Ah yes, winter has made itself known here on the mountain. No matter that the calendar says that it’s still Fall until December 20th.
Our Thanksgiving holiday was a very snowy one. Fortunately we hadn’t planned to go anywhere, so we enjoyed the snow with a lovely warm fire in the wood stove and lots of good food on the table.
We watched the first 3 Star Wars movies (which are called Episodes 4, 5 and 6…yes I know it’s confusing). I finished crocheting my Yoda amigurumi from the kit I showed you. That is one Christmas present done for the boys, but quite a few things remaining.
Light as Lace Snowflake – M2H Designs
With less than a month to Christmas-time I started working on a new snowflake motif. Hopefully I’ll have the pattern ready to share with all of you in the next week. Though the way this year has gone by so swiftly I’m not 100 percent sure I can pull it off. Edited 12/10/2015: The pattern for this snowflake is now available for free here on the blog. Lacy Snowflake
Meanwhile if you are looking for some quick crochet projects for your holiday gift-giving you might want to take a look at some of my patterns on my Ravelry Designer Page.
This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. I’ll be having a quiet celebration at home with just my husband and our boys.
We are very likely going to watch the first 3 movies of the Star Wars series. The boys have been wanting to see them again and I can’t remember the last time I watched them. With my latest gift project being from the Star Wars Crochet book, I’m definitely in the mood for a little Han Solo.
There will also be the traditional roasted Turkey and all the fixings. Between dinner prep and feeding the family I am hoping to have some crochet time, or I might knit on the scarf I’m making for my oldest son.
2015 has been a challenging year, but I have still found much to be thankful for. Here is my list:
I’m thankful for my goofy exasperating brilliant sons and my husband whom they take after (okay they might take after me a little as well).
I’m thankful for my talented and compassionate brother Cy, who lifts my heart with simple things everyday.
I’m thankful for the renewal of my relationship with my Dad and that his health is improving.
I’m thankful for my special circle of friends who still love me warts and all, even after all these years.
I’m thankful for all my friends in the community of crochet that keep me excited about the yarn arts.
I’m thankful for all my lovely readers here on the blog.
I’m thankful for beautiful yarns that bring inspiration and aspiration to my work days.
I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had to teach and share crochet with others this past year.
For all my US readers I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving day. Even if you just spend it enjoying some quiet time playing with yarn, watching goofy stuff on T.V. and contemplating the blessings in your life.
This past weekend was pretty full with all the Halloween fun.
I did quite a bit of work on setting up and filming for the video of my Whirlwind Afghan Square, unfortunately I ran into some technical difficulties when up-loading the video files to my computer. So there is a significant delay in getting this video ready for my YouTube Channel.
I really hope to have it available to everyone by this coming weekend.
I had a birthday last week, it wasn’t a surprise since it shows up like clock-work on the same day every year. Though I am of the opinion that the years have gotten significantly shorter between birthdays lately.
This past year has been marked with events that have really woken me up and made me very aware that it’s time to do the things I’ve always wanted to do. On that note I decided to do something that I have thought about for over 2 years.
The Friday before my birthday I had my hair stylist put big chunks of bright pink and purple all over the top of my head. I really love it. It’s a freedom I thought I would never allow myself. I’ve spent so much of my adult life pretending to be well-behaved and really somewhat boring. I have been chipping away at that image for the past 5 years, and those of you that are close friends know my true outrageous nature.
I am also challenging myself with learning new things in crochet. Amazingly enough in all my years crocheting I had never crocheted a corner-to-corner project, though I had seen lots of them. This past July I decided it was time to learn this technique and now I’m sharing that excitement with fellow crocheters. Tomorrow (October 21st) during the “Causal Crochet” get together at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe we are going to be starting a Crochet-Along (CAL). I’m going to be demonstrating working a Corner-To-Corner scarf.
There are lots of other big things that I am working away on the next couple of months, so keep dropping by here at the blog to learn what I’m up to.
Just giving you a little peek behind the scenes of a crochet designer’s life.
Today I received some new props for the photography of my designs. Now that I am doing more indie-publishing of crochet designs I want to be able to take interesting photographs. And that means having the backgrounds and props to display the items without distracting from them.
It’s great when I can manage to get a neighbor or friend to be my model, but with my crazy schedule running my boys about and everyone else’s commitments, it is often very challenging to arrange a few hours for photography. It’s ideal to have mannequins that can be a good stand-in.
Meet my new glass heads. I am really excited about using these for modeling hat designs. They will also very likely make appearances in other ways as props on my blog and in videos. Best thing about them is they are actual size. In the past I’ve purchased Styrofoam heads from craft stores, but they were all smaller than the average head size for an adult. They are fine for modeling children’s hats, but my adult size hats were way too large on them.
Update: For those of you that wanted to know how I found these heads, I followed a link from Crochet Envy. You can hop on over there and see if the offer is still available.
