A True Tale of a Crochet Designer: The Book That Almost Was...

Today I have a little story to tell about what could have been my second book! Shortly after finishing Crocheting Clothes Kids Love, I got an email that was the kind of email I dream of getting! It was from an editor who asked me to be the curator of the first in a new series of Crochet Books they were hoping to produce. It was to be 30 quick projects with a heart theme. I would get to choose the designers and designs, and contribute my own designs as well, and get to decide what exactly would be included in the book. I was really excited about the idea, as I love scouting for talent, and since I used to be an art department director, I felt this was a great fit for me! I put together a list of designers, and the editor contacted them to ask who would be interested in submitting. I was thrilled that the majority of the designers that we asked said yes, so we moved onto the next stage, which was to create a small portion of the book, and the book cover, so it could be presented at international book fairs to see if any publishers were interested in the book. There was some interest, but unfortunately no one agreed to publish the book, so the project was scrapped.

The company I was working with gave me permission to share some of the photos of the book mock-up, here on my blog. Seeing the cover was such fun for me, and I love the necklace I designed for the book, so I am happy that I can at least share the photos with you! The free heart ring pattern I released before Valentines Day, was one of the designs I had worked up for the book. That pattern wasn't in the mock-up, so I was able to publish it on my own. 

As one door closes another door of opportunity opens. Hopefully the next time I share a book cover with you, it will be a true reality!

Making the Prim Wristers from Crocheting Clothes Kids Love

Since our book, Crocheting Clothes Kids Love came out, my daughter has been asking me to make her the Prim Wristers, designed by my co-author, Ellen Gormley. I was between projects last week, so I decided to surprised her with a pair! I had just enough Classic Elite Liberty Print Wool leftover from the Caravan Scarf to make them. I had to engineer the yarn a bit by cutting out a few gold and pink sections as I worked, to make the writers both be essentially purple. I was able to crochet the first one while waiting at school, and the other in the evening of the same day. The second wrister went much faster of course, since I was more familiar with the pattern. So satisfying to crochet!  They took less than a skein of yarn, and I was able to finish them in the spare time I had in the day!

My daughter has hardly taken them off, since I gave them to her! The stitch pattern is very interesting and is a good exercise in making post stitches. I also like how it looks on the back side, especially in variegated yarn. I think they could easily be reversible for a different look. If I can get her to take them off long enough, I will add a photo to this post of the back side of the stitch pattern.

I am planning to make her a sparkly gold pair, the next time I am between projects!

Talking About the Festival Hairband Stand

I took a lot of inspiration from my now 8 year old daughter, when I was designing projects for Crocheting Clothes Kids Love.  I designed this hairband stand because my daughter has a wonderful collection of hairbands, and tossing them in a drawer often damages them. I thought, why not display them in a beautiful way? They can become part of a girls room decor, and be accessible.

The main component you need for the stand is an oatmeal container. I use a lot of oats in my house because I grind oats in my food processor to make flour. My daughter loves it when I make carrot cake, and it is more nutritious with the addition of oat flour. Here is the recipe, in case you are interested. It gets my daughter (and many of her friends at school) to eat carrots, walnuts, and oats. Which makes me love the recipe even more. For the school version, I leave off the frosting because  want it to be a part of a healthy lunch. After you have made delicious things with the oats, you can upcycle the container into the Festival Hairband Stand! 

For the book's photoshoot, I put together a selection of hairbands that I embellished.  I wanted bands that would add interest to the stand without competing with it. I thought it might be interesting to tell you about the bands that were featured on it.

This band was a plain straw band. I had some pretty white lace in my stash. I dyed it with camomile tea, then stitched it to the band with invisible nylon thread.

I covered this band with paper and then decoupaged it with paper pieces I cut from a Spode china catalog, so it would look like a mosaic.

 For this band, I used one of the yarns that I used in the hairband stand and wrapped it around the band, then glued the ends to keep the wraps in place.

 I also wrapped this band with the yarn from the hairband stand, then wrapped it again in two directions to get the x's on top.

This was some handmade lace I bought at a street market in London several years ago. I was saving it for just the right project! I covered a satin band that I had made when I was working as an embroidery designer. You can see some of the embroidery peeking through the lace.

In addition to the oatmeal container, you will need lightweight quilt batting and 1 whole skein of Berroco Weekend "Swimming Hole" 205 yd [189 m], 50 (46m) yds of "Clothesline", and 72 yds (66m) of "Curry".

I was going to buy bands for the photoshoot, but embellishing the ones I already had, made them unique and upcycled as is the underlying theme of the project. 

Book Review and Interview in Kuwait Moms Guide!

