Tag Archives: Yarn

Not All Color Is Created Equal In My Eye

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ScannedImageSummer creates a time of adjustment in my household. Our routine is thrown upend…okay, my routine is thrown upend. With the children home from school, it seems that their lists of activities and events occur daily, and leaves me to working in smaller spurts of time, except for when the sun finally dims and I convince them to go to bed.

So it might seem odd that I sometimes find great insight in my work during this time, but today proved to be one of those days. As I drove my kids to yet another outing, I was looking at the colors upon the land scape, and my reaction to colors of yarn came into focus.range-68838__180

There are certain colors that have never held much inspiration for me, there are definitely some other colors that just sing new ideas for me, and today I understood why that is true for some.

I will admit, I am picking about green. I like what I describe as happy and cheerful greens, greens with a little touch of yellow, greens that are bright. Greens that lean more olive, greens with a blue/gray tinge, green with a reddish brown underlay have never piquet my interest. If I am completely honest with myself, they make me a little uncomfortable, and today I understood why. They remind me of colors of certain pine and live oak trees that flourish in the area I have grown up and live.

Now there is nothing wrong with these trees, however when I think of the colors, it can remind me of hot, yes I mean hot, the dry hot of California summers. They remind me of afternoons that I spent as a child helping my family gather firewood for summer, or find missing cows in the rural foothills, or simply times I spent outside to avoid my younger siblings. The colors remind me of the trees that I sought shade, which never seemed to cool. Of the prickly nature of the live oak leaves, and the tall dead grass that would stick to my sweat socked legs. Unfortunately these colors never were ones that I associated with comfort.

I hope that by finding and understanding the association I have with these greens, it might help me to find a new relationship with them. I believe that the colors we love, or dislike, have some associations that cause us to feel the way we do…so know why am I so drawn to blue?

 

Taking a Look at the “Extras” that make Crochet

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ScannedImageI usually find myself to be a very simple person. I have crocheted for more years then I care to count, and have never thought about much more then my hook and my yarn. However recently I have started to look at “accessories”.

It probably came about from a ceramics class. A group of former students/friends arranged a day out to a local studio called “Color Me Mine”. It is apparently a chain of studios that have ceramic pieces for purchase, that you can then glaze and they will fire in a kiln, resulting in a personalized project that has a professional feel. At our studio day it was arranged for us to create our own yarn bowls.DSCF0937

A yarn bowl is a newer concept to me; it is a bowl that holds yarn but has decorative edge that actually functions in reducing your yarn from tangling. So balls of yarn are contained and do not run wild in the house and the pull of the yarn is from the same place every time. I admit, in the past I managed unruly balls of yarn by placing them in a tennis shoe or hiking boot, but this bowl seems to be much more effective. Of the finished pieces I had the pleasure of seeing, they are all beautiful.

Funny how one open door to a new thought can open the door to many others. As this experience had me looking at travel holders for hooks, bags, hooks in general, even coffee cups. So when I was attempting to find a “thank you” gift for a friend, instead of looking at the usual yarn, I began thinking of other possibilities. One that I have decided to undertake and make myself, a hook/needle travel case.

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Small pouches for hooks/needles

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Wrong side of sewn fabric, 2 sets of pockets are created with folds. (hook/needle pouches sewn on the main pocket)

It has not been as difficult as I would have first thought. I found a fabric I liked in my stash, a velvet or velour type in a dark green; I cut a rectangle of 13”x 30” (33x76cm), and then began folding. I folded up 8” (20cm) from the short side, and then folded it in half back down (so that the velvet side of the fabric was facing outward, while at the same time lining the pocket). I then began to stitch creating a pocket and then slender pocket of ½” (1cm) width to hold hooks/needles. I then created a second set of pockets behind the hooks, by pulling up the recently sewn pocket about 2 ½” (6cm) and stitching the sides down. I also placed a couple of additional seams over the stitches created in the hooks sleeves to make about 3” (7.5cm) pouches.