It’s been a very busy couple of weeks and I can hardly wait to show you the rest of what I’ve been up to. I spent the last weekend with my family driving across Colorado and Kansas to visit my Dad and brothers near Topeka. It was 2 days of driving (1 there and 1 back) and one day to celebrate my Dad’s birthday. Totally worth it, but definitely cut down on my work hours. So I am feverishly working on the finishing touches for some new projects to share with all of you.
I hope you’ll be back to visit soon as all will be revealed this month.
I know many of you are experiencing record-breaking hot weather right now and colder temperatures seem a dream. Up here on the mountain though the temperatures are beginning to feel a bit nippy. We are getting emails reminding us that school is starting up again in one short month. Augh! Summer always zips by so quickly.
Of course for those of you that are super organized it’s time to think about projects for your holiday gift giving. I’ll be releasing 5 patterns over the next week that are wonderful gift items that don’t take a lot of yarn or time to work up.
Anna Moebius Cowl
My crochet friend V was looking for quick projects for last-minute gifts for Christmas this past November. So I created this design. The cowl is worked off a moebius strip foundation with one ball of chunky size yarn and a large hook so you can make one in an evening. I named this design after my friend’s grand-daughter because she really loved the cowl and liked to wear ones with a shorter foundation as an ear-warmer.
My sample is worked using one ball of Plymouth Yarns “Gina Chunky” with a size L /8mm hook. The 100% wool of this yarn means you get a wonderfully warm cowl (or with a shorter foundation, ear-warmer), and the color changes in “Gina” make the shells in the stitch pattern stand out individually. Or go with a solid color yarn for a subtle textured look to your cowl.
This pattern is available in my Ravelry Shop for $3.99 BUY NOW
I’m heading to San Diego for the Knit and Crochet Show this coming Tuesday, but I will have more patterns posting while I am on my trip. Be sure to check back.
Change may be the natural order of life, but some days it can really throw you for a curve.
This past year, really 18 months, have been full of changes. Some were more in the nature of upheavals, like the 1000 year flood that hit my little mountain community in September 2013. There were some unpleasant changes from 2014 that involved me not getting paid for a work that took up a great deal of my time the first half of 2014. Then there are the changes in my routine with the boys attending school down in Boulder.
Some of the biggest changes I have been dealing with personally have been in my path as a crochet designer and teacher. The month of December sort of slid by me, I taught some small classes and individual crochet lessons at my local yarn store Longmont Yarn Shoppe. But mainly any spare time not spent preparing for a fun Christmas holiday with my family was spend pondering what was next. So the blog was very quiet.
I went to the TNNA Winter Trade Show the 2nd weekend of January. The week before I left I was hoping that I would discover an answer to the “What is next?” question by the time the weekend was finished. This is where that old saying about being careful what you wish for comes in.
As always, TNNA was a visual feast for my creative soul. Yarn in every texture, weight and color you could imagine and loads of other wonderful products. I also took 2 classes during the weekend: “Digital Marketing” with Zontee Hou and “How to stage your event like a Broadway Show Manager” with Patty Lyons.
Lots of great information in both classes, and many bright shiny new ideas hopping about in my head inspired by them. The hardest part of taking the classes was that they started at 7:45 a.m. Some of you that know me well know that I am not at my best before 9 a.m. Those mornings were a bit of a rough start, though well worth it.
Nothing will wake you up faster than taking a normally 3 hour long class with Patty Lyons when she has to fit it into 2 hours. All I have to say is, compared to her, I talk very slowly.
One thing that Patty mentioned in her class that has been sticking in my head was about trends with crafters and the hobbies they pursue. She said that most crafters switch what is their primary hobby every 5 years. One reason I find this interesting is that it has been 5 years since I started working on selling my crochet designs (and sold my first design). So it got me wondering if that is part of what is happening with my design mojo recently?
I still have lots of ideas for designs, but I’m more interested in pursuing alternate forms of publication. When I sell a design to a magazine or yarn company to publish, I have very little say in how the finished pattern is presented. Most of those sources publish patterns to a set format and style. That format and style is great for some crocheters, but doesn’t necessarily work for everyone.
When it really comes down to it, I like to teach. And when I design crochet garments in particular I like to incorporate unusual techniques, those don’t always lend themselves to the traditional pattern format and style. So I’ve decided that I need to marry my teaching tendencies and unusual techniques into writing “teaching” patterns.
I’m hoping to be publishing a series of patterns over the next 6 months that will have not only the typical pattern instructions, but will include photo tutorials and tips on how to modify the pattern so that crocheters can add to their repertoire of skills and create wonderful finished projects that they will be proud to wear themselves or give as gifts. Eventually I will be adding links to videos that demonstrate the techniques in these patterns as well.
If you are in the Greater Denver area of Colorado this next couple of weeks, you can come take a class with me in person. I’ll be teaching at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe the next 2 Saturdays.
Crochet with a Twist class sampleHandy HDC Class Swatches
Saturday, February 28th I’ll be teaching “Crochet with a Twist, Mastering the Moebius” and “Handy Half Double Crochet”.
Granny Fans Scarf class sampleCrochet the Perfect Fit Hat class samples
Saturday March 7th I’ll be teaching “Granny Fans Scarf” and “Crochet the Perfect Fit Hat”.
