The Secrets of Yarn(c) Project Guide I/II ~a little more info

  I find that people are either a little mystified by the guide or absolutely switched on by the guide. People who have done handspinning at all may be the most familiar with this kind of chart about fiber and properties. Weavers, knitters and crocheters, (and naalbinders, and other needleworkers) may look at it with a modicum of wonder.

Once again I find myself out of town and out of the office, and so busy I have yet to write the rest of my book, or complete the workbook/planning guides that I have stuck in my head. I jot down notes as quickly as I can so that I don’t lose all the juicey information.

The project guide as it stands is already a treasure, and many people are finding out just how functional and easy to use it is! Those of you waiting for me to finish my book, rest assured that YES it will be coming soon, early 2008 is my best guess! With several more guides to follow in it’s informative wake, I am seeking out publishing options that allow things to be more cost effective for me, and therefore easier on the pocket book for you!

So, if you have a guide or are wanting to purchase one here is some information that will help:

Resiliency: In my terms, resiliency is how well a fiber will wear, wash, and wear again. Will it make it through soccer games, and picnics, or is it something that needs careful wearing and gentle washing?

Drape: The drape of a fiber is how it hangs. Most stretchy and bouncy fabrics do not really have a good drape.  Think of draping as in if you had a cloak, or a evening wrap would you want it curling up around your elbows? Or would you want it to hang and swing as you walked?

Stretch Memory:  This is so very important, no matter WHAT kind of hand work you are doing. Wool is the ultimate in fibers when it comes to stretch memory (yet, even that is a generalisation). When you make something and give it a shape, even after much wear, and washing it will snap back into it’s given shape. Not so with cotton, or mohair, or alpaca, without serious blending.

 I break this information down into simple terms in my project guide. It’s information you won’t have to memorize, or read a half a dozen books to find, all you have to do is keep the guide in your project bag, and before you start, or when you go to buy yarn, look up the information! It saves time and money, just a few simple decisions made in a few moments of looking at the guide and you will avoid some of the major reasons handworkers are dissatisfied with their projects!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Stitch Stirrers Prompt! Why do you do it?

The question has been asked…Why do you do it?

Why crochet?

Short answer: Because I love it.

Medium Answer: Because it is my heritage, and I feel connected to the beautiful women who taught me, and those who came before me that I never got to know.

Long Answer:

When I was a little girl, I was often told I was like my grandmother who died long before my birth. In fact, she died when my own mother was 8 years old.  Crochet and her eyes are what we have in common.

Every Sunday, I would stay at my great grandmother’s house and it was she who first taught me hand work (and my mulitplication tables, and made me read the classics) I was to be a well educated and well rounded young lady.

I enjoyed our time together, be it making lace, or embroidering hankies, or making yummy cream puffs (from scratch!).  Making things together was something she and I could do with little effort, she was 70 years older than I, and handwork was fast enough for me, and slow enough for her. It was a middle ground.

When she died, all I had of her besides some photos (which never really look like her to me, because they don’t have her real inner glow beaming out at me) was her handwork. Then, to my surprise my mother gave me some of her mother’s hand work. It’s all I have of Grandma Grace, who’s hand was so perfect, delicate and her lace was beyond compare.

On the other side of the family, time with my Great Aunt Alice was  spent making lace and ornaments, and it kept me out of trouble. She died last year, after seven years of battling stroke after stroke. My hand work, made out of my own yarns, comforted her in her final years. A gift I could give back to her after the frustrations of teaching me to make doilies all those years ago!

I do this, because I need that feminine tie to my own heritage. There is nothing destructive in my craft, it is pure creative energy, and I feel very linked to all of the women in my family each time I pick up a hook. It’s a way of being with the women who shaped my life!

And now, it is a way to share time with my teenage daughter, who also enjoys that cozy feeling, when our heads are bent over a project that needs fixing, and working together to solve it.

To me, making things, or more precisely; crocheting is love.

