Andee & Jan’s Big Adventure Part I

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As many of you know I just returned from the Reno Knit and Crochet Show. Since this was the closest that a show has been to my home in Colorado I thought it would be fun to drive to it. So my friend Janet (aka Jan), who lives in New Jersey, said she would fly to Denver and drive with me.

This was the first time in ages that I would be driving a long distance road-trip without my family, I was really looking forward to it because Jan and I tend to make each other laugh a lot.

We figured we would need 2 days to drive one way, so 4 days total for traveling. She came out a few days early with the plan being we would have a bit of time for me to show her some of Colorado before we headed off on our journey. First we needed to get Jan to Colorado, she decided to fly out the Friday evening before we were to drive, giving us the weekend to play.

Unfortunately weather in another part of the country messed with schedules and her flight that was supposed to arrive in Denver at just after 9 p.m. ended up arriving more around the neighborhood of 11 p.m. By the time we collected Jan’s luggage and drove back to my house it was close to 1 a.m. when we went to bed.

The next day Jan and I were to have the house to ourselves as we visited, decided on food for the journey and enjoyed the mountain air. My husband and sons were supposed to be gone on a school camping trip.  But the all the campgrounds were very busy and no one had reserved any spaces. After many phone calls between parents and teachers the school camp-out was canceled. Because my boys were very dissapointed, I made a flurry of further phone calls  to arrange a mini-camp-out with a neighbor friend.

Finally we had the house to ourselves.  It was time to block the shawl that Jan had brought with her. She had wanted to learn about using blocking wires (I’ll have a future blog post about that later).  Then we ate some dinner and watched a movie while I organized my projects for the trip.

I wanted Jan to see more of the beauty in my mountains, other than just my yard. So the next morning we made a quick drive to Nederland. It’s a very beautiful drive along the Peak-to-Peak highway and Nederland is a fun little mountain town with interesting shops and sites.

We visited the Alpaca Store which was full of beautiful garments, where we each purchased a treat for ourselves. Though we managed to resist the yarn they had. Then we visited the Carousel of Happiness, a wonderful piece of functional art that is one of my favorite places to take visitors to in the area.

After a quick stop at the grocery we were back on our way to my house, with a few stops for photos.

When we got back to the house I started working on packing the car, but then got a phone call. My foster dog that had been adopted Friday was coming back. So there was a mad scramble to make arrangements for him while I was gone.  That ate up another couple of hours and we decided it was better to get some rest and finish packing the car in the morning.

The next morning, with all the packing and loading of the car, it was nearly 11:30 a.m. by the time we hit the road.  But we were off. Yay!  We made a stop off I-25 for a lunch break.

We were east of Cheyenne, Wyoming a few hours later. Though I take any photos until we stopped for an early supper close to 5 p.m.  There was a sign at the rest stop that got our attention, “Caution, Rattlesnakes may be present”.

Maybe that was why I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the gas gauge.  After that stop we realized we only had about 150 miles worth of gas in the tank. So we decided we needed to watch for a gas-station. Unfortunately we weren’t seeing any.  The mileage indicator dropped to 50, then about the time it said 20 miles left in the tank I saw a sign for Rock Springs, WY that said 35 miles to go. I snuck a peek at my phone and was relieved that I had full bars for my Cel signal.

Jan and I discussed that we had a good option if we ran out of gas. I carry AAA and help wasn’t far away. Though, since it was getting late in the evening, neither of us was too thrilled with the idea of being stuck on the side of the highway waiting for help in the dark. The indicator was now just 3 little lines and the tank gauge was reading empty, as well as the fuel light was blinking on the dash.  Suddenly we saw a Conoco sign and immediately there was an exit.

We pulled up to the pump with immense relief. I happily filled the tank. I put in 14.89 gallons in my 15 gallon tank. Jan and I looked at each other, “Let’s not do that again.”

After that excitement the rest of the day’s drive was a bit of a blur.  We finally got to Salt Lake City around 10 p.m. and happily checked into our hotel for the night.  We were very quickly asleep. The next morning we packed up to get on the road, but were a bit slow because Jan let me sleep later. She felt I needed to sleep if her alarm clock didn’t even make me twitch.

We couldn’t really see the Great Salt Lake as we drove away, but there were these interesting canals with salty patches all along the highway. We got out to take pictures and were surprised at how stinky the air was.

Further out from SLC we saw huge mountains of salt with trains and semi-trailers around to haul it to destinations unknown. Jan shot a quick picture out the car window as we drove by.

This Gas-station name was too funny.

This was to be the shorter leg of the journey, but road construction slowed us down enough that it took about the same length of time.  We stopped regularly to fill the tank and for meals.

We discovered that rest-stops in western Utah and most of Nevada were not as nice as the ones in Colorado and Wyoming. We took this picture at one of the few rest-stops that had a nice little park-like area around it.

