Oakland CGOA Conference: Design "Lab"

It is becoming a tradition among a small group of designers that after the conference fashion show we meet in a convenient place (i.e. the hotel bar) and try on each other's crochet. Yes it's FUN (REALLY fun) and yes it usually draws a crowd, but don't be fooled, it's research.

I described it recently in a comment on jd wolfe's blog:
"At the crochet conferences some of us get together and try on each other’s designs and learn LOTS about the design itself this way. For example three different size Large people could all wear your design differently because one has wide bony shoulders, another is short and rounded, another needs a very different color or texture for it to look good at all on her. Not only that but it’s amazing how differently people stand and move, so if you design something with a lot of drape, it will also look very different from person to person. A lot of the time, one size really does fit many when designers try on each other’s designs, because crochet stretches (despite what knitters say). But one size can look like many different sizes."

Photo #1 L to R: Laurie Wheeler et moi are wearing & flaring Karen Klemp's shawls while Karen sports the "Chain Link Capelet" I designed for the CGOA Pattern Line (pattern purchase benefits the guild). A better view of Laurie's top is at her blog entry--it's her own design featuring real feathers spun into the yarn.

Photo #2 L to R: Myra Wood flauntsMarty Miller's Spiderweb Cardigan while Margaret Fisher exploits the brimming savoir faire of Myra's Wild Fiber Tunic Dress.

Photo#3 L to R: Vashti and Doris Chan opportunistically explore pseudocasual subtexts: V finally gets to try on Doris' tank top (or 'sleeveless vest' if you will) and throws on a belt for the heck of it, while D begins with her own black lace tunic then tops off the look with Marty's flirtatious red cardi; Myra's eclectic ensemble daringly taunts that edge between blue and gray with Vashti's Chain Link Capelet and Doris' denim hemp pineapple skirt over peacock tights; and Marty pulls out all the stops with her SF Bay look in Myra's dress. Marty, in fact, jolted us out of our usual composure earlier that evening by wearing red and looking fabulous in it. And, half of my photos show Myra wearing that skirt--it's a superfun skirt to wear! I SO WISH that the video I took of her twirling and twisting in it was not too dark to post.

Missing this time were "founders" Tammy Hildebrand and Dora Ohrenstein, and "charter" participants Diane Moyer, Lisa Gentry, Victoria Vigyikan. Present this time but missing from photos: Margaret Hubert, Bonnie Pierce and her DH, Mel Gill, Lang Anh, Deanna Van Asshe, more? See more photos at Margaret's blog, Oct4 entry.

I look forward to the after-show as much as the fashion show itself!

Update: Yarn of the Month Clubs; Brush Strokes Stitch

Exhibit A: two nubby coffee cozies using sample skeins from two yarn-of-the-month clubs. The mossy green one on the left is made with 3 full samples I received from Sara Lucas' Yarn of the Month Club (for more info please see my Sept. 5 entry.) The other one is made with 3 full elann.com samples. The stitch pattern is a version of the "Granule Stitch" and the 2nd photo shows the inside.

I wanted to find out:
1) How far do these cute little samples get me, anyway? They are intended for knitted swatches. I purposely chose a crochet stitch pattern with a moderate amount of texture, which takes more yarn than Tunisian or some more basic stitches.

2) How does the yardage compare between Elann's and YOTM clubs? I chose samples with similar yarn weights and fiber content. As you can see, all samples seem to have the same yardage.

3) What can I make with these samples besides motifs for a future scrapghan, shapes for applique, or scrumbling? I discovered that while making the coffee cozies, I learned a lot about not just the yarns but also the stitch pattern as I worked it up in different kinds of yarns.

The biggest difference is that Elann's shipments of samples are color-coordinated so I didn't sift through my samples to find 3 to combine; whereas I went through all of my YOTM samples before I found 3 that I'd want to put together.

Regarding the Brush Strokes stitch pattern that I posted about on Sept. 9, here's a photo of the swatch turned into a notebook cover that I describe at the end. I get nervous adding a 4th photo to a blog entry (the Sept. 9th entry has 3); when I exceeded 3 photos in the past, Blogger got glitchy.

