Anyone who is successful will tell you that they couldn’t have done it alone. This is certainly true for me and my crochet design work. In fact, two of my recently published designs owe their existence to my secret weapon, Val.

At the July 2012 Knit & Crochet Show in Manchester I had a meeting with the lovely Carol Alexander.  She is the editor-in-chief for Annie’s “Crochet! Magazine” and “Crochet World”, and a former designer herself. We were discussing all the design ideas I have, but that my time for creating samples was limited.  She suggested that I look into finding some contract crocheters that could stitch up samples for me while I work on creating the designs.

So I talked to a number of my designer friends to find out if they used contract crocheters and what was the best way to go about finding someone. Many of them use contractors that live far away from them, this involves shipping yarn and projects back and forth. Some are fortunate to live in an area where they have lots of reliable crocheters nearby to choose from.

But I live on a mountain, a fair distance from most everyone I know of that is interested in doing contract crochet.  Then I had the brilliant idea of my friend Val doing some crocheting for me, she lives down the mountain from me so shipping wasn’t an issue.

Val and I have known each other for about 7 years and have been getting together regularly to crochet for the past 3. She helped me teach the Crochet Club at our local elementary school. So all that was left was to ask her if she would be interested in doing contract crochet work. We discussed the details and logistics of her doing this work for me. And thus began a new facet of our relationship.

The first design she worked on was my “Butterfly Days Baby Blanket” published this summer in the June issue of Crochet World.

The second design she worked on was my “Greek Squares Afghan” that just came out in the August issue of Crochet World.  Val crocheted all the blocks for me, then I crocheted them together and did the final edging.

The photo was taken by me in my living room before I shipped off the finished afghan.  I found myself glad that I had photographed it, as there was some confusion when the photography was shot for the magazine. The picture in the magazine shows the afghan from the backside. Fortunately, I always finish both sides of my work to look good.

Val has worked with me on a couple other projects since that one, but they haven’t been published yet. Because of her work I am able to design more large projects, like afghans and throws. Keep an eye out for more designs from me, now that I have my not so secret weapon.