make that 4. The plum Scrumptious is 70/30 angora/silk and I was sold when Gene Ann showed me her scarf in progress: zero airborne fuzzies and the stitches were softly and evenly blooming. This says to me that someone knows how to spin angora! On the far right is Yummy, 80/20 bamboo/merino. My stitches are going to be YUMMY. The color is "Foggy Dew"--I have a thing for silvery shades but I could have picked any color of this yarn. The lone blue skein is Kollage's corn fiber and the lone novelty yarn is full of squiggly butterflies so how could I not try it?

What I WOULD have bought:
- A bunch of Tilli Tomas silk skeins (a friend bought them for me instead, yay!)
- A Grafton Fibers hook (also a gift from a friend! More on her later! More on the hook too!)
- A complete set of the "Crochet Lites" but I had trouble getting a straight story from attendees whether a vendor had them or was just taking orders, where exactly the vendor was, and whether they were like the Clover hooks, or like the heavy fully-lit ones.
-Some Noro Kureyon. I have to leave it around the house so that I pick it up and invent new things. It does that to me.
-7 or 9 balls of Rowan Natural Silk Aran for a specific sweater for moi and no one had it, so I'll get it at my yarn shop.
- A hook holder IF: it has clear vinyl pockets labeled with mm sizes. Don't know if it exists.
- Giant tunisian hooks.
- A crochet-themed tshirt or bag or jewelry.
- DMC Cordonnet in sizes from #10-#30, poss. #50.
- Any yarn with Lycra-type content.

I will finish my conference shopping online, buying first from businesses who were in the Market, and I'll ask them to consider my purchases as part of the conference event. If any of these things were in the Market, I couldn't find them in time because I couldn't shop until the last day, when the Market closed at 3pm.

How did I do?