Tag: class

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Conference Prep Crazy Zone

Sorting class materials into a box per class topic (total of 5) on a big white sheet.

Conference Prep Frenzy: A Two-Week Zone

For Future Vashti‘s reference: I shifted into conference prep frenzy at a specific time three days ago: end of the night on Monday, June 27th. It’s like stepping into the cockpit of an airliner, flicking on all switches and activating ‘all systems go’. (Like in the movies, anyway.) It’s obvious when it starts.

The next morning I did my teacher’s conference prep ritual: put on a pot of coffee, spread a big white sheet on the floor (because it helps me focus), lined up a row of empty boxes, and labeled each with a class topic.

Completing the Teacher’s Conference Prep

I rounded up everything to bring: first the completed designs, then the handouts, yarn and other materials for students to use, optional materials like printed patterns, key newsletter issues, visual aids like class swatches etc., topic-related teaching aids like a “blocking demo kit” for the Weightless class, and a “beading demo kit” for the love knots class.

Doesn’t it seem like with a pot of fresh coffee, one could just whip through this? The reality is that it does start this way, but my completed designs are spread all over the house and I forget about some. Not only that, each of the five class topics is distinctly different. It takes focus to keep all five in my mind at once.

It’s as if the white sheet cordons off an area of the house (and my brain) for 24-36 hours. That’s what makes it a ritual, really. I get through the first layer so that I can see the next layer.

After that time I can condense it all into 1 or 2 shipping boxes. That’s the quick and easy part.

More Show Booth Conference Prep

Here’s what else got done since I blogged 2 days ago:

  • Wound new Lotus colors in a few 100 gram balls—so that I could label and take photos of them—so that I can add them to the website. (This automatically means I committed to color names for them, too: Carbonite, Lavender Ice, Orange Luxe, and Emerald Deep.)
  • We build our booth with grid panels. Found out how hundreds of them will get to the show floor! Thanks to Linda Dean whom I can’t wait to finally see again.
  • Placed final order for crochet hooks I’ll need for the booth and classes.
  • Finalized arrangements and logistics for how everything and everybody gets there and gets back!
  • Formatted several crochet patterns for kits, classes, etc (printed):
    • a fun new one-ball pattern for Lotus that Doris designed for the booth (a printed crochet pattern). More on that later.
    • My Mesmer patterns (scarf, stole, sized vest variations on a steeky theme and with double-ended hook option) as one printed pattern set for the class, and extras for booth.
    • Did the same with my Starwirbel pattern.
    • Still have 3 more patterns to do if I can.
  • Back-&-forths with tech editor on edits of class handouts and patterns formatted for printing and kits.
  • Delegated my distress to my husband over both of our home office printers breaking within weeks of each other! He’s got that now.

?I know from last year that there will come a point when I won’t be able to focus on pattern formatting or class handouts, so I’ve done as many as possible these past few weeks.

Woke up the next morning to emails from others who were now also ‘all systems go’ with their conference prep too. And now today is Thursday June 30: twelve days from lift off. I predict these blog updates will get posted more erratically but I’ll keep trying. It forces me to find a peaceful moment to collect my thoughts.

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Steek Crochet With Pattern Schematics in Any Language

Pattern schematics inspire me to steek crochet.

I wish every crochet garment pattern offered a schematic. It outlines the sections of a garment, like puzzle pieces. Schematics cut through illusions cast by fashion photography and lovely models. A single pattern schematic can distill a fancy design to its simplest essence. I created two Pinterest boards of things that inspire me to steek crochet: Steeks: Ideas and Wearable Simple Shapes.

Schematics also cut through language barriers. I can understand a non-English pattern if it includes a good schematic or two.

I created a few sample schematics for the Tunisian steek crochet class handout and realized how much I get out of them. This would be the next newsletter issue if I had time to do one! (Too much conference prep.)

Simple garment squares and rectangles. From my Tunisian class handout. Add a steek where you see a pink bar.
Steek where the pink bar is in these pattern schematics for simple-shapes garments.
Update! I wrote newsletter #80, Pattern Schematics for Insiders & Outsiders, three months after I wrote this blog post. Note that shop links in its right-hand column are outdated as of Sept. 2017.

A schematic is sensational to me when a garment that looks chic on a model, yet its schematic reveals that it’s made of simple shapes like rectangles. It’s exciting because every crocheter or knitter first learns how to make rectangles, right?

Sometimes all you need is a rectangle that drapes, or is clingy/stretchy (or all of these). Sometimes weightlessness brings it home, other times it’s a luxuriously weighty swing. The schematic tells you what’s what when you know what to look for.

Sometimes the key to chic is a well-placed seam on a simple shape. Sometimes it’s a special edging. And sometimes it’s the where and how of the steek. Steek crochet for the easy chic of it.

I love this conference prep blogging because it makes me aware of things that I’ve done for years, like collect pattern schematics.

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Project Tests for New Crochet Classes

Love knot hexagonal mesh is beaded in such a way that a cluster of them looks like a sea urchin.
View project page for this “Bead Urchins Cuff” in Ravelry.

I’m still testing new crochet designs…

…for the five classes I teach next month! This started months ago. It never stops, actually.