Designing Lingerie

I fantasize about designing crocheted lingerie so I've started reading about that fashion sector. Three trends I've noticed so far (though I'm still learning about the territory) are:

-standards for how bras are supposed to fit are being overhauled to the point that a consumer education campaign is necessary

-more attention is going to the designers and design possibilities of lingerie

-In the larger fashion world, lingerie colors, styles, construction, and detailing are being applied to outerwear as the latest development in a longterm trend of reconceiving traditional lingerie as part of outerwear layering.

As a kid I wondered what the meaningful difference was between a bikini and a bra & panties set. Probably every girl wonders that at some point. Often, Madonna's Gaultier corsets are cited as the send-off for this last trend, but to me, once bikinis became accepted beachwear, the writing was on the wall.

My favorite lingerie blogger: Danae Shell of Knickers. Knickers has some great articles; see for example, "How to Become a Lingerie Designer" and "Top 5 Bra-Sizing Myths".

Of the bikini retrospectives I've scanned so far, I like Slate's; I saw another good one last year at a fashion site but can't find the link now.

A "Salon international de la lingerie" is held yearly in Paris. There's also an American lingerie show held in NYC and Las Vegas but I'd love to attend the Paris expo!

Today's story at Fashion Wire Daily rounds out this blog-worthy list of cool links to share with you:
"It's What's on the Inside that Counts Lingerie Awards"

Garment Designer software--Use the Grid Settings!

I've been experimenting with Cochenille's Garment Designer software and I like it. So far it only enhances my natural way of planning a design. It doesn't bog me down or leave me doing most of the work after all.

This isn't the best photo but I don't have any designs published yet for which I can share better examples.

It all hinges for me on how I use the grid option (In the Display menu select "Grid settings" then input the exact measurements per stitch and per row based on your gauge swatch; use all decimal places). I don't think many people know what they can do with this, judging from conversations I've had. Thanks to the grid printouts customized to my stitch & row gauge, I just settle into my comfy chair with an espresso and shift into Contract Crocheter for Self mode. To write up the pattern in different sizes, I print these maps for each standard size and "merely" translate the map into text. What a load off.

Here's a closeup of the grid that is scaled exactly to the gauge of my stitch pattern repeat. This is not the most straightforward example (sorry!) but figure 1 box = 1 stitch with the height of two different rows averaged together. This is why I've drawn the purple lines for myself: the narrow purple strip is a vertical row of short sts, the wider purple strip is a row of taller sts. (Sure wish I could show you my gauge swatch. Should I have waited on blogging about this until better examples are published?!)

I haven't tried every stitch pattern under the sun yet, but so far I've found a way to create grids for any stitch pattern in grid-like rows (even those that don't seem like such). I don't know yet if I could come up with a way to do diagonal mesh-based st pats. In other words, I could do a grid for big ol' fans that stack in columns, but I don't know yet about fans that are offset and stack in alternating rows (i.e. the classic shell st pat).

I can do some motif-based constructions with this grid method but probably not all; and I might find a way to do ripple pats. These aside, so far I've done:

-rows of different heights alternating (pictured)

-pretty wide range of stitch repeat sizes

-a design with an exaggerated edging that would have been painful without this software.

Side-to-side construction (pictured) is easy-peasy.

Not sure how I'd do *cough*dorischan*cough* seamless-top-down-in-the-round!

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?

TNNA Report #1: Crocheters Unite!

I just returned from The National NeedleArts Association's summer trade show in Columbus OH and I have lots of things to share so this blog entry is one of a series. Yes folks, there's a revolution going on, a groundswell. Spidey senses were tingling! Plans were hatched! A fist pounded a table!

Not only did a CROCHET SUMMIT happen but a galvanizing '60's-style CROCHET-IN electrified the show lounge in the dead center of the room. It's obvious now: there's no keeping crochet down anymore. It's NOT just some supporting player for knits when you need a bag, a belt, an edging. It's NOT just some funky style departure from knitting. (It's all this and waaaay more.) It's NOT okay to leave out the word 'crochet' as if 'knit' is a satisfactory umbrella term and crochet is merely a subcategory. Enough is enough. It's a new day and there's no going back. I can't believe I didn't have my camera but VIDEO FOOTAGE EXISTS. I'll keep you posted on that.
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I needed yarn and fast! So I managed to find some nearby yarn company friends and offered to CRIP (Crochet In Public) with their yarn at the Crochet-in. Kathleen Greco of Jelly Yarns graciously donated some striking neon-lime Jelly Yarn, and the folks at Universal Yarn blessed the cause with a ball of their new Tango. Some knitted-up Tango is meeting with raves but crocheting with it seems to be pretty uncharted territory. The exciting design possibilities of this yarn guarantee that I have lots of experimenting to do now that I'm home.
In the case of Jelly Yarn I've got plenty of preliminary swatching under my belt so all I needed to do was decide what to make that would be a souvenir of the event. I knew I'd always treasure a jellyjavajacket. As if I need another one. And yet....as if a collection is complete without one.