After what had begun to feel like a very long drive we made it to Reno and our hotel, the Grand Sierra Resort. The place was massive and we stood in line for quite a bit waiting to check in.

We were thrilled with the size of our room, though the decor made us chuckle. Personally, if I had a bigger living room, I would love to have a chair like that.

The view from our window was pretty good, especially at sunset.

A couple of friends that were arriving that evening and afternoon called us.  We went back downstairs for a while and explored, but soon called it a night as we had to be up early the next day for PDD (Professional Development Day).

I’m Back!

Categories Celebrating, CGOA, Chain Link, Crochet2 Comments on I’m Back!

Whew! It’s been a busy, crazy, fun-filled 2 weeks.  I just got back from the Reno Knit and Crochet Show last night and today is all about catching up.

I really just want to play with my new yarn and practice the cool stuff I learned from the classes I took.

I was in Vashti Braha’s Introduction to Slip Stitch on Thursday. Which was just as incredibly inspiring as I expected. I can hardly wait to explore the options for the fabrics we were creating in her class. Will definitely be designing more using these stitches in the future. You can learn more about Vashti and her amazing fount of crochet knowledge on her website Designing Vashti.

Then took 2 Hairpin Lace classes with Jennifer Hansen on Saturday. I didn’t expect much from myself for learning hairpin lace, but Jen proved to be the amazing teacher she always is and I am now a hair-pin lace crocheting stitcher. Wooot! Honestly, if you’ve never taken a class with Jennifer Hansen/Stitch Diva treat yourself and get into one ASAP. She really breaks down what seems complicated and confusing into manageable bites. You can learn more about Jennifer Hansen at her website Stitch Diva Studios.

I promise more photos and news from the Reno Chain Link very soon.

Books at my Fingertips

Categories Crochet, Inspiration2 Comments on Books at my Fingertips

Well, while I am being busy playing working at the Knit & Crochet Show in Reno, I thought I would share this photo I took before leaving on my trip.

This is the shelf full of books just to the left of my computer desk/work area in our house.  These are not my only books in my library, crochet or otherwise, but they are the ones that I am currently either referring or fascinated by that I need them handy.  Of course, I may have more to add to there before this trip is over.

By the way, the book spine you can’t read well is Edie Eckman’s “Around the Corner” edgings book. Lurve that book!

What are your favorite crochet books, that you use the most?

A Lovely Rose

Categories Art Projects, Creativity, Crochet, Crochet Design1 Comment on A Lovely Rose

Who doesn’t love flowers? Especially Roses?

Unfortunately, despite my love for their beauty, roses make me sneeze violently. Being the artsy creative gal I am, I decided to seek out some way of creating some non-sneeze inducing blooms.

Being Crochet is my main expressive art form these days I first looked to this beautiful “Irish Rose”. I found this particular stitch pattern in my well-loved copy of “The Harmony Guides, 220 more Crochet Stitches, Volume 7”.

I used some Size 3 cotton thread I had in my stash and my D-3 /3.25mm Etimo hook.  I stopped with the 9th round because I liked the way it looked.  It reminded me a bit of the wild primroses that grow up here on my mountain. But I wanted a rose more like the densely petaled beauties in my first photo.

This crocheted rose was quite simple to make. I used a very fluffy wool blend yarn from my stash (Paton’s Soy Wool Solids – unfortunately discontinued).

Leaving a long beginning tail, I chained a length then worked a sc, hdc and dc in the 2nd chain from the hook, then 4 dcs in each chain until I’d reached the original beginning of the chain.

Afterward I flattened the spiral then used the beginning tail to sew the chain into the spiral shape. I think one reason this Rose worked well was I crocheted with a larger hook than usual for the size of the yarn.

I’ll keep experimenting with making more crocheted roses. I want a more ruffled look to the spiraled rose, and I’m thinking there has to be a better way to create the base for it.  Maybe I’ll create a crocheted rose-bush.

Deacon Needs a Home

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Some of you are aware that my family and I foster dogs for the Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue. These wonderful folks arrange fostering and adoption for labrador retrievers and mixes. Most of the dogs that come into the Rescue are in danger of being put down. So Fostering saves a life. Especially as RMLR doesn’t have an actual facility they depend entirely on their Fosters and other volunteers to keep things going.

This is our most recent Foster doggie Deacon.  This guy is a total sweetheart. And he is a BIG dog. Currently weighs a bit over 80 pounds and is about 10 months old. So a very Big puppy. When he stretches out on the floor to sleep in our tiny house he covers a lot of space.

He loves to play with our female dog Kenna, though he isn’t all that friendly with other boy dogs. And he thinks that our cat would make a good snack, wants to chase him every time he sees him. Otherwise he is super gentle. He is amazingly good with our boys, most mishaps are because he is so big and occasionally gets a bit rowdy and knocks them down. Especially my 6-year-old son.