Now that Crocheting Clothes Kids Love is available in Kuwait, Jamie Etheridge of Kuwait Moms Guide, recently did a review of the book as well as an interview with me. Kuwait Moms Guide Newsletter is an invaluable resource for Moms in Kuwait, and it also has useful general information for Moms anywhere. Jamie is a fantastic mom, and she really puts her heart into everything she does. I am so thrilled that she featured the book in her newsletter! You can read the both the review and interview on her website.

Book Review: The Fine Art of Crochet

I was honored when the wonderful Gwen Blakely Kinsler asked me to review her stunning new book: The Fine Art of Crochet. Being the founder of the Crochet Guild of America, and crochet advocate, Gwen is the perfect person to write this book. This book is a new way of looking at the art of crochet, and how it has been elevated to a new level in modern times. 

One of things I loved about the book, is that Gwen actually traveled the country to personally interview the artists in the book. By being in their studios, she got a true sense of the type of creators they are.

Crochet has grown, evolved, and developed over the past 50 years, and has been used in many ways. It is attractive to artists because it can be 3 dimensional as well as molded into a desired shape. Crochet allows you to create as you go, and it is easy to manipulate. It is really amazing that one can create such elaborate forms with such a simple tool- the crochet hook.

This book gives you an interesting overview of the history and journey of crochet, as well as a detailed profile about each of the 20 artists. Their detailed profiles explain why they like to use crochet as a medium, their experience with crochet, and how they work. Following each profile, you will find photos of their incredible, inspiring work. Below are photos of some of my favorite pieces from the book:

"Oil Flowers" By Jerry Bleem

"I Crochet Portland" By Jo Hamilton

"Spiritual Love" By Tracy Krumm

"The Network" By Kathleen Holmes

You will find that The Fine Art of Crochet is an eye-opener. It sheds new light on the art of crochet and shows us that there are infinite ways to use crochet. Each one of the artist's stories are fascinating, and after reading the book, you will think more about your own reasons for loving crochet, and it will inspire you to approach your crochet from a new perspective.

Talking About Crocheting Clothes Kids Love

I recently heard from our editor that our book, Crocheting Clothes Kids Love, has gone to print. It is getting exciting as we approach the book release in February, and I am really looking forward to the day I get to hold the book in my hands!

Now, the fun part! Little by little, we get to start talking about the projects in the book. I want to introduce two of the pieces that are on the cover: the Caravan Scarf and Hopscotch Legwarmers. 

In the planning stage of the book, Ellen Gormley and I came up with ideas and sketched them for the editor to review. Ellen was great to work with, and we agreed quite quickly as to what each of us would make. It still amazes me that with the editor in Minnesota, Ellen in Ohio, and me in Kuwait, we were able to coordinate everything easily without even a phone call. The internet really does make the world a much smaller place, and makes my crochet career possible!

Normally I like to finish a piece before submitting it to a magazine or yarn company. This is because many times my designs develop into something very different than my original sketch. My sketch is usually my jumping off point. For the book, the designs needed to be approved by the editor before we could move forward. There was no time for advanced swatching! I was wondering if I would stick exactly to what I had sketched or deviate like I often do. This scarf and legwarmers came out just as I sketched, so I thought they would be great designs to share with you first! Some of the other pieces in the book went in a little different direction, but most of the changes were to the embellishments. Surprisingly amazing things happen when you get to experiment with the actual project yarn!

I had been dreaming about a scarf like this for a very long time. My favorite part was attaching the crochet "coins". I added my signature lazy daisy embroidery embroidery to the corner coins to make it even more my style. I can't wait until I am able to show you some detailed photos so you can see the scarf flat.

I love the ribbed look in crochet, so that was my starting point for the Hopscotch Legwarmers. I spent some time creating just the right shape, so they would fold over nicely. My favorite thing about these legwarmers has to be the multicolored pom poms. They are such fun to make, and they give the legwarmers a unique and special look. 

I will be able to talk in more detail as soon I have some official photos. I hope you will come back to read more blog posts about the book, as the excitement builds for its release!

My Book is Now Available for Pre-order!

Recently I revealed "Crocheting Clothes Kids Love", the book I co-authored with designer Ellen Gormley. It has been on Amazon for a while, but the cover and description have just been updated and are now accurate. We are counting down to February, when the book will be available to ship! Soon we will begin blogging some details about the book. I am in the process of making a few samples to show variations of things you can make from my patterns in the book. The book was originally to have 25 patterns in it, and it ended up being 28. I am hoping I can make the book even more useful by showing you more ways to use the patterns! For more details, check the book out on Amazon.