>Today I am fielding questions from a crocheter on Ravelry who is having third and fourth thoughts about making one of my garment designs, sweating bullets over the process, ripping and re-doing multiple times. From her message I see that she clearly understands the pattern. She just can’t believe that this can be right.

I totally get that many of my patterns are complicated beyond belief. They could have been worse, much worse. Writing down every maneuver it takes to shape a seamless yoke with increases in pattern stitch for six sizes and for four or five variations requires more words than any publisher will allow. So we adopt certain conventions that assume some shared knowledge. And occasionally we ask you to wade through reams of text and flip back and forth between pages. If you are a visual learner, this quickly turns into your worst nightmare. How do you know if you’re getting it right?

ROW 1:

ROW 3: Hope this helps.

>I don’t remember if any one of us actually said this, but we must have been thinking, “Hey, kids! Let’s put on a show!”. It was with the exuberance and naivete of a gang of kids in an Andy Hardy movie that a group of us crochet designers/friends put our collective heads together and dreamed up this project:

Astounding, but here’s the proof. We did it. Crochet Belts From the Hip is available now for $15. Download it using the link at left or visit our publishing group.

My small contribution to our book, aside from the aggravation and heartfailure I may have caused my fellow authors, is the design Hip Hemp Belt. Using sample yarns generously donated by Lanaknits and Kreinik (pressed into my eager hands at 2007 TNNA Columbus), this belt is worked in Tunisian (afghan) crochet, with tapestry-ish embellishment, a major departure from my usual MO. But that’s what small projects are for… trying out new techniques and new materials… boldly going where your hook has not gone before.

>HOLY HANNAH! For once I am speechless (yeah, right, that won’t last long :D).

When one of the biggest yarn retailers on the planet, Michaels Arts&Crafts, chooses to spotlight and support crochet design and designers, you can bet your ball winder that it’s a grand day for crochet. Starting today my own designer page at the Michaels.com website goes live. I am so honored to be the first one there. Hey, I don’t mind being the guinea pig; at least not such a COOL guinea pig! Eternal gratitude to Suzi, Content Editor for Michaels.com, and Cari, Director of Fashion & Design for Caron International, for making this happen.

Skim over the lengthy biography if you must (when do I write anything that’s short and concise?) and get to the good part: the link to a collection of free patterns for my designs from Caron International. There in one place you’ll find some of my favorite garments made in Simply Soft.

Those who know me are not surprised that I need very little nudging (OK, no nudging at all) to model my designs in fashion shows. My excuse… uh, rationalization… is that nothing shows the beauty, drape and movement of a garment like sending it down the catwalk. No static image, not even the classiest photography on the most winsome fashion models can adequately convey the swirly, twirly, girly fun of lace. One case in particular is this duster I wore last summer at 2007 CGOA Chain Link. That night was totally hysterical. Kudos to Dee Stanziano for capturing the exuberant end-of-runway spin through her magic lens.

For me the challenges of modeling at CGOA fashion shows are twofold: maintaining dignity while all your guild buds are hooting it up, and teetering on 2 1/4″ heels, which are really high considering my usual footwear consists of various pairs of mismatched Converse All-Stars. Lucky for me I wasn’t required to chew gum at the same time.

YIPPEEE! The Caron Crochet Lacy Duster is one of the free patterns now linked through my Michaels page.

Doubledogdangit! The gauge was inadvertently left out of this pattern:
12 BASE CH/SC (aka Foundation single crochet) = 4”
In pattern, 2 repeats (SH, ch 2) body pattern = 3”, 5 rows shells = 4” as crocheted
NOTE: Weight of body results in substantial growth in total length when worn.