free crochet pattern | Doris Chan Crochet

>Today online registration opened for The National NeedleArts (TNNA) summer 2009 show in Columbus, Ohio. This is the place where industry exhibitors show off their wares to needlework retailers, where yarn shop buyers get to preview and order the new yarns and products over which we will all be drooling next season, where editors and publishers keep tabs on what’s happening. TNNA shows are not open to the general public. But they let us designers hang out. Hokey smokes, they even throw yarn at us!

This show is a must-see for the sheer sensory overload of so much yarn. I swear I go home with a stiff neck from days of whipping my head around every time someone exclaims “Oh My God, look at that!”. Aside from the primary yarn objective, for me TNNA is also about people and opportunities, the chance to grab quality face-time with colleagues, yarn company reps and editors. You’d be surprised (or maybe not surprised) how many industry relationships are created and cemented over drinks at the Big Bar on Two at the Hyatt Regency Columbus.

My happy anticipation for this year’s event is way different from the angst I experienced last year. See this post from June 2008, my post-TNNA recap. I have not yet seen this episode of Knitting Daily TV, on the topic Seamless Construction containing the segment we recorded last June. But I understand that it has aired and is available for purchase.

Here’s a still taken right before the shoot. On the right that’s Kim Werker, host of the segment and editor of Interweave Crochet at the time, looking so poised and prepared. The other one is me, like a rabbit gone “tharn” or a deer in the headlights. Please, please, please tell me I didn’t look so completely petrified throughout the entire thing.

The yellow top next to me is the design we featured during the segment, the Bell Sleeve Pullover taken from the now legendary Tahki Crochet 2006 book. When I was working on that garment in 2005, I was not yet sensitive to the need for extra pattern sizing nor was I skilled enough to provide it. Thanks to KDTV and segment sponsor Tahki Stacy Charles I was given a rare gift; the chance to go back, revisit the design and make up for such a shameful omission.

The revised pattern with re-proportioned sizing to fit up to 3XL (55″ finished bust circumference) is now available as a free download from Knitting Daily TV. You will need to sign up before you can click through.

BTW, here’s a link to the TNNA application form for Affiliate membership, the category which includes designers, teachers and publishers

>Every time I look at a stitch diagram of one of my designs I feel as though I am seeing the pattern, really seeing it, for the first time. There is such a sense of clarity and satisfaction I get from these little bunches of symbols that’s hard to describe. These, done by Karen Manthey for the All Shawl, are a joy to behold.

My mother knew about these things all along. She learned to crochet as a girl growing up in Japan, where the symbol language was developed. The vintage pattern books she showed me when I was starting to crochet were written in Japanese. She did not read English. But we both could understand and follow every diagram, stitch by stitch, letting our hands create the patterns our eyes saw, needing no translation.

But more than making it possible for crocheters to transcend language barriers and share stitches, symbol diagrams are an enormous boon to those of us who learn visually. If my early stitch dictionaries had offered only written instructions I might never have been so attracted to and obsessed by lace patterns. Fortunately for me I stumbled upon the original Harmony Guides volumes 6 and 7, which are chock full of symbols and now an indispensible part of my crochet life. There is now a new set of Harmony Guides from Interweave Press, updated and user friendly, ready for the next generation. They’re on my Christmas list but I don’t hold out much hope that Santa will be bringing them. After all, I never did get that pony.

Oh, if you have already downloaded the free All Shawl pattern, but want the latest edition that includes Karen’s lovely stitch diagrams, please click that link again to get the All Shawl edit 2.pdf. It’s worth the effort.