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I'll try to update this entry with links to other blog entries on this topic:
Dee's blog entry.... WEBS blog entry .... from Noreen's blog .... Crochet me armband project .... The July 3, 2007 issue of Carol Alexander's Talking Crochet newsletter (online, free subscription).

My Shangri-La

Pictured: the cover of Lark's forthcoming crochet jewelry book, due out Oct. 1'07!
U-betcha I'll be blogging about my included designs because I have supplemental data and it's hard. to hold it. back. Nevertheless I shall remain an example of proper professional comportment.

Swatching up crocheted jewelry designs set me on a path to a secret paradise, my Shangri-La. I feel a list coming on:

The Seven Treasures I Picked Up Along the Road to Shangri-La

1. Jewelrymaking gives me permission to stop and appreciate the little things. Life slows to a different tempo. I have the same experience when I crochet fine lace.


2. It frees me to concern myself solely with beauty and charm, icing on the cake, wearable candy. I think some people have the same experience when they crochet doilies (they're jewelry for furniture) but for some reason I don't, maybe because it's home decor instead of personal adornment.


3. Like felting, it cultivates new ways of seeing familiar stitches--in the case of jewelry, it's because the scale changes (whereas in felting, the material changes). For some kinds of jewelry, crochet stitches and techniques are done on a tiny intricate scale like filigree; other times, they are blown up as if seen through a microscope; and the amount of stitches is often drastically reduced so that each stitch becomes an accent, like a gem or bead. All because a jewelry piece needs to say a lot in a small space.


4. I look at materials a new way. My ideal is for jewelry to be durable--not show wear or staining, like when I crochet handbags--but be too beautiful to let on that it's also practical, unlike when I make handbags. For both jewelry and handbags, I also want to use the sculptural capability of crochet without any stitches stretching out over time.


5. Traditional jewelry shows off precious metals and gemstones, but when crocheting, (other than with pure gold or silver wire) you can choose non-precious materials and let the crochet make it special. If I choose the fanciest intricate stitches and superfine thread, I can still finish a piece in an afternoon or so.


6. The coolest thing is that a piece of jewelry is small enough that a "swatch" is a whole bracelet, or ring, or necklace. So after getting design submissions ready, I had a bunch of new jewelry.


7. Jewelry experiments make nice gifts!

Feeling the Felt Love

Flushed with felting pleasure and success*, here's a Ten Things I Love About Felting Crochet List:

1. Hidden facets of a yarn's personality are magically revealed. Everything--the yarn's fiber content, spin, dye, etc.-- matters.
2. Felting makes simple stitches new again. I've been crocheting for so long that I thought I'd seen simple stitches do everything!
3. Feels primal and cozy
4. Also feels northern, so I get nostalgic because I grew up in Ohio & Wisconsin but have spent most of my adult life in the subtropics (love the smell & feel of wet soapy wool!)
5. Forces me to use a hook that's normally too big for the yarn. Simple stitches look different--I can see their inner architecture better (uh, I'm on record as being kind of obsessed with crochet because of this), and they feel different-- all stretchy and drapey.
6. Forces (or frees?) me to take a back seat while a process larger and more mysterious than me (in this case, the unpredictably complex alchemy of felting) does its thing. So it can be a kind of spiritual practice/experience.
7. Spiritual development aside, it requires and often rewards risk-taking, thinking big, and process orientation. At its most dramatic, I take the "known" (my crocheted piece), and even if I like it as is, I must "cut the ties" and let it go into the "unknown" (felt it) and who knows if I'll like it better on the other side of the "abyss". If I do, the ecstasy is addictive. At times I've had to take a deep breath and close my eyes when felting luxury fibers like cashmere and angora!
8. Sometimes instead of having to "let go" of a crocheted piece I like, it looks yucky on purpose in preparation for felting (stitches and rows look sleazy, weird shape, etc.). Then I felt with abandon because I have nothing to lose! When it comes out all evenly felted, there's that ecstasy again but for a different reason--I felted straw into gold; or the ugly ducking became a swan; or I salvaged and recycled trash into treasure. (Pick one)
9. My hands change a bit to maintain the loose gauge with bouncy wool yarns. This is a new skill for crocheters who are accustomed to cotton yarns and threads at normal-to-tight gauge because cotton is dramatically less resilient than many wools. It's not a new skill for me but still it takes an adjustment every time I crochet to felt. When would I crochet worsted wools like this otherwise? Yet it's fantastic practice for crocheting lycra-content yarns with a more standard-size hook. (You need to crochet these yarns in such a way that you don't stretch them while working.)
10. It encourages lots of crocheters to experience crochet in new ways and challenges them to develop new skills that are important for non-felted crochet too.

