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?

"Did You Make That Yourself?"

Today, when a CPer posted about her discomfort over people's well-meaning question, "Did you make that?" I realized that for months I've been wondering what are the dead giveaways that a crocheted garment or accessory is either storebought or a one-of-a-kind handmade?

[Remaining draft deleted because it wished to become an article instead, and it will appear in the upcoming issue of Crochet me.]

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....

Hat Yoga: the Photos that Wouldn't Upload

These photos go with the Hat Yoga post dated Oct 21::
The Oct 21 entry has all the details on the lefthand hat. The blue one on the right is the Stitch Diva design.
My hat guru is pleased.

Caps for the Capital: Makin' it Easy

Today I meet up with my local "Knit'n'Bitch" group at a British tearoom--my favorite place to meet, right up there with meeting in a yarn shop or bookstore. Some of the members have had trouble downloading the Save the Children packet (see link above) so today I'm bringing address labels, gift tags, some hat patterns and some large envelopes. I have great home office supplies including a new color laser printer, so hopefully making these things handy will spur more folks to just make a cap and send it in soon.

Hat Yoga

My friend Kalli has become my hat muse. In fact, it was partly due to a hat that we met over 10 years ago. I've made 2 so far, the one pictured here is my design. The other is/will be pictured soon at Stitch Diva Studios because Jennifer Hansen designed it. See below for more on it.

There are people in the world who know how to wear hats and for whom wearable art manifests its highest destiny; and if Kalli were merely such a person she would be a sufficient muse. Spending her life deeply committed to supporting fiber artists and living her life as Art itself elevates her to hat guru. Therefore it is my yoga (i.e. a spiritual path) to design for her a series of crocheted hats. Like fruit and flowers one brings to a puja (spiritual ceremony), I seek out the finest yarns spun from the finest fibers.

Since my hat guru lives on the other side of the country, Buddha has agreed to sit for fittings.
A superbulky handspun-handdyed-merino-boucled mohair mantra (i.e. design) entered my awareness while meditating in my ashram (i.e. petting my yarn stash) one day. The yarn (Tochay's, no website but see Crochet Dude's entry) wishes to be worn by Kalli. While I watch the mail for handspun angora, I have a soma-dripping (i.e. lustrous) pure silk 'Cascade' worsted weight yarn handdyed by Tess. I evolve along my hat yoga path by using increasingly finer wt yarns and by getting progressively more creative and expressive--something my hat guru embraces about me.

I also like the Tochay Toque trimmed.

The 2nd hat I made, from Stitch Diva's "Downtown Cloche" pattern, is 1 full ball Berroco Pleasure for a night sky, and a partial ball Crystal Palace Party for the full moons. (Isn't the Katherine's Wheel stitch pattern fun?) I used a K hook so that it would come out a slightly larger size for Kosmo-Kalli, who, like Buddha, prefers a 24" circumference made adjustable by the vintage crocheted lace trim.

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.