BACKSTORY: Pearl River

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I think of my life as a tangled skein of yarn.  For a crocheter or knitter the physical reality of tangled yarn is a bummer. But virtually, as a metaphor for the path of life, the messy ball of yarn image is perfectly apt and no more aggravating than the meandering thoughts of a daydreamer.  The way in which one strand of yarn twists and loops back on itself, meeting, crossing and touching at unpredictable points  and getting distractingly knotted at times… that’s how certain themes in life are connected.

My sense of interconnectedness is not in the same class of consciousness-raising experience as Proust’s taste of tea-infused madeleines or his step on uneven paving stones.  (Be warned: if you tell anyone that I have referenced Remembrance of Things Past in a blog post I will categorically deny it!) And it’s not an ominous warning like Bad Wolf. The ball of yarn thing is casual and completely unintentional.  When some word or name keeps cropping up throughout your life you don’t think much of it at first.  But later you begin to believe there’s something there. Once in your life is incidence.  Twice is coincidence.  Three times?  That could be interpreted as a pattern.

So it is with me and Pearl River.  My dad was born in a farming village on the delta of the Pearl River in Guangdong (Canton) Province, in the southern part of China [see this post].  We lived in the back rooms of our Chinese laundry in a town called Pearl River [see this post]. Mere coincidence.

Last year Cari Clement, Design Director for Caron International Yarns, asked me to develop a crochet project, specifically a wrap featuring broomstick lace technique.  As is the usual procedure for free-lance design work, I was forwarded a gang of paperwork that outlined the contractual agreement and identifying label/title for the project. To my surprise Cari had picked the name Pearl River for the broomstick wrap. YAHTZEE!

The yarn to be used for this wrap was NaturallyCaron.com Spa.  Pretty much all of the names given to Spa designs are those of spas and resorts.  Therefore, in keeping with that theme, Cari was probably thinking about Pearl River, the hotel/casino/spa/resort in Choctaw, Mississippi, and not my dad’s hometown or mine either. But I still felt a little stab, a thrill of recognition and an affinity for that name. Even before I picked up my hook, I understood that the Pearl River Wrap had to be really special and beautiful.

Our choice of Spa in the creamy shade Naturally has an inner glow that reminds me of pearls.  So I was inspired to integrate broomstick lace with regular crochet to create a lovely, textured fabric I call “Broomstick and Pearls”. The pearls are little bobbly bumps that are such fun to make and pop to the front of the fabric. The wrap gets its stay-put shape from a line of increases at the center back and may be styled in stunning ways.  I hope you enjoy the Pearl River Lace Wrap,  pattern now available as a free download at NaturallyCaron.com.

And ponder this.  Suppose we took two yarns, held them together and wound them into one ball, then took that ball and threw it around the room, let the dog or cat bat it across the floor, let the kids play Monkey in the Middle with it.  That’s what a relationship is like.  🙂

The Passing of A Crochet Legend

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It is with terrible sadness that I am speaking now.  Earlier today marked the passing of  a wonderful friend, Jean Leinhauser.

It will not be her status as legendary crafting-crochet-publishing-icon-empress that I’ll be thinking about today.  Neither will I dwell on the awesome empty place she leaves in the crochet firmament.  Nor should I speak with regret on behalf of the Crochet Guild of America that Jean will not be at the CGOA Chain Link Conference next month to be inducted into the Crochet Hall of Fame.  Why did we wait so long to extend her that honor?  Hey, never mind that last bit.  I said no regrets, didn’t I?

Rather, I will be bravely grinning broadly.  Perverse, you might judge me.  But if you knew Jean you’d totally understand.

I met Empress Jean in 2004, at my first CGOA Chain Link conference, held that summer in Manchester, New Hampshire.  Jean and her publishing business partner Rita Weiss (the Other Legend!) were scouting crochet design talent for their latest publishing venture, Crochet Partners.  My crochet career had just begun the year before with not much to show.  This would be my first time meeting editors and publishers and hawking my wares.  I had arranged an appointment with Jean and Rita and brought along a sack full of my crochet pieces, hopeful of finding a slot in one of their future books.  Yes, I was pretty cocky.

I  was mightily afraid of both of these women, as their reputations were so huge.  I arrived at the appointed time and waited in the conference hotel lobby for a good while, expecting to be met and shepherded into a meeting room or something.  Anxious and horrified that maybe I had messed up the schedule and missed my slot, I started pacing around and around.

It was Jean I spotted first, seated in one of the high-backed upholstered chairs in the lounge area adjacent to the lobby, backlit by the hotel’s entrance windows, holding court.  Yes, it was as though the entire room was at her feet, paying court.  I think I scurried over, introduced myself as the two o’clock appointment and sat down.  I also think I burbled a lot.