Do you feel it too? Feel the felt love?
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*success in the professional sense--more details on the felted design when published!

Marty's New Crochet Blog!

Today is Marty Miller Day on the Designingvashti planet! Check out her blog here:
http://notyourgrannyscrochet-marty.blogspot.com/ The focus is swatching and I'm hoping newer crocheters will be inspired by Marty's blog to find out what an art swatching is. For me it was a consciousness shift. I guess it happened sometime when I started designing. For my younger crochetself a swatch didn't used to be an end in itself--swatching was not a process that I enjoyed for its own sake. Instead, it was a means to an end that I had to get through to make something "more" or "real" such as a sweater (a.k.a. the "gauge swatch").

Besides finding one's gauge, a swatch is a content-rich research document. I save them like I save notes to myself. Like poetry fragments. Or like maps to secret gardens.

Here's a pic of Marty and me in the old-style CGOA booth (before it got a facelift by our competent Offinger staff), circa 2005, Oakland Chain Link conference.

We had just finished breakfast and were about to leave for a field trip to the legendary Lacis, hence the sunglasses I have handy.

Yikes! It's Nat'l Crochet Month!

It must have sneaked up on me while I was crocheting. We're already 9 days into it so I have some catching up to do! This is a month-long national holiday, people! As a staunch supporter of the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA), and crochet also being my chosen profession, you can imagine that I want to make the most of this month. Not only that but it's also Women's History Month which I celebrate. I'm still high from Black History Month (Feb).

Below is my list of Crochet-tivities so far:

1. Go to Berroco's poll and be counted! [did it]
2. Crochet in public (CRIP) more than usual [could have in the bookstore yesterday and didn't]
3. Walk into a yarn shop with a big smile and say, "Happy National Crochet Month to you!"
4. Pay a designer for a crochet pattern instead of downloading a freebie
5. Write to a magazine, yarn company, etc. to tell them how much you appreciate their crochet offerings
6. Buy lots of yarn [Dee lists special celebration sales]
7. Try a new-to-me stitch pattern [every day would be cool]
8. Learn a new crochet technique
9. Finish a WIP (work-in-progress) or possibly even a PIG (a stalled project-in-grocery-bag)
10. Try crocheting with a new-to-me fiber [I have yet to try qiviut for example.]
11. Listen to a new crochet podcast
    
12. Crochet something for your child or child's teacher to be used in the classroom so that everybody sees some crochet at school [3/23 update: Done! Photo at my other blog]
13. Join a crochet-along (CAL); besides my own '70's Crochet Read-Along, I know of a new Ripple-Along and an even newer Granny-Along
14. Plan ahead for Nat'l Crochet Month 2008 so it doesn't catch me unprepared!

In an attempt to get up to speed, I'm kicking off the festivities with a maple latte and here is a portrait titled Latte with Trip Around the World Crochet Dishcloth (see #7 above).