Deacon loves food, doesn’t want to share his food with other dogs but will tolerate his humans picking up his dish or treats without arguing.  He is especially fond of Kongs filled with frozen canned dog food.

He is very good about walking on a leash and loves to go for a nice long walk every morning and evening. In between walks he is thrilled to play fetch, though he hasn’t quite figured out the “Drop” command.

He mostly just wants to be with his humans. He loves to have his ears rubbed and would be happy to be a lap dog if allowed. He is going to be a wonderful forever friend for some lucky household. If you know of someone in the Colorado area that would love to give Deacon a loving home, please have them visit the RMLR website to fill out an adoption application. There are also lots of other wonderful dogs besides Deacon looking for a forever home as well.

It’s Magic!

Categories Creativity, Crochet, How Tos, Kid Projects, Sewing1 Comment on It’s Magic!

Crochet is magical.  Any one of us that have even a basic familiarity with the art of the hook know this.

This past week I got to demonstrate another version of crochet magic. I was asked by my kids to create a “Merlin” cloak and hat as a birthday gift for one of their good friends. The birthday party was this past Saturday so I can post the pictures of the finished project now.

I had made a version of this costume for my oldest when they wanted to be Harry Potter for Halloween last year. What I needed: 1 1/2 yards of 60″ wide poly fleece, about 300 yards of acrylic yarn (I used 2 different colors), 24″ wide by 15″ tall piece of acrylic felt, size G hook, sewing needles and sewing thread.

The first part of this project was to cut out the “cloak” from the poly fleece.  The great thing about poly fleece for a project like this is I can leave the raw edge un-hemmed and it won’t fray.  The piece of  fleece I was using had a few bits cut out of it, so I had to work around that. I folded it in half and cut out the shape I wanted with a concave curved bit for the “collar”.  The photo shows the basic shape I cut out with the collar in place.

Then I blanket stitched along the collar area to give me an edge to crochet into. The collar itself was a single crochet base worked into the blanket stitching, then some slight increasing with double crochet stitches to create the shape I wanted. I wasn’t really following any type of pattern. Just going by a feel for how I wanted the finished collar to look, as well as including a “button-hole” for the button fastening.

You can see the button and button-hole better in this photograph.

Of course, it isn’t a real magic costume if you don’t have a hat. So I grabbed some black felt and cut out a shape to make a cone for the crown of the hat. To make the hat go more with the cloak I cut out some of the leaves and stars from the left-over scraps of fabric I had from the cloak.

I then sewed them in place with a simple whip-stitched edge. Once all the appliques were sewn on I rolled the felt into a cone and sewed the seam where the edges overlapped.

I crocheted a brim by starting with a foundation single crochet strip that was the right circumference for a good fit. Rounds of single crochet worked even and then in flat increases created the rest of the brim with a finishing round of double crochet worked even. After the crocheted brim was finished I used yarn and a zig zag hand stitch to attach it to the bottom of the felt cone.

The final costume was finished just in time to be wrapped and ready for my kids to give to their friend. The costume was a big hit and already has had some serious play time.

Curvy Girls Celebrate!

Categories Book Reviews, Celebrating, Crochet, Crochet DesignLeave a Comment on Curvy Girls Celebrate!

How many of us, over the age of 25, who crochet are a size 0 or size 2 in garments? Not me, that’s for darn sure.

Yet, many of the garment patterns that you see in books and magazines are rarely sized for larger women.  Sometimes you will see them sized up to a 2X.

Fortunately there is now a book for crochet patterns that were specifically designed for women built with curves. “Curvy Girl Crochet; 25 Patterns that Fit and Flatter” by Mary Beth Temple is available from Taunton Press.  Official publication date is September 1st, but I know a number of folks that had pre-ordered the title from Amazon have received theirs already.

This book is all about creating garments that look good on plus-size figures. Not only are all the patterns written for size Large up to 5x, but there are 2 chapters giving you the inside scoop on how to achieve the most flattering fit for your figure type.

When Mary Beth was in the process of developing this book she decided she wanted to include some designs from guest artists, and I was fortunate to be one of those invited to propose designs.  My “Skirt the Issue” wrap skirt was chosen and can be found on page 130 of the book.

©2012 Susan Pittard

I wanted to create a skirt that would be flattering, yet not become too heavy from the amount of yarn used in it. So I looked at Hyperbolic math for some answers. 

The sizing comes from the waistband, then steady increases create a fabric that skims over the hips into a lacy fullness that swirls around the knees.  The transition into lace work at the bottom third of the skirt keeps the overall weight of the skirt from becoming too heavy.

There are 24 other lovely sweaters, wraps and wonderful garments in this book as well.  It’s a great addition to any crocheter’s library and will be available to purchase just about everywhere.  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Local Yarn Shops, Annie’s Attic, Patternworks, JoAnns, Hobby Lobby, Michaels. So you should have no problem getting a copy of your own.

