Cat’s Out of the Crochet Bag

Posted on October 2, 2012 by dorischancrochet

Here I go, un-burying the lead. The newly redesigned seamless crochet lace topper I previewed at CGOA Reno is now available. DJC: Cat’s Cradle.v2, my latest self-published pattern, is ready to download from the shop at DesigningVashti.com.

Photo courtesy of Jim Lowman and Offinger Management

Now the story. I produced a highly experimental exhibit at the Knit & Crochet Market show floor during the Crochet Guild of America conference in Reno, NV, September 2012. With the exception of the informational booths for the CGOA and TKGA (The Knitting Guild of America), the market is all about the retail experience, shopping for yarns, tools, books and new crochet/knitting related products. But I had a dream. I wanted there to be a booth where we weren’t selling anything; a showcase where attendees could see and be inspired by the latest in crochet, learn about as well as meet the charming and talented CGOA crochet instructors presenting classes in Reno, and also hang with favorite crochet designers and authors in an open, relaxed setting. With the blessing of the guild, sponsorship from WEBS, America’s Yarn Store, and from Interweave Press, and with a butt load of help from my friends and my co-conspirator Vashti, the Crochet Design Showcase became a reality.

You got a sneak peek of the booth in my previous post about the Star Fleet uniform dress last week. Here’s another look at the exhibit:On display were samples and materials drawn from the classes of instructors Susan Lowman, Margaret Fisher, Karen Whooley, Kathie Earle, Vashti Braha, Lily Chin (promoting her class and DVD workshop, Mosaic Crochet), Darla Fanton, Joan Davis (with her new self-published book, 336 Crochet Tips!) and Suzann Thompson (displaying her books Crochet Garden and Crochet Bouquet) plus current designs from friends including Andee Graves and a preview of Ellen Gormley’s new book, Learn Bruges Lace and a special display from Laurinda Reddig, her CGOA 2012 Design Competition grand prize winning vest. There was also chance to see up close my own current published designs, the Rockin Red Dress from the Fall 2012 issue of Interweave Crochet from my last post, and the Pretty Baby skirt from the 2012 Crochet Traditions issue of Piecework magazine.

But the most fun we had in the booth was generated by an on-going event that drew lots of attention and caused a flurry of excitement, the Cat’s Cradle.v2 fitting lab. I lugged 9 crocheted samples of this garment, in every one of the sizes, in alternate yarns and versions, and invited my friends and visitors to the exhibit to try them on for fit.

OK. So, at first, attendees were not lining up to participate. It was intimidating, perhaps a bit embarrassing, to be on display in public this way, trying on clothes. I had to accost, snag and otherwise cajole many of the ladies into helping me judge the real-life fit of my samples. But over the course of the three-and-a-half day market I witnessed such joy and pleasure in dozens of women who discovered the wonderful flattery of this design. I got so wrapped up in the experience that I neglected to photograph many of the victims… uh, volunteers. But here’s a gallery of some of the few fearless ladies I captured:

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If you already have the pattern from the 2007 magazine issue, do you need this? Uh, YEAH! As I wrote in the preface, “The design is revised for better drape and fit, with a new lovely round contoured neckline, stunning lace stitch pattern, deep full fit through the arms, and a swingy trim. This booklet length pattern offers more sizing and length options than the original, with fresh samples in some of my favorite yarns, detailed and revised instructions, awesome stitch diagrams and expanded sizing that brilliantly covers the range from XS through 4XL, perhaps 5XL.” You will make more than one. Promise.

A million thousand thanks to all who let me play Barbie dress up with them at the booth in Reno, and two million thousand thanks for giving me permission to take those shots. I swear I wrote down all the names of the intrepid models I photographed (you guys saw me do it, right?), but doubledogdangit if I left the list in Reno. So much for crochet making you smarter. If you recognize your lovely face and figure in the mix, let me know and I will add your id to the image. Or not, if you are just too shy. 🙂

CGOA Reno: I’m at WHAT convention?

Posted on September 28, 2012 by dorischancrochet

So this is not the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada???? It’s four hundred miles away in Reno, I’m at a Crochet Guild of America conference, and this is September, not August 2012. But a little space and time shift didn’t bother me any.