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The crochet fabric is sewn to the velvet fabric, wrong sides together.

Now that the stitching was done, it was on to the crochet. I made a piece of crochet fabric from some rayon yarn I had, and utilized the Tunisian simple stitch to highlight the subtle color changes, in a size of a 9”x13” (23x33cm)rectangle. Matching the 13” (33cm) sides of the velvet and the crochet, with wrong sides together I stitches the seam, as well as at either end of the of the 9”(23cm) side of the crochet fabric to the velvet piece, and finally stitched the last side of the crochet fabric in place leaving the remaining velvet fabric unstitched (this is used to fold over the hooks/needles). Then sew on some ribbon ties and I think it looks good.

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Tied up and ready to go!

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Just needs to be filled!

Looking at accessories for the world of fiber, is opening up many new ideas….it seems like a whole new world!

Changes that Lead to Opportunities

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Shards Tunisian Shawl

ScannedImageI may have mentioned that my local yarn store, Lofty Lou’s recently sold to a new ownership group; a group of 26 ladies that loved the store and wanted to ensure that it did not close. This change in ownership has given me many opportunities to see the industry from different points of view. I have been teaching various individuals how to crochet as well as various aspects of yarn, all while observing the challenges that running this small store take on.

One of the interesting opportunities has been the need for the store to have crochet samples. They wanted to feature my designs, but I had no patterns in the particular yarn they had in store. Fortunate for me that they wanted a new design worked up in Mountain Color Yarn, so I was eager to undertake a new challenge; what could I create with only two skeins of Crazyfoot?

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Shards Tunisian Shawl

So after some playing the Shards Tunisian Shawl was born. It utilizes Tunisian stitches with short rows for an effect that is stunning. The varying of the stitch types in the sets of short rows allows the color way to offer a completely different appearance, almost like it is dancing. I had the unique opportunity to meet the dyers, and found that one had a connection to my little home town; her son owned a restaurant on Main Street, and made the travels from Montana to Northern California to visit her new grandbaby. So in a sense I feel this yarn has a local connection, and I always like to support local.

I have released this pattern for sale on line (Ravelry & Craftsy), while the sample adorns the store and brings attention to the beauty of the yarn. If you feel inclined check it out. I am very pleased with its results…if only the photographs truly captured the personality it has, you could fully appreciate its wow factor.

Crochet -Creating Opportunities and Communities

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ScannedImageI enjoy March. How can you not, it is a month long celebration of crochet! This is the third year that Crochetville has put this fabulous blog tour together, highlighting a least 2 different crochet designers each day (if you missed any make sure and spend some time catching up with them from the interviews at Crochetville) and Thank you Amy & Donna for once again putting this together.

halosofhopeFor me I always realize something about the world through crochet, and one of the reoccurring themes is community. This blog tour also brings attention to great service organizations, like Halos of Hope, that use crochet items to better society. Crochetville is taking up a collection for Halos of Hope, please consider contributing.

Crochetville_Designer_Blog_Tour_Promo-e1427303900438Community can be large like the Crochet Guild of America, many crocheters from around the world coming together in one organization, or small like your own local guild (mine is the Hangtown Fibers Guild, you can find one near you here), or crochet group, or coffee chat. But community can be quite unique and sometime taken for granted. So I wanted to share the store of how my Empress Wide Scarf (my free pattern as a gift to you for National Crochet Month), came into being. It is an interesting network that was connected and brought together by crochet.

IMG_6799.1My rural life has me in an area that is great for growing wine grapes, I should preface this by informing you that I have very little knowledge of wine; I know there is red & white, but much more than that and I am lost. With that said I believe the majority of the wine varieties in my area are more reminiscent of Italy then France as it is a region with a Tuscany climate, as a result there are many award winning wineries nearby. So my children go to school with, and are friends with, the children of winery owners and workers. One day I was approached by the mother of one of my daughter’s friends, she has admired my crochet work and was hoping I could create something for her daughter’s birthday. She had some rough idea that she might like a scarf or something that she could wrap around her head in a dramatic fashion like a Hepburn. She would love it to have the feel of a particular shawl I wear often (the Five Peaks Shawl by Vashti Braha), created in a fingering weight hand painted bamboo.