Whether you join me for a class or decide to purchase one of my “teaching” patterns I hope you keep on learning new skills in your crochet (or knitting) journey. After all, Change is the natural order of things.
Mainly because I have been very busy with lots of challenges and changes in my business. I’m working on implementing some new ways I publish my designs and expanding how and where I teach crochet and healthy crafting.
One of those changes may be moving my blog to a more customized website, the learning curve for that has been a bit more extensive than originally expected. I have every confidence in accomplishing it, just takes more time than I have easily to hand.
Meanwhile, here is some eye-candy for you yarnie ones. The following are few of the wonderful goodies I acquired at the TNNA Winter Trade Show in Phoenix the second weekend of January. Was a perfect time to travel south as the weather in Colorado and on my mountain was very cold and snowy. Spending a couple of days in warm and mostly sunny Phoenix was a nice change. Brutal returning to snow, ice and freezing temperatures when I came back though.
This was an exciting new product that I first saw being used by another attendee. The “Yarnit” is just too darn cool. Completely protects your ball of yarn and travels along with you easily. You can learn more about their products and where you can purchase them at their website.
I’m really enjoying these new larger sizes of the Clover Amour hooks. They come in a range of sizes. K-6.5mm, then 7mm, 8mm, 9mm and 10mm size. The handles are shaped just like the Amour Yarn hooks, but the material is different. The hook part is a wonderfully smooth hard plastic with the handle a slightly softer plastic.
The best thing about these larger hooks are they have a decent length of shaft above the handle. This is really key if you want to crochet any stitches taller than a single crochet. Most of the larger sizes of hooks with handles on the market sacrifice shaft length to accommodate the handles.
The yarn above is from ElementalAffects and I’m going to be doing some exciting things using their yarns this coming year. The 2 hanks I brought home with me are both Fingering weight, the Cormo is 100% Cormo wool and has a lovely tight twist that gives marvelous stitch definition; the Civility is 70% Merino wool with 30% Mulberry silk so very soft with luxurious drape.
I only got a little bit of yarn during this show. Monday is usually the day at the show that I get samples of yarn, but our time on the floor was cut short when the fire alarm went off around noon. Then it was time to catch the shuttle to the airport and head back home.
Since my return I have been finishing a slew of patterns that will be self-published on Ravelry over the next couple of months. Currently they are out for final testing and technical editing. I’ll let you know as they become available.
Where I am now? Learning new stuff and creating new products for other crocheters and crafters. I’ll be back soon, I promise.
Last Thursday evening was very cold. Compared to some of our winter weather it really wasn’t that cold, but after 80-90 degree temperatures it felt very chilly.
This was the view out the front door first thing in the morning.
Then I headed down the mountain a little ways to have some crochet time with my friend V. When I drove back up a few hours later the top of the mountain was socked in with fog. It was beautiful and I decided to stop and take a few photos.
Looking back down the mountain I couldn’t see the tops of any of the ridges around the valley.
A few hours later things were warming up a bit and the sun had come out. I looked out the window and noticed the daylight fog. In my front yard it wasn’t super noticeable.
But the backyard looked absolutely magical.
I have the feeling this is just the beginning of our Autumn yo-yo weather, definitely the signs that summer is over are getting clearer.
Seems like this last month has gone screaming by. I’ve been adjusting to my new routine with the boys going to school in town. We are starting our mornings bright and early, this past week we were up before the sun was and it will be trailing us more as the Autumn moves forward.
I’m still exploring my options for getting work done while I’m down off the mountain. One of my new routines is spending my Wednesdays from 10a – 1:30p at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe.
My little spot at the table.
It is a very appropriate space for me to hang out, surrounded by yarn and inspiration, as well as the lovely company of the owner, Gail and her lovely “shop dog” Kit.
Shop Dog Kit (who doesn’t like to sit still for photos)
Classes Corner
Gail has the shop set up beautifully. Here is the class section, where there are samples of the various class projects for the myriad classes that will be taught this Fall at the shop.
I’m modeling my little wrister cuff that my students will be making this Saturday afternoon (September 13th, 1p-4p) in my Crochet Wristers class. The students will learn all the techniques they will need to make the wrister cuff and will go home with the pattern for my “Spiraling Crosses Gauntlet”.
The Gauntlet was designed in Crystal Palace Yarns’ Sausalito sock yarn. I love this yarn, the gradual and subtle color changes make for interesting striping effects. There is still room in the class if you are in the area and want to join us. Just call the shop at (303) 678-8242 or stop by at 454 Main Street in Longmont, Colorado and they will get you signed up.
Today is chilly and wet, so I’m hanging out at the Boulder Public Library. Not as quiet as I had hoped here, there is a big construction project underway, but it is warmer than sitting in my car. This might be an option later on as the school year goes along, but I don’t think I’ll be utilizing the library as a work place until the construction is done. I may do some investigating to see if I can find a corner in a friend’s office to rent for a few hours each day.
Ah yes, winter has made itself known here on the mountain. No matter that the calendar says that it’s still Fall until December 20th.
Mamas2Hands 