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Happy [inter-]National Crochet Month

This is my Crochetville NatCroMo blogging day.

Larger wrap size of DJC Curaçao Wrap in Emerald Deep Lotus yarn
New pineapple crochet lace wrap pattern for Lotus by Doris Chan in Emerald Deep Lotus yarn.

Thanks for stopping by! It’s certainly a big weekend for us crocheters.

Tomorrow is a very green holiday (St. Patrick’s Dayso check out our DesigningVashti Lotus yarn in the new Emerald Deep color. This is a rich, satisfying, inspiring green to take you from winter to spring.

Want to feel warm and cozy quickly? 

I’ve just returned from teaching “Big-Hook Slip Stitch Crochet” in icy Chicago. I urge everyone to gather up their jumbo crochet hooks and super bulky yarns! Some of my slip stitch projects take only an hour or two this way.

Expedient Cowl Took Only Two Hours to Make.

Beginner slip stitch crochet with a big hook!
Cozy Expedient Cowl: Use beginner slip stitches and a big hook. (Add a third ball and more rows for a trendy skirt!)

Warm up a big hook (size P/11.5 or 12 mm) for this toasty, speedy item. I named it “Expedient” because it took me just two hours tops to make one during LAST year’s surprise cold snap.

No super-bulkies handy? Create your own: just crochet with multiple strands held together of whatever’s in your yarn stash.

Tip: throw in at least one strand of alpaca or angora. These fibers are four times warmer than wool. Add a yarn with a halo like mohair, or a textured novelty yarn, to fill in any gaps between stitches.

Set of 5 Big Crochet Hooks: Perfect for NatCroMo

Set of 5 sizes of jumbo wood crochet hooks, and the crocheted "bucket" caddy for them showing the base that's reinforced by crocheting around a recycled plastic ring.
It’s displayed in my studio and I use it all the time now.

Be ready for the next cold snap with this set of five jumbo crochet hooks—sizes Q, R, S, T, and U—bundled with a free Big Hook Bucket pattern. (It’s already at a discount as a kit so I’m unable to discount it further for NatCroMo readers, sorry.) You can buy these crochet hooks individually here.

Armed with these hooks you’ll also be ready for when I release these new Big-Hook Slip Stitch crochet patterns (links currently go to their Ravelry project pages):

Zumie Lace Vest  I used a size S (19 mm) hook for most of it. This one-skein lace item took only 45 minutes to crochet. Yarn: the fun Hikoo Zumie by Skacel.

SS-Luscious Sampler  Size 12 mm (“P”) crochet hook and two skeins of luscious Berroco Noble.

Pink kitty-ears hat with only 95 yds and an M/9 mm hook. It’s simple back loop slip stitch in rows, then seamed on the top and side. It came out smallish on me and perfect on my friend (she kept it!). No yarn left over so I’m mulling a way to get a slightly more out of about 95 yds of yarn for this.

Slip Slab Neckwrap  It was the first prototype for the Expedient Cowl. I needed only 168 yards and a P/12 mm hook.

Also: Happy Spring Break!

Does it start this weekend for your family? My son’s starts this afternoon.

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Pineapple Lace and the CGOA Conference

Doris Chan's pineapple lace jacket and wrap design shown here in 3 sizes and Lotus colors.

Pineapples are the theme for this year’s crochet conference (2016). CGOA’s Hall of Fame Award winner happens to be a pineapple lace queen!

You know these are freshly crocheted because the colors are the new ones we just received from the mill. Even my husband is amazed. (Not shown: Lavender Ice. That’s for another day.)

If you’ll be attending the conference this month, come by our booth #203 (on the right after you enter the market). Lots of pineapple lace to see and try on!

Pictured: Three sizes of Curaçao —a wrap with jacket option—in Carbonite (dark grey), Emerald Deep, and Dark Roast colors of Lotus.

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CGOA Award Event Plans

I’ve mostly blogged lately about getting ready to teach and have a market booth at the big crochet conference next month. Here and there I’ve mentioned some special events I also plan for, such as the fashion show banquet and design contest. This year I’m making special preparations for the Hall of Fame event when my friend accepts the CGOA award. 

The CGOA Hall of Fame recipient for 2016 is my close friend Doris Chan. We met at CGOA’s 2004 conference in Manchester NH. There could be no Lotus yarn if we’d never met.

For the past few days I’ve been tracking down which of Doris’ earliest designs I have. My mom has the most important one of all, and she’s in Iowa. Back in March 2004 I used a pattern by Doris called Celebration Shawl to crochet a Mother’s Day gift.