I have other new crochet ideas in progress for this year’s classes too. For Tunisian Eyelet Meshes I have a draping collapsible “Leanin’ Loopholes” wrap to finally start when the new Lotus colors arrive. Another project in motion for the Stitch Games class is an argyle (only a few rows done, no photos yet).

When CGOA puts out a call for class topic proposals in the fall, I send more than enough: all the topics that I’ve enjoyed teaching in the past, plus interesting variations on them, plus new ones. Designing new crochet examples starts the moment I find out which ones I’ll be teaching. (Not on purpose, it just happens.)

Meanwhile

Meanwhile I stand ready (with camera) to receive a giant new lot of Lotus yarn. Can’t wait to get my hands on the new colors. Doris has her designing cones already so I know UPS will be here any day. Once the yarn arrives–on giant cones–I get some of it turned into Z-Bombes (1-pounders). A lot of it will be “pull cakes” ASAP.

I also stand ready to design with it. I’ll need some new crochet for the road trip up to the conference, right? Doris got started immediately with a new design in emerald green. This reminds me that I also need to lock in the new color names for the ball bands and snip cards.

I’m on Day 35 of my 50 blogging days of crochet conference prep and I’m feeling behind! I still need to get some crochet patterns reformatted into print versions (for some of my classes and for kits in the market booth).

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Tunisian Crochet Books for Research

At first glance, the materials I use when researching Tunisian crochet (a.k.a. afghan crochet, & including double-ended types) seem the same as for other crochet topics. Besides Tunisian crochet books and online sources that I find by Googling and searching Ravelry, I use sections of other books, notable designs, and antique sources. (Click on on of the thumbnail photos to enlarge.)

Tunisian Crochet Books are Keepers!

Over the years I’ve noticed distinctive differences in the information I can depend on for Tunisian crochet research, compared to other kinds of crochet. The most intensive research I do is for classes, but I also need to for some newsletter topics and when I’m writing a pattern for an unusual design.

100% Tunisian crochet books are special and really pretty rare. Many of them are slim, booklet-like volumes. They tend to be hard to find and to get. Some go out of print quickly, are self-published, or are only in Japanese, for example. I treasure each one. That first book stack you see is my go-to stack.

I’ve found a lot of useful information buried in general books about crochet.”TC” (Tunisian crochet) has long been presented in crochet books as a specialization. This means the TC topic sometimes gets its own thick chapter, and that’s a beautiful thing. Other times, the chapter or section is lean, but can make an important contribution somehow. It may have fresh and original material, or offer well designed instructions, stitch symbols, and other valuable publishing standards.

From my TC perspective, it makes a big, big difference when the book’s production staff, especially the technical editors and illustrators, also understand TC (not just regular crochet). It also matters what is used as a standard, because basic Tunisian crochet publishing standards are still being forged.

The book stack in the second photo shows general crochet books I own that contain TC sections I refer to often. Missing from the photo is A Treasury of Crochet Patterns by Liz Blackwell.

I’ve been thinking about this post topic ever since I did one about the very different kind of book stack I devoured for the Stitch Games class topic. (That stack was mostly written about yarn by and for knitters.) I’m also considering a post about what it has been like to unearth and use every resource I could for classes on love knots (Solomon’s knots) and star stitches over the years.

 

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Reinforced Steeked Crochet Hole

Reinforcing a Steeked Crochet Hole

There’s more than one way to reinforce a cut made into crochet stitches because there’s more than one kind of steek, and use for that steek. Here are just two kinds of projects made in the same stitch pattern.

Example #1: Keyhole

I added a keyhole to a pink Mesmer scarf. The two yarns in this first stitch close up are a lace weight mohair and a worsted weight sequined silk.

A close up that shows how the yarn end is imperceptibly sewn around the edge stitch of the opening.
I used the cut yarn end to reinforce the opening.

Both of the projects are part of the Mesmer Tunisian Veils pattern. If you steek crochet stitches the easy way—within one row—you have at minimum two yarn ends to fasten securely and then weave in. Some Tunisian stitches will cause you to have more (see newsletter #79 about that).

The more stitches you unravel, the larger the hole and the longer the yarn ends will be. I only unraveled 3 of the pink stitches and that left me with yarn ends that were just long enough to work with comfortably.

If the steeked crochet hole won’t be getting a lot of direct wear and tear, use those yarn ends to reinforce just the stitch at each end of the slit. See where I’ve woven the fine mohair yarn in and around the stitch? It will get light wear.

Example #2: Armhole

The finished armhole edge, reinforced with crochet.
Crochet-reinforced steek for an armhole. 

You’re looking at an edged armhole of a brown Mesmer Vest that was designed for Interweave Crochet Magazine.

An armhole needs more reinforcement because of the constant pressure it supports in a garment. I switched to a double-ended circular crochet hook to crochet a few rounds of the same Tunisian stitch. It has a nice cap sleeve look when it’s worn. In the future I’d love to try longer sleeves this way.

This post is part of my blogging goal of 50 posts for these 50 days of epic crochet conference prep. I’ve missed a day here and there lately because my dear friend from college is here for the week! We’re about to leave for the day to see the mermaids of Weeki Watchee. It’s a spring fed lake and water park.