Crochet Necklace Kit Giveaway!

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary, eWoodStory, our line of crochet kits and wooden items to stitch, has teamed up with Tamara Kelly of the fabulous Moogly blog. She just announced today, that one of our Nouveau Necklace Kits will be given away to one of her lucky readers! Our kits include full written instructions, in addition to a stitch diagram, microfiber yarn, yarn needle, and two beautiful exotic wood pieces. Since we have several wood and yarn combinations available, the winner will get to choose their favorite necklace kit from our Etsy shop! 

Visit the Moogly blog to enter to win!

She will be accepting entries until August 18th from anyone who can receive mail in the USA or Canada. Best of luck if you decide to enter!!!

Learning at the Knit and Crochet Show!

In my last post I told you about some of the fun I had at the Knit and Crochet Show in San Diego, and in this post I am going to tell you about the rest of the fun!

One of the best parts of the conference is the opportunity to take classes from wonderful designers. It is amazing to be able to learn from others who have developed their own techniques.

I find all too often, that I buy a lot of books about different techniques, but it is hard to find the time to actually sit down with the book to learn them. When you are in a class you have the time set aside, and the designer there to check your work. Such a valuable experience!

I took three classes while I was there: Reversible Intarsia Crochet & Edgeless and Reversible Cables with Laurinda Reddig, and Crochet Unspun with Karen Whooley.

Reversible Intarsia was a full day class, and so interesting! We learned ways to change colors to help create different shapes. If you can graph it, it can be crocheted with Laurinda's technique. One thing I love about Laurinda's classes, is that she writes a pattern to follow to learn the techniques, which is something you can use. This is a great incentive to encourage you to finish your samples, even if you don't have time in class.

First sample in use!

Laurinda has written a book about the technique, which is a great way to learn about it if you aren't able to take a class from her in person. It also serves as a great reference for using the technique if you have taken her class.

The Edgeless and Reversible Cables class was especially exciting, because I love the look of stand alone cables and cabled edging. Each sample was a little more complex and challenging. It is amazing to watch the gorgeous cable patterns emerge from a sea of twisted stitches, and such a bonus that her technique produces cables that are completely reversible!

Class samples 1, 2, & 3

Laurinda is so ingenious, and it was fascinating to get a glimpse on how her brain works by taking her classes! Her multi-talented father accompanied her on the trip to the conference, and in addition to being a knitter and a crocheter, is also a harpist! He treated us to a mini concert while we finished up our Reversible Intarsia Samples. Such a Treat!

Laurinda's dad, playing for us!

In the Crochet Unspun class, Karen showed us how to make our own yarn from a silk hankie, and how to take silk cocoons and make our own silk hankies. We also made yarn from wool roving without the use of a spinning wheel. It was fascinating to learn, and something I can teach my 9 year old daughter too! I have often attended fiber festivals and admired the beautiful silk hankies and roving, but I haven't gotten too into spinning yet, so I haven't had the excuse to buy anything- until now! I bought some extra cocoons from Karen so my daughter and I can have fun making and dyeing our own silk hankies! So fun!

The 2016 Knit and Crochet Show will be in Charleston, South Carolina. Watch their website for more details!

A Great Time Was Had By All at The Knit and Crochet Show 2015!

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Knit and Crochet show again this year! My second conference was even better than the first! I made a point to try to find as many friends that I have previously only known online, and walk up and introduce myself. It is like a treasure hunt looking for people, and then getting to have a wonderful conversation in person with people you have chatted with online for years! The icing on the cake was getting to meet many new people who became friends as well. A love of crochet brings us all together!

I spent 4 days getting to talk about crochet, and learn some interesting new techniques. I will talk about those in a future post. 

There were several highlights, and one was getting reunited with Ellen Gormley for our book signing.

Another big highlight was selling our eWoodStory line of crochet kits and wooden items to stitch in the Crochetville/ Red Heart Yarns booth. We had a great response to our products,which is so rewarding, and will encourage us to expand our range!

The Design Competition was also a big highlight. Below see the amazing Grand Prize winning crocheted sonogram, by the very talented Kayt Ross! See all of the winning entries on Susan Lowman's blog

Next year's show will be in Charleston, South Carolina, July 13-17! Keep checking the Knit and Crochet Show website for more details, closer to the date!

My Interview in the "Talking Crochet" Newsletter!

I have always loved reading the Talking Crochet Newsletter, and it is such a thrill to be featured in the current issue that debuted yesterday on the Crochet World website. I was interviewed by Brenda Bourg about being an international designer, and about my designing life in Kuwait. There is also a photo of my favorite local yarn shop in Kuwait: Needles and Yarn.

If you are interested, pop over to their website to read the full interview!

Getting More Out of Your Crochet and Knitting!

Recently we bought a new laser printer, and I have rediscovered the fun of taking photos of my work and printing them out. I have used the printouts for wrapping paper and cards, and now I am using them to help me package new stitchable pendants for eWoodStory. There are so many possibilities for this! I also see some decoupage projects in my future...

Below are the projects I took photos of. I enlarged sections of them,  and then copied the sections to fill an entire page. 

(Printouts cut out and glued on wood for pendant packaging)

Blocking Magic: A Granny Square Can Become a Granny Rectangle!

I could never say enough about how magical the blocking process is! You can change the shape of a piece, simply by getting it wet and pinning it into the shape you want it to be- as long as the shape is similar to what you have crocheted. When the thread or yarn gets wet, it allows you to stretch it into shape, and establish a new memory to the fibers. 

I was making a new Mini Masterpiece sample for eWoodStory, and thought I should document my steps to show you how I make granny squares fit into the rectangular frames.

1. I marked the holes of the frame with a pencil, onto a plain sheet of paper.

2. I crocheted a miniature granny square, using pearl cotton size 8, and a size 1.75mm hook. I crocheted enough rounds, so that the square was slightly wider than the width of the frame. That way it can stretch all the way from the top to the bottom and be the correct width.

3.  Spray the granny square with water, and using an ironing board or blocking board as a base, pin out into shape on the paper pattern that has been topped with plastic to keep it dry.

4.  Allow to dry completely before removing the pins. 

5. Now the granny square turned rectangle can be easily stitched into the frame!

Dreaming of A New Crochet Necklace Kit...

I have been in the studio working up a sample for a possible new necklace kit. The Nouveau Necklace has been very popular, so I would love to add another necklace kit to the eWoodStory line.

In its design phase, I am calling this the Ribbon Necklace, because the ends of the necklace that are framed in exotic wood resemble the way I like to cut the ends of ribbon when I tie bows. The elements of this necklace are simple to crochet, and it is very comfortable to wear.

As a little market research, I would love to have some feedback from all of you before I proceed with making it available as a kit. What do you all think, would you like to see this as our next kit? Any constructive comments would be much appreciated! If I go ahead with making it into a kit, it will be available in a variety of different wood and yarn color combinations!