Getting Ready for Reno

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If you live anywhere in the West side of the country it’s time to pack your bags in preparation to attend the Knit and Crochet Show in Reno, Nevada.  The last couple of years there have been complaints from our fellow stitchers on the West Coast because all the Knit and Crochet Shows were more East or Central, so I’m really hoping that this will be a very successful show and will lead to more shows in my “neighborhood”.

Maybe you hadn’t realized the show was so near you, but it isn’t too late to register. Early registration ends August 27th. Just pop on over to the Knit and Crochet Show Website and you can find all kinds of fun classes for both the hook and 2 needle yarn happy folks. 

I am packing for my trip already. My packet of tickets came and I’ve got them in my show pouch, as well as gathering up all my pins and organizing my notebook where I keep my class information and receipts. This is going to be an extra fun show for me because I am driving to Reno with my crochet show best bud, Janet.

I hope to see lots of my Southwest and West coast stitching friends in Reno. I know it will be a great time, learning and yarning together.

What have I been up to?

Categories Crochet, Crochet DesignLeave a Comment on What have I been up to?

The past couple of months have been a flurry of designing as well as all the Summer Family Fun.  I’m finding a bit more time for blogging now that the new school year has started.  So I’ll catch you up on some of the designs I was furiously working on last Fall that are now available for your enjoyment.

For those of you that are CGOA members or otherwise have a subscription to Crochet! Magazine you may have seen my 2 latest published designs in the Autumn issue.

Both of these designs were created for Red Heart Yarns using some of their wonderful Boutique line of yarns.  If you haven’t had a chance to play with this line of yarns these are both great quick projects to dip your toe in the water with.

Photo courtesy of Crochet! Magazine/Annies

The Triangle Magic Scarf really shows off the gorgeous color changes in RH Boutique Midnight.

Photo courtesy of Crochet! Magazine/Annies

And the RH Boutique Sashay works as an exciting embellishment on the Ruffled Sparks Clutch.

Photo courtesy of Crochet World Magazine/Annies

Earlier this summer another project I designed for Red Heart was in the June Issue of Crochet World.  This was a super quick project called “Button Showcase Bracelet”.

I also have 2 articles in the Summer Issue of Interweave Crochet. The first one is “We *Heart* Stitch Markers”, the other is a 2 part series on Crochet Ergonomics called “Sit Up and Get a Grip!”.  The second part will be in the Autumn issue coming out this September.

There are a number of other design projects in the works or just finished, but they are still in the “Secret” stage. Hopefully I’ll get to share more about those soon.

A very Speedy Summer

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I don’t know about the rest of you, but my summer is zipping by incredibly fast. Summertime as a “season” is pretty darn short up here on the mountain anyway, but the main measure I use is the summer break my children have from school.

I had visions of more time to keep up with the blog this summer. Then the last week of April my crochet career got a serious kick in the pants.  Leisure Arts contacted me about a proposal of mine and suddenly I was working on my first project for them.

Of course I was also finishing up other projects that I had commitments for, adopting and integrating a new dog into my family, going on a 2 week family vacation road-trip, preparing for the Manchester Knit and Crochet Show (which included lots of work for the CGOA Design Competition that I was Co-chairing), and having my brother come out for a week-long visit with his kiddos and my Dad. Whew!

Somehow I did manage to finish the pattern writing and crocheting the samples for the Leisure Arts project. Now all that is left for that project is some waiting. The latest news is that it should be available to purchase in January 2013. Don’t worry, you’ll hear more from me about it when it is.

Now I’m playing catch-up with getting proposals put together for more crochet designs, as well as writing patterns and crocheting samples for designs I’ve sold from earlier proposals.

It is one of the truths about being a freelance designer. You have to keep “feeding” the pipeline if you want to be working regularly. I’ve actually not sent in submissions for some of the deadlines of late since I really need to get caught up with stuff for my house and family. Of course, some submission deadlines I had to let pass because I was just too busy with everything else.

My boys will be starting back to school in just 10 days. First day of school this year is August 15th. Kinda looking forward to them being back in school and not.

The good news is, they will both be in school all day this year, so I won’t be making 3 trips to the school for drop-off and pick-up.  And I will have an entire 6 hours everyday with-out small voices saying “Mom” every 20 minutes. My beloved has been warned that interruptions during that 6 hours should be well-considered or there might be violence.

The bad news is, there will be no more sleeping in for mom. My boys are independent enough these days that I can occasionally indulge in a late morning. But once school starts, we will all be getting up bright and early to be sure a healthy hearty breakfast is consumed and that everyone is dressed and ready to go on-time. I will only be allowed late mornings on the week-ends, and even those seem to get rather busy during the school year.