Back then I had no idea who designed the shawl I made. I just leafed through my issue of Crochet! magazine and thought it looked like fun to make. The yarn was soft, cheerful and warm. I knew my mom would enjoy wearing it in a dreary Iowa winter.

Doris didn’t know that her design had been published somewhere. When she saw the bag I made to go with it, that really threw her off. The bag wasn’t part of her pattern. I just crocheted it on the plane from the leftover yarn.

Of course she had to ask me about it, and the rest is history. The next year I crocheted her a silver wire bracelet that is a miniature replica of her shawl pattern. (Blue bugle beads kind of look like Fun Fur yarn, right?)

Twelve years later, Doris gets the Hall of Famer CGOA award! This will be a very special conference.

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DesigningVashti Lotus Yarn: Magazine Gallery

Two new crochet top patterns by Doris Chan and two by Jennifer Ryan (an Irish knot wrap and a multicolored tote)

Our Yarn in the Magazines!

Crochet pattern magazines have been awesome for DesigningVashti Lotus Yarn. It’s like getting a surprise Valentine each time I hear that a designer or magazine editor has chosen to use it for a design.

Patterns for the designs you see above are published in the following crochet magazines, listed as shown from left to right:

  1. Interweave Crochet, Spring 2015: Sapphire Sweater. Designer: Doris Chan.
  2. Crochet! Magazine, Spring 2015: Harmony Bamboo Tank. Designer Doris Chan.
  3. Crochet! Magazine, Summer 2015: Féileacán Shawl. Designer Jennifer E. Ryan.
  4. Crochet! Magazine, Spring 2015: Fabric Fusion Tote. Designer Jennifer E. Ryan.

It’s a slow and steady roll out, and that’s good. Here’s why. Crochet designers started requesting DesigningVashti Lotus yarn to swatch with in 2014. A designer has two professional directions to go with a swatch:

1) Create a design proposal with it.

Designers submit their proposals when a magazine editor sends out a call for designs. These calls go out several months in advance of a magazine issue’s publication, especially the print magazines. For example, a call for winter designs might go out in the spring. A digital-only magazine can sometimes have faster production times than print magazines, but speed isn’t everything. There’s nothing like holding a print magazine in your hands or rolling it up in your tote and dashing out the door. I leisurely page through mine several times and save them all.

2) Self publish the design online as a downloadable pattern.

This can be in Ravelry or on one’s own site, for example. Doris Chan and I both tried to get indie (self published) patterns out quickly for our Lotus yarn this way. It’s often the fastest route, depending on the design and the designer.

DesigningVashti Lotus Patterns & Project Galleries

As a designer and also as a yarn company owner, I think a combination of digital and print magazine designs, and quick pattern downloads, is perfect support for a young yarn.

A Young Yarn Design-Wise

As I’ve journaled over at another blog, our yarn celebrated its first birthday a few months ago. I have to remind myself that it’s still a new one, considering that many of the those first months of its life happen behind the scenes. Designs for it are being swatched, submitted, written and edited, photo styled, etc.

Shortening the Lead Time

Yarn companies can sometimes shorten this lead time. The yarn company might be able to get a small advance shipment of a new yarn. Then they get it into the hands of a few designers as soon as possible. This way, the designers can be:

  • Answering calls for designs with swatches of it
  • Crocheting up complete projects for photo styling, or for industry trade show displays.

I experienced this as a designer a few times back when I worked primarily with magazines and yarn companies. It was exciting. One brand-new yarn didn’t even have a label yet!  The color was whatever the company could get a hold of quickly. Sometimes it was also a little confusing. For example, the design was accepted—great!—but the yarn took longer to ship from the mill than expected. The production deadlines had to be readjusted and squeezed in. Occasionally a design contract had to be deferred, or canceled, or a different yarn substituted at the last minute.

After these experiences, when I hear from magazine staff that they’ve chosen to include our yarn in a future issue, I immediately ship it to the lucky designer!

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On The CGOA Runway: Doris Chan’s Lotus Bolero and Lace Pants

Vashti Braha models Doris Chan’s crochet designs in Lotus yarn.

CGOA member Irene Iannelli brings her photography-savvy husband, Alex, to Chain Link conferences. Here’s one Alex snapped at the 2014 summer fashion show banquet, during the guild’s 20th anniversary crochet conference.

Doris Chan designed the lace pants and the bolero in her signature construction method of crocheting in the round from the top down. The drape and fit feel naturally comfortable and sleek. She waited to design these garments until we developed the Lotus yarn for them. They’re made for each other.

Click on the photo for more details on the patterns. Bolero pattern and our Lotus yarn are in the shop.

Even Alex and Irene’s adorable toddling daughter modeled on the runway for the first time! July 26, 2014 at the Radisson in Manchester, New Hampshire.