Crochet Liberation Front!

I have one of those odd, quirky senses of humor. I also suffer from insomnia, which is why I crochet, spin, etc. If you can’t sleep, you might as well do other things right?

So, back in July I started a group on Ravelry called the Crochet Liberation Front Headquarters. 

Here is is what it says on the group description:

We use hooks and are darned proud of it! If you are like me and are tired of the crochet appoligists out there then raise a hook and cry freedom! (Knitters are welome as long as they are nice to us)

Come on gents and ladies, join me, hold your hooks high!

This is a place for we who can use anything (including duck tape and bandaids to spaghetti) to make anything (that’s right from pink flamingo tp roll holders to wedding dresses and doilies!) to stand up, straight & tall, and scream out that we are GREAT!

That’s right! Gone are the days where we hide our love of hooking! We are crocheters and we are proud, we deserve to be identified as more than the kid sister of knitting!

In fact it’s time people figured out that we dont’ have anything in common with knitting except we all like yarn.

This is not a knitting bashing group at all, this is a place to heal ourselves from being bashed, and to grow our self esteem as crafters and well… Liberate the Hook!

Please join CLF!

The Base Chain (rules)

1) This is a CROCHET group, cool if you knit, but really keep the project talk about crochet…I mean we can’t be radical liberators of the hook if the talk keeps going on about needles…

2) You don’t have to be nice, just please don’t be mean or cruel to others. Nice is rather bland and boring, but mean and cruel is just plain wrong. In short, no biting, hitting kicking, scratching or spitting and definately no full nelsons.

3) Everyone has a right to speak their opinion. It is not mean to have a difference of opinion. Defining mean here: name calling, insults, etc. Not sharing the same viewpoint is human, not mean.

That’s basically it I believe in free speech here, so speak away, have fun and LIBERATE THE HOOK!

Ok, so with only that and our cute little graphic done by Crankymama, we now have over 130 members! This is a fun group, and it has become a great place to share information about techniques, books, articles, and support each other’s habit of hooking and yarn!

In fact, at the conference in Oakland, I was amazed at the response to my wearing a t-shirt with the logo and name: Crochet Liberation Front on the back. The response was so awesome I’m giving birth to this baby for real! I do not have a deadline set just yet, but keep your eyes posted here for a website and other information about the CLF for real in the comming months!

LIBERATE THE HOOK!

Corrections…Ah my humanity

Well, I am human, I am sure you can tell from my spelling and grammarical errors since I have no one to help me edit, and I am writing five different things at the same time and really don’t have tons of time between yarn orders, the Free Form Crochet Club, the blog AND the book I am writing (plus more cool guides).

 So, I goofed. I mentioned that Vashti Braha used spaghetti to make earrings. I goofed. It was NOT Vashti it was Bendy Carter, who also creates fabulous things and designs. I love her work too and I want to meet her someday, because I just really LOVE creative people.

So that’s my admission of human error for the day. (Shall I talk about the 150 yds of yarn I had to toss due to a turn of a chain 10 rows back that I didn’t notice and it was one of those darn commitment yarns?)

bonnie’s beautiful work

bonnie’s beautiful work

Originally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

Bonnie Pierce is one of the most amazing Crocheters!

 This is an example of her BEAUTIFUL work! And my yarn is all over that piece! She had a lovely Scrumblini(tm) of Cashgora Kid (from a little guy named Vulcan) that was tooo die for! She kept trying to describe the yarn for me and I couldn’t place it, because that little bit she had purchased at the Seattle Knitting Expo had been from the end of a bobbin of some other yarn I had spun a long time ago!

Believe I can usually remember ever skein I have ever spun! It was one of the funniest exchanges I’ve ever had, trying to pin point that silly yarn for her!

At the show I got to feel it and then I could tell her exactly WHO it came off of!