Crochet Design: What Got Me Started

Three cosmic forces (to be divulged in three separate blog entries) caused me to stop putting off designing in 2004 and to start really living! I had dreamed of designing professionally ever since I learned to crochet as a child but the dream remained far-off and misty for decades. The first of these forces was the internet: specifically, 3 designers' websites that fascinated me back in 2004 or so. I visited their sites often, hungry to see their next crochet creations. They are:

1. Jennifer Hansen of Stitch Diva. Back then she had a riveting new vision of how tunisian stitches can look; she also had this jacket that intoxicated me with its sexy shaping in a kind of Edwardian style (one of my all-time favorite fashion periods). But even just her swirl pillow thrilled me. When I finally met her at a Stitches conference, I was in awe and babbled incoherently. Luckily Jennifer doesn't remember it.

2. Josi Hannon Madera. Back then her website was called Weirdmirror. She too did stylishly sexy really well. Her crocheted skirts were unlike any I'd seen in the old '60's-'70's needlework magazines I collect, in fact I don't know if I even seriously thought of crochet for skirts until I saw hers. One of them was a swirly skirt that has since gotten raves on various crochet discussion lists such as Crochet Partners. Thanks to Kim Guzman I recently learned that Josi overhauled her website. She has a book, In the Loop, in the works but at one point she said that the new website is taking the place of the printed book plans; all of the patterns that would have been in the book will be available at the site. Later I found this; Amazon says publication date is May 2007.
Here's a photo of her wearing a pretty amazing hat with matching scarf.

3. Teva Durham. I spotted Teva's name in an Interweave Knits magazine back in 2005 I believe. I googled her and found a whole treasure trove of rebelliously superchunky crochet stitches. It had the effect on me of a kind of manifesto! I wanted more! more! but the site languished and then her Loop-d-Loop book of knit designs came out and I feared that she had merely flirted with crochet. That was then; now I'm keeping eyes peeled for her forthcoming Loop-d-Loop Crochet book!

Swatch Management

This new Swatch Bank, founded in 2007, yields high interest and I can make speedier withdrawals than with other Swatch Banks I've tried.
I suppose this might look like a heap o' mess but this madness has a careful method. Not only that, despite how it looks the tags do not get tangled. Maybe I should try to take a better photo.
The gist of the system is, I have a huge closed metal ring, and smaller metal rings that click open and closed hang from the big ring. Each small ring holds swatches of a certain type. For example, 1 ring holds all variations of single crochet, another is for all variations for hdc, etc.; more swatch categories that work for me:
- trebles and beyond
- colorwork
- aran
- lace
Most swatches have hang tags (on very short leashes) that tell me the hook size, the stitch pattern or what pg. in which book I found it, maybe the yarn.

What do other people do?
- Some Victorians used to baste swatches to fabric pages bound into a kind of scrapbook. I find I need my swatches to be free agents--I need to compare drape, stretch, loft, etc. I also hate basting.

- Other Victorians made one long continuous strip and rolled it up. I like the look but it's even less usable as a swatch bank than the scrapbook method, and my swatches are not uniform in size or color.

- Some people join them into afghans. If I stop designing someday, I'll probably do that.

- Many probably do what I used to: store some with the design proposals or completed patterns and stash the rest of them into a big box. Sad--the swatches can't show off this way. It's a swatch account that yields zero interest with no easy withdrawals.

- Is there a method I've left out? At one time I toyed with mounting each swatch on a large index card then filing them. One time I experimented with covering big stiff felt pages with elastic bands so that I could slip the swatches under the bands and remove as necessary (like how some people informally display photos on the wall). The hang tags got all tangled in that system and it took up too much room anyway.

Lily Chin is SO RIGHT

At CGOA's Chain Link conference (July '06 Valley Forge PA), I took a 2-day, 12-hour designing workshop with Lily. It's one of the best, if not THE best thing I've ever done. One of the tips I learned was to use giant graph paper that comes on a giant easel pad from office supply stores. Each page is marked lightly with 1-inch squares.

THANKS TO THIS TIP, I GOT A SET-IN SLEEVE RIGHT ON THE FIRST TRY! You know, those weird-shaped sleeve pieces that have sleeve caps, and the calculations for them can be as mathematically esoteric as you want them to be? I was resigned to needing 3+ tries before getting it right so I put it off until I had the necessary patience.