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Empress Wide Scarf – Free Pattern (click link below)

Now this mother knows about as much about crochet and yarn as I know about wine. I know that I cannot find a comparable yarn in the local box store; my local yarn store did not even carry such a fiber, so I began playing with various fibers to see if I could get a similar feel and drape. Then I happened to run into a fiber friend, she is an independent dyer that I have done some other crochet designs for in the past. I did not think to use her yarn at first, but after looking over the stock I found something that would fit perfectly. As it happens the dyer, Lisa Souza, loves that wine that the mother creates, Holly’s Hill Vineyards, so trades were able to be arranged so that everyone benefited. As a result I have been able to take this birthday present and share it with you.

My larger take away from this is how small the world can really be. By not hiding my work, I was able to bring others together in a completely different way, and I am reminded that I have a skill that I can share. Crochet can create a community that may not have been created otherwise, as it creates “ice breaker” opportunities; people are brought to fond memories when they see the fiber arts. (I discussed this more in the blog post Thankful Crochet…Not What You Might Expect)

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Empress Scarf- Free Pattern (click link below)

So the Empress Wide Scarf is created using Tunisian Simple Stitch, but what makes this pattern stand out is that it changes color on the Forward & Return Pass. The effects are very nice. So that the colors do not get too muted together in the Tunisian work, it is edged with standard crochet in defining bands of color.

Visit my Ravelry Store and download your pattern for FREE. If you are so inclined, please feel free to use coupon code “natcromo15” to receive a 15% discount on any order of at least two patterns until April 15, 2015.

I hope you make your own communities, as often as possible.

New Again, at Least to Me- Clone Knots

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ScannedImageSometimes we find inspiration for crochet in unusual places, sometimes it is just looking at a traditional method in a different light.

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Clone Knots

For me the Clone Knot is one of those stitches that I never really knew existed until I took a thread crochet class from Kathy Earle at a CGOA conference/Knit & Crochet Show a couple of years ago. The class on Irish Crochet really expanded my knowledge, I usually do not work with thread and tiny hooks, however I really have a new level of respect for those that do. I took some of my new found skills and applied them to my yarn crochet, and the clone knot fit into this very well.

The clone knot is essentially a multiple of loops placed on the hook and worked together creating a bump of material in the middle of a set of chains. It creates a unique textural and visual impact to open fabric work, and in Irish crochet is often worked in between motifs during the joining process.

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Bring the hook under the working yarn.

To create this stitch, begin by chaining a couple of chains, then place the hook under the working yarn, rotate the hook 360° and place in under the working yarn again. Placing the hook under the working yarn and rotating the hook causes a loop of yarn to be placed on the hook and twisted to stay in place.

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Twist hook counter-clockwise 360 degrees

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Bring hook under yarn again, and re twist clockwise 360 degrees.

After working this motion a few times or the number indicated in the pattern, yarn over and pull through all the loops. Then chain a couple of more times, now comes the part of securing the stitch. Pull the chain taught and push the loops toward the working end of the chains. You should feel or hear a small pop; this is essentially that you are sliding the loops over the adjacent chain causing it to become secure.

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Yarn over and pull through all the loops on the hook.

This unique stitch does have a slight disadvantage to what you usually expect from crochet, it is difficult to rip back, as securing it makes the stitch more difficult, as it creates what its name implies, a knot.

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Pull chain taught and push Clone Knot toward working end of the chain to secure it in place, you will feel or hear a “pop”.

I hope you give this embellishment a try, add it to an edging, an place of open work, any where you want something a little different.