A visit to Lacis

Myra,Jules,Bonnie and myself

meclosingeyes

Originally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

Meeting Jules, Erin, and Mary Francis at Lacis was indeed was one of the high lights of my conference.

Walking into Lacis is like entering the Taj Mahal, the Louvre, or any of other wonders of the world! It takes something to take the power of speech away from me! And just walking in did just that! I was so overwhelmed I just stood there trying to absorb EVERYTHING!

The International Free Form Crochet Guild Booth in Oakland!

myramargaret1

Originally uploaded by CMHS yarn & designs (laurie wheeler).

The International Free Form Guild’s Beautiful Stall at The Knit and Crochet Show in Oakland, CA.

Phenominal work, and two phenominal women! Margaret Hubert (left) and Myra Wood (right)…

It was such an honor and pleasure to meet these ladies, so knowledgable, and generous with their talents and knowledge. Both class acts to be sure!

Home, Sweet Home, and A million project ideas!

Well, it’s good to be back home! I would have checked in yesturday, but I was so tired, that by the time I could power up my laptop I was face first on my bed snoring.

 The house was in much better repair than I figured it would be, only, my pc got attacked in my absence. Yes, a pesky thing called water crashed on my keyboard and it got fried. Since water is never supposed to be near my keyboard in the first place, I have to say there was a discussion about the whole “accident.” Luckily I was so tired when the news was delivered to me by a rather wide eyed and nervous daughter that all I could do was laugh and tell her that she was replacing said keyboard.

 So, on to the news you really care about! The conference. Wow. That’s all I have to say. First of all, I got to meet Vashti Braha, I have wanted to meet her since the first time I saw one of her designs in a magasine. I have always loved the look of her work, and figured she had to be a pretty neat person, (this portion has been modified due to human error..) which she is! I love her work with cotton, and her wearables are always of a style I would enjoy wearing. Of course spending most of my time with Bonnie Pierce, her hubby Bill, Myra Wood, Maragret Hubert, and Mel Gill, was not a slouchy deal either! What a wonderful group of people! Creative, talented, knowledgable, and exceptionally generous with their support of others who either want to start or have started in their crochet (and cough…knit) journies.

The Free Form Party on Friday Night was so much fun! I tell you these women know how to laugh! I think my abs will be sore for weeks because of this group. It was incredible to see the versatility of our media, the ideas people throw into their work, and the skills they all possess.

Saturday, as I gushed earlier was the day I got to go to Lacis, and all I can still say is that, Lacis rendered me speachless. What a phenominal venue, artfully put together, it has an old world feel that transported me back to the days I lived in Brussels, Belgium! Many a lace shop there looked and felt like Lacis. A big thank you to Jules, and Erin (and the rest of the staff who’s names I can’t remember, pardon this tired brain!) for such wonderful service, and being so generous with their time and knowledge. It was indeed a humbling and awe inspiring visit.

Sunday, well Sunday…We were all exhausted. I was really glad I didn’t have any classes…What? Classes! Ooops, I forgot to write about my Friday Classes with Darla Fenton! OK big round of applause! As usual I bit off a big first time project. I have never really done Tunisian Crochet, I’ve done the simple stitch and that’s it, I have never ever made a project. So I took her Tunisian Entraloc Crochet Felted Bowl Class. I didn’t finish my bowl (mainly because I followed instructions about what kind of yarn to bring, and well…I’m more used to using my own…) but I got the technique down and I’m thrilled, hooked and addicted to all of the processes!!

I also took her afternoon class, which was the same process only flat pieces were worked, I was much more successful at that when I, in frustration, switched to my own yarn!

I have to say I learned a lot from Darla, including some teaching techniques that I really admired. She is exceptionally patient! And a really talented and kind person as well. I am glad I chose to take her classes! Plus she is in Oregon, and not too hard for me to find again! YAY!

So back to Sunday, I was so tired. I think I stumbled around in a fog most of the day. I picked up some more yarn, I got a cashmere skein to