Well, not only did I use the graph paper to sketch a rudimentary sleeve-cap-looking curve freehand AND IT WORKED, I could sit in my comfy chair crocheting it up the whole time while the sketch stayed on the floor at my feet. If you want to, you could crochet a bit then see how the shape is matching up to your sketch, because on 1" graph paper it becomes a paper pattern; BUT DON'T GET UP! Merely glance at your sketch, and the gauge info you've written next to it, and you can see: hmmm, looks like the sleeve cap curve is now about 8 squares (inches) wide, and 2 more stitch pattern repeats should bring the next row up to 8".

WHEN I DID GET UP, my piece magically matched my sketch. BEST OF ALL, I tried seaming it to the body of the sweater and it looks great! Like I spent a lifetime designing set-in sleeves just so that this one could come out looking effortlessly chic!

Wish I could show ya a pic of the project but it's under contract. Is it a tantalizing revelation that it involves a certain excess of collar?

Dark Side of Crochet

The Samhain issue of The Anticraft is up! (This link goes to the only crochet pattern offered in this issue and is G-rated; just in case any kids read this blog, there's a bit of profanity to avoid in the title of another pattern.)
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and despite design deadlines crowding my brain, I started the day wondering what the Dark Side of crochet might be. All I came up with was that when I design something, even if it....

1. is a fun design to do and is likely to be fun for others
2. looks lovely/hip/sophisticated/whatever is my goal
3. can be used for the purpose it was intended (the sweater really does fit, the things that must lay flat really do, a handbag holds its shape and holds stuff inside, etc)

....Even if these can be counted as successes for the design, there is one more, and if it is not met, I could dramatically call it the Dark Side of Crochet:

4. Is crocheting it an improvement over using another method to create it? (Same goes for knitting!)

In other words, when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But you know what? I'm not going to argue that this is the dark side of crochet unless by dark we're talking dark pink, because some of the most creative, rebellious, refreshing, and truly artistic crochet designs do not meet that last requirement. (Same goes for knitting.) So instead of posting about a Dark Side of Crochet, in honor of Halloween (one of my fav holidays) at least I can give you the link to The Anticraft. I also have a felted ghost bunny drying, like I have any time to be making ghost bunnies!

New Vashtiblog on the Side

I crochet toys with glee so I started a glee blog called "ToyDesigningVashti" which should be an easy name for me to remember....

Audiobooks in Vogue Knitting Article

Welcome, Vogue Knitting readers!
The Holiday 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting has an article by Joanne Seiff about listening to audiobooks while knitting (or in my case, crocheting). On p. 50 I'm quoted as saying, "...Once I made a winter cardigan of hand-painted smoky-mauve shades while listening to a novel about a modern-day Englishwoman who keeps having longer and longer past-life flashbacks of medieval Wales. That sweater takes me back to medieval times even now."

The full book info: Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine. I listened to an unabridged version narrated by Judith Boyd; Clipper Audio dist. by Recorded Books p1999, c1997, ISBN 1841970271.

In the article I go on to say, "I made another sweater with a particularly opulent and luxurious yarn while listening to a sumptuous biographical novel of the last empress of China."

The full book info: Empress Orchid by Anchee Min. The version I listened to is narrated by Alexandra O'Karma; Recorded Books, unabridged, p2004, ISBN 1402574959.

In case you're curious, the audiobook I'm about to begin is: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, unabridged and narr. by Laural Merlington, Brilliance Audio Library Editions, ISBN-13: 978-1-4233-0778-5.

New Way to Organize my Design Ideas

It was a big job because I have too many ideas on postits and scraps, and when I brainstorm, I fill up full sheets of paper. I never forget a brainstorm and need to be able to locate those pages fast when I'm swatchin'n'sketchin'.

A big accordion file makes sense but the risk is Idea Death: I would use the contents less.

I'm very happy now: a clear plastic sheet protector for every meaningful category, and these go into a 3-ring binder. I used 35+ clear plastic sheet protectors. VERY happy! I can SEE everything, I can flip fast, I can add tabs. They naturally fall into 3 basic categories and below are 9 examples of the 35+ :

1. Ideas for Stitches and Techniques
- Love knots in pattern stitches
- Linked stitches
- Corner starts

2. Ideas by Project Type (often brainstormed in response to calls for proposals)
- 2-4 ball wearables
- Teens, tweens
- Boys, men

3. Ideas Specific to Fiber Type
- Wire
- Jelly Yarn
- Lycra content