Jean was actually immediately warm and welcoming, but that’s not how it seemed to me in the moment in my petrified state.  She had a way of peering at you over the tops of her glasses with a stern, piercing stare.  Even though her face was smiling and kind, her eyes were always keen and observant, ever watching you, know what I’m saying?

Of the two, Rita presented the bigger personality, the glibber tongue, the louder voice.  Jean appeared to be the more reserved, but in retrospect that’s only because everybody seems reserved next to Rita. I answered a few questions from the ladies, then pulled my stuff out of the bag for them to examine. Eventually I reached the bottom of the bag, where I had these Hat Heads.

Without hesitation, Jean snatched up the lot and pulled them onto her own head.  At the time I thought that the whole world had busted out laughing at the absurdity.  Maybe it was only me and Jean laughing out loud.  From that point on, I knew I had found a kindred crochet spirit.

Jean and I would cross paths many times from that day.  Here we are at the 2006 CGOA Chain Link conference, with Jean at the center.

Clockwise from me at 9 o’clock, that’s Tammy Hildebrand (before her hair was orange), Jean Leinhauser, Vashti Braha (before contacts), Rita Weiss with her head turned away, and Marty Miller (most recent past President of the CGOA Board of Directors).  That was some power lunch!  As  you can see, I am not actually having lunch with them.  I sort of wandered over with my coffee and was allowed to sit down.  I can’t for the life of me recall who took this shot.

From 2008 through 2010 I called Jean my “Center Square” of the Crochet Design Competition.  Her steady guidance, discerning eye and impeccable taste made her the perfect anchor on the judging panel for three years.  Funny, she must have known she wouldn’t be available to fill the center square for the 2011 Competition this September because she asked me to find another judge. Lord I will miss her.

But I am smiling right now about one of the last moments I shared with her.  At the close of the 2010 Chain Link event, the last thing she said to me, peering down at my mismatched high-top Chucks and chuckling, was “You are so adorable!”.

You go, GoCrochet!

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“Are you sure you want to do this?” I whispered, not certain myself how far this obsession would lead.   I scrambled for something clever to say but nothing else could possibly enter my head, swirling and pounding as it was with desperate desire.

 She coyly lowered her eyes and as she carefully weighed her response the flush that rose to her cheeks was a deep petal pink. I had no right to expect a positive outcome.  Had she not just witnessed the crashing and burning as I approached each of her dinner companions in turn and got shot down?  She was my last chance.  I knew it.  She knew it.  For a second I feared she would decline my offer and leave me to slink away into the night.

 Wait, was that a smile?

 The little crinkling at the sides of her mouth deepened into a delicious grin. When at last she lifted her eyes to meet mine, an unmistakable “yes” shone there, reflecting the same hunger and anticipation that no doubt colored my own gaze. With a simple nod she signaled her complete surrender.

 Mo better go easy, I warned myself.  At least try to act cool. Stop fidgeting with that wine glass.  Stop checking that door every two seconds.  Leaning back from the café table as nonchalantly as I could manage, I forced myself into the stillness of a savannah predator stalking a gazelle.  Before I could draw another shivery breath the moment had arrived. 

 Hokey Smokes!  Neither one of us had been fully prepared for the enormity of the commitment that lay before us. We hesitated out of respect for each other and for the bond our shared experience would soon forge.

 Oh, the heck with propriety.  Ellen and I grabbed our forks and greedily divvied up the best piece of chocolate cake I’d had since I landed in Columbus.  She even left me most of the whipped cream AND I didn’t have to fight her for the cherry on top!

And that is pretty much how I got to know the inner Ellen Gormley.  Hey, that cake was ginormous and I couldn’t talk anyone else into splitting some with me. The friend who shares dessert when nobody else dares, she’s a keeper!

That dinner was a few summers ago during Ellen’s first trip to The National NeedleArts (TNNA) industry show in Columbus, Ohio.  Her generosity of spirit extends well beyond chocolate cake, as you might guess. This past year she has taken time from her own busy career and hectic family life to help me with DJC, Too!, my design line for girls, tweens and teens.  She and her daughter are the wonderful photographer/model team whose lovely smiles grace the pages of every DJC2 pattern.

Foremost Ellen is an accomplished, award winning crochet designer with by now a hundred published designs, a prolific and popular blogger and an active professional member of CGOA.  Her brand GoCrochet is a sign of thoughtful, functional and fun design.   I am so happy to be today’s stop on the blog tour celebrating her first book.  About time, girl!

Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workshop: 50 Motifs, 10 Projects, 1 of a Kind Results, (see it at the Amazon.com page or buy a signed copy through Ellen’s blog) is a feast for the eyes and food for your afghan-crocheting soul. Ellen’s inventive motifs, glorious colorwork and thoughtful presentation illustrate, page after page, her command of the genre. Loaded with stitch diagrams, assembly diagrams, full-color detailed images of every motif, full images of every afghan, all connected by Ellen’s playful prose, this is a wonderful resource for beginners and experienced crocheters alike.

I love how each set of instructions begins with a mini-story that reveals as much about the author as it does the motif or project. I admit I do not posses much afghan soul. But Go Crochet Afghan Design Workbook could help me grow one!

The motif that knocks me out is Last Blueberry.  It’s just so juicy, I guess.  Makes my teeth itch.

Mated here with the Oscar Square (yes, as in The Grouch) in the afghan Blueberry Pancakes, the effect is effervescently cheerful.  Her words give me the impression we have yet another obsession in common and that I might not get so lucky if I were to ask Ellen to share her blueberry pancakes with me.

When you have your copy, go directly to page 35 (that is if you can stop yourself from being sidetracked by all those other eye-popping motifs) and read the introduction to Cherry Cordial.  It goes a long way toward explaining how it happened that Ellen so willingly gave up the cherry on top of our chocolate cake that night, although knowing this does not make me love her any less!

Foundation and Crochet: Let’s try this again.

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And still there is confusion.   In the July 2011 issue of Crochet! magazine, my design Leaves of Summer vest is linked to a tutorial for the Foundation Single Crochet… which would have been awesome if the technique so clearly illustrated was actually the way I prefer to do it.

Please look at these two foundations.  On top is the Fsc version that is described in the Crochet! magazine tutorial.  On the bottom is the Fsc version I have recently posted about here.  This is the view from the RS (the side you’re looking at while you crochet it).

This is the view from the WS (the back side of the single crochet).

The difference is all about the chain part of the foundation.  Each single crochet stitch has a chain at its base.  In the Crochet! version the chain has one strand running across the foundation row.  In my preferred version the chain has two strands.

It may seem a small thing, rather trivial to you now, but trust me, it makes a world of difference in how the foundation behaves when you continue to work more crochet on both the sc and chain edges.

My friend (and boss) Vashti Braha has just done a gang of research about this foundation and posted her own photo tutorial on the DesigningVashti Crochet Companion blog, which goes a long way toward getting this confusion sorted out.

Leaves of Summer is a pretty little vest that is made from the neck down seamlessly.  The instructions begin with a strip of Fsc that forms the back neck; work begins across the single crochet edge of the foundation.  The chain edge of the foundation will be finished later with a simple row of sc edging.  Fortunately, which Fsc variant you use this time is not totally critical, however if your Fsc isn’t like mine please understand that you may not achieve the result as intended.

Crochet Obsession: Trellis

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This happens to me often.  Certain crochet stitch patterns keep pinging around in my brain and I can’t let them go until I’ve pushed them into the Cth dimension. By no means the only stitch currently in my head, but certainly the one that pinged the most insistently this season is Trellis.

Adapted from a vintage thread crochet table runner, Trellis resembles filet crochet technique where the rows form a grid.  The stitches make either filled or empty blocks and, when viewed as a whole, the alternating blocks create a positive/negative design, pattern or picture.

Trellis starts out as though it’s going to be just a little variation on filet.  But once you’ve grown a good length of fabric, magic happens.

Blocked and draped on the body, the rows shift and stretch, tilting the neat vertical/horizontal alignment to the bias.  What you get is a pattern of holes that have distinctly diagonal movement. I love when that happens.

I thought when I turned Trellis into a lovely fine-gauge stole for the e-magazine Knitcircus, Spring 2011 issue, that I was done with Trellis. But Trellis wasn’t done with me.  It took a week of intensive yarn/weight/gauge/shape swapping before it finally squirmed out of my head as two new versions, the Trellis Multi Scarf in a long color repeat full worsted weight yarn;

and the Trellis Cowl Wrap, in a tonal DK weight yarn.

So what was I supposed to do with the Spawn of Trellis?  I could just add them to my crochet wardrobe.  I love the colors.  Or I could put them aside for gifting (if the day comes when I can part with them!). Or I could share the Trellis obsession with  you.

I went with the latter. Now available exclusively at DesigningVashti.com, the new DJC: Trellis booklet includes the original Trellis Stole plus the Scarf and Cowl Wrap, packaged with full written instructions, stitch diagram, and tips for making any of the three in practically any yarn you like.  Finally the pinging has stopped.