Photo courtesy of Vashti Braha

And there’s the perfect argument for Star Fleet having a mandatory retirement age! That’s me, dashing about getting a few things we needed for the CGOA Fashion Show (lint roller in hand!), standing still only momentarily at the Crochet Design Showcase, an experimental booth I launched at the Reno conference. More about the conference in a bit. As for the dress, it is only faintly recognizable as the Rockin Red Dress, my design published in the current Fall 2012 issue of Interweave Crochet. In the magazine it is styled this way:

Photo courtesy of Interweave Crochet

Crochet the dress a couple of inches shorter, wear it with black boots, a T-shirt collar and a spiffy replica of Lt. Uhura’s insignia from the Star Trek 2009 reboot film, and, it reverts back to the original inspiration for the design:

Well, yes. Zoe Saldana’ Uhura is much younger, curvier and hotter than me. And her uniform dress is scandalously short and fitted. But you get the idea. Even we geeky fan girls can play dress up once in a while.

One to beam up!

Unexpected Afghans: Exploded Pineapple Crochet

Posted on June 30, 2012 by dorischancrochet

While I don’t often wander into home decor design, when I do go there I thoroughly enjoy the change-up from my usual wearable crochet modus operandi. The beauty part of designing afghans, for example, is that I don’t have to endure the agony of writing sizing for the patterns. That fact alone is reason enough to visit home dec land more often. So when a friend invited me to contribute to her afghan book, I didn’t need to think twice.

This weekend, all of the contributing designers are helping to celebrate the release of Unexpected Afghans, by Robyn Chachula. I believe I speak for the entire group when I say what a pleasure it was to not have to size the patterns… oh, and how much fun it was to work with Robyn.

Robyn’s idea was to get each of us to design an afghan in our own unique style. For me this meant seamless lace, the Exploded Pineapple Afghan:

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I have written previously about my relationship with pineapple crochet here. Very early in my career I realized that I loved creating pineapple designs so much that I was in danger of overdoing it. I began rationing my pineapple use. But you have to ask yourself, how many pineapple projects are allowable in, say, a year of designs? Two per year seemed excessive, and I now limit myself to one a year. So this afghan blows my quota for 2012. 🙂

Here’s the list of contributors to Unexpected Afghans, so you can see what the entire gang has to say about the book this weekend:

Annette Petavy – Annette Petavy Design

Annie Modesitt – Modeknit

Carol Ventura – Tapestry Crochet

Diane Halpern –Three Rivers Crochet

Dora Ohrenstein – Crochet Insider Newsletter

Drew Emborsky – The Crochet Dude

Edie Eckman – Edie Eckman

Ellen Gormley – Go Crochet

Jill Wright – Wool Crafting

Kim Guzman – Wips N Chains

Kristin Omdahl – Styled By Kristin

Linda Permann – Lindamade

Marty Miller – Not Your Granny’s Crochet

Mary Beth Temple – Addicted to Alpaca

Megan Granholm – Loop de doo

Simona Merchant-Dest – Stylish Knits

Robyn Chachula, CrochetbyFaye

Tracie Barrett – Tracie Barrett

BACKSTORY: Spiral Crochet

Posted on March 8, 2012 by dorischancrochet

Everybody remember where we parked.

One of many memorable quotes (memorable to me, at least) from the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, that line was delivered to amusing effect by Captain James T. Kirk after landing a captured Klingon scout-class warbird in the middle of Golden Gate Park in 20th century San Francisco. This reminder to the crew made sense in the context of the scene because the ship was cloaked and therefore invisible. But even when walking away from your perfectly visible vehicle, it’s still a good thing to make note of where you’ve parked.

I can never remember. I might attribute my lapses in recall to advanced age. But this is one instance I can’t play the “old” card because I have been losing track of the car ever since I learned to drive at seventeen. You know that feeling, huh? You emerge from a grocery store with a loaded cart, or from the movies with rowdy kids in tow, or from holiday gift shopping with arms filled with packages. Your heart stops as you scan the sea of parked vehicles and you can’t find your car.

Only once in my life did I experience the worst case scenario where my vehicle was actually not there, stolen. That’s another story. In the back of your mind, especially after you’ve hiked up and down several aisles of the parking lot searching for and not finding your car, this is a real, nagging possibility. Most of the time, though, the car is there somewhere.

Way back when cars had sticky-out-y rod antennae, you’d often see funny things stuck to the tops of them to serve as locators. I tried doing that for a while but annoyingly the stupid Smurf doll wouldn’t stay impaled.

If you don’t mind cruising for prime spaces, you could try parking as close to the front of the building as possible so your car is immediately and easily seen. This works well outside of destinations with only one entrance. But where there are multiple portals, like at the mall, it’s useful to park in the same place every time or within a few spaces in a specific area, someplace less frequented, quiet and therefore usually empty. That’s why I automatically eschew the main mall entrance and head for an end cap, the door at the back of one of the anchor department stores. All I have to remember is which store, which entrance, and use it every visit. After years of practice I now do it without thinking.

So every time I go to the mall I find myself winding through the same departments of the same store in order to get to the coffee, without which I cannot contemplate any shopping. This path takes me through shoes, then menswear, then jewelry, handbags, women’s fashions and finally the scary, shiny cosmetics counters before I see the light from the mall. I routinely fly past everything, but once in a while something catches my eye and it’s always a garment display.

What captures my attention isn’t the garment itself, not the beauty or lack of it, not the style or even the color. I am drawn to fabric, the drape, pattern and textures of materials, knitwear, knits that mimic crochet and of course crocheted pieces. I see it all in terms of stitchwork and spend inordinate amounts of time dissecting the fabric and putting it in terms of crochet stitches and filing it away in my brain for inspiration later.

People who have the misfortune of accompanying me on these shopping forays get terribly disgusted with me. At first they might wait for me while I examine the enticing fabrics more closely, even when they can’t imagine why I’d be looking at those particular items. But after frequent long stops they generally abandon me and cover the retreat with “Hey, meet you at Starbucks later!”. This is why I go to the mall alone.

The point is, I see crochet stitch patterns everywhere, even where there’s no crochet to be seen. By stitch pattern I mean a set or combination of crochet stitches that have a cohesiveness or form an image, a discrete piece or parcel of crochet. We call that parcel a stitch pattern repeat, because that’s what gets repeated across a row and up the rows to form crocheted fabric. I encounter and experiment with many stitch patterns, but few can be counted in a rarefied group that has become my comfort zone.

And that’s where crocheted spirals live, in my stitch pattern comfort zone. I am so familiar with the look of spirals, how they are made, and how they can be shaped and manipulated to get the desired results, that designing with them is really fun. Over the years I have used variations on spiral stitch patterns in several designs. With the release of the latest booklet in my self-published pattern line I think I’ve finally been able to get spirals out of my system and onto the page.

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So I present DJC: Spirals, a collection of seamless tops that puts spiral construction in your hands. This top may resemble one of my old designs published in a now out-of-print magazine, but it’s so much more than a mere reclaiming and re-print of Sophisticated Swirls from 2006. With new, detailed written instructions, tips and techniques, options for body and sleeve lengths, a tutorial about interior shaping, stitch diagrams, fresh samples in current yarns, and extended sizing that covers XS through 4X with 12 sizes, DJC: Spirals is a master class.

DJC: Spirals is a 29 page pdf download, available for purchase at DesigningVashti.com. I hope you will enjoy this pattern as much as I truly needed to write it. 🙂

Winning Simply Crochet

Posted on December 22, 2011 by dorischancrochet

I am the last stop … the tail end, the caboose, batting clean-up… on the blog tour for the new book, Simply Crochet: 22 Stylish Designs for Every Day by Robyn Chachula.

This bothered me a little when Robyn sent out the tour schedule to all the contributing designers and I saw my name at the very bottom of the bunch. As a kid I was used to being closer to the front. As the oldest child of three, I went through everything first. Isn’t it true that the first-born is always the test subject for developing parenting skills? At least I made sure I was at the dinner table ahead of my brothers because they would have inhaled all the food had I not staked out my share.

In school, before my nearsightedness was discovered and I got my first pair of glasses in third grade, I was inclined to sit closer to the blackboard so I could see it. Somehow I turned into one of the geeks-with-glasses (House Magoo) who congregated at the front of the class. I would often peer longingly at the cool underachievers hunkered down at the back of the room and wished I could hide back there, too. I really didn’t need to be so close to the teacher that I could see the lint on his or her lapels. Whether we students were sorted in alphabetical order or by height, either way I found myself toward the beginning of every line, or seated near the front of the room, or in the first row of every class picture, or standing on the floor in front of the chorus risers and the rest of the second alto section.

I wanted to ask Robyn why I had to be last. I held my tongue, but I wondered about that. Ellen Gormley, whose blog GoCrochet was the next-to-last tour stop yesterday says we are here either because we are the anchors (which is a typically sweet thing for Ellen to say) or because our designs use the most balls of yarn (not true). In a book of projects aimed at giving “budget-conscious crocheters the tools to make the most of their yarn stashes”, bloated yarn requirements win nothing but the booby prize.

I crocheted both of the book samples myself and I assure you that, with the exception of the long tunic version in the largest size (2XL/3XL), Spa Shawl Top can be made with 3 to 5 skeins of yarn. That’s considerable yarn economy for a full, loose fitting adult garment. The key contributing factors are the open lace stitch and the great yardage in each skein of silky NaturallyCaron.com Spa. It’s the yarn I talked about last post, possessing a special Z-twist which not only helps the tall loose lace stitches hang together but keeps them looking good.

Once I got my copy of Simply Crochet and realized that my design Spa Shawl Top was the last one in the book, I felt pretty stupid. Naturally I am last because IT is last. So I’m good with being here today unless I start obsessing over why my design ended up being the last one in the book. Hey, I guess I finally made it to the back of the classroom with the cool kids, huh? Astoundingly, I have been included in a class made up entirely of cool kids.

Honestly, we were not told who-all the other contributors would be, not at the beginning. Publishers insist we harbor deep secrets for way too long. So when the list of designer names was at last revealed, it was brilliant, representing today’s best and brightest crochet talent. I am pleased to admit I actually know most of them, count many among them as friends, owe at least a few of them drinks (or chocolate cake), swap yarn and war stories with a couple, but mercifully don’t owe any of them money.

Here’s the complete blog tour schedule FYI, in case you haven’t been along for the entire ride and want to rewind.

Simply Crochet Countdown to Fun Schedule:
1 Ball or Less
Dec 1 Iced Ascot by Rebecca Velasquez
Dec 2 Flapper Hat by Margaret Hubert
Dec 3 Billows of Baubles Scarf by Sheryl Means
Dec 4 Twist Cowl Wrap by Linda Permann
Dec 5 Mystic Cuff by Robyn Chachula
Dec 6 Emma Lace Scarf by Simona Merchant-Dest
Dec 7 Diamonds and Lace Hat by Linda Permann
Dec 8 Neck Lattice by Vashti Braha

3 Balls or Fewer
Dec 9 Botan Placemats by Marlaina Bird
Dec 10 Tapestry Basket by Carol Ventura,
Dec 11 Blooming Beauty Purse by Tracie Barrett
Dec 12 Nedburt Puppet by Robyn Chachula
Dec 13 Natalie Shrug by Megan Granholm
Dec 14 Giselle Vest by Simona Merchant-Dest
Dec 15 Sidney Cardigan by Robyn Chachula
Dec 16 Annabel Shawl by Kristin Omdahl

5 Balls or Fewer
Dec 17 Tallula Baby Top by Marlaina Bird
Dec 18 Amelia Cardigan by Julia Vaconsin
Dec 19 Float Vest, Float Cardigan by Robyn Chachula
Dec 20 Linked Jacket by Robyn Chachula
Dec 21 Dots and Dashes Blanket by Ellen Gormley
Dec 22 Spa Shawl Top, Spa Shawl Tunic by Doris Chan

Not everybody gets why I’d work on a book authored by somebody else. I showed the book to my mom and had a hard time explaining why Robyn Chachula’s name is on the cover and not mine. The major reason I agreed to contribute to Simply Crochet is because of Robyn. I adore her, and not just because she is shorter than I am and her glasses are even thicker than mine (just kidding, Robyn). She’s a total dynamo, as scathingly focused as a laser when she needs to be, yet goofy otherwise. I can’t imagine how she manages to juggle her awesome career with home and family (hey, CJ!).

In fact, Robyn is so good at getting her friends to work with her that I signed on to do a design for the next book, Unexpected Afghans: Innovative Crochet Designs with Traditional Techniques by Robyn Chachula, coming in June 2012, available for pre-order. Yes, I briefly wandered over to the dark side and designed an afghan. No, I can’t talk about it yet. And, with any luck I will not be the last stop on that tour!

So, to sum up nearly a month of blog tour fun, Simply Crochet is now available both in paperback hard copy and as a downloadable e-book. Please check out this beautiful collection of designs and thanks for following the bouncing blog ball to this final stop. I know everybody is busy right now with the holidays, but if you take a few seconds to make a comment on this blog post, you’ll be entered to win a free download of the e-book from Interweave Press. Consider it a last-minute gift to yourself. Deadline for entries is midnight Eastern Time, Christmas Day, Sunday 25 December. Don’t bother sucking up to me in your comment (unless you really really want to), because it won’t make any difference. I’ll choose one commenter totally at random and announce the winner here on Monday.

Best of luck and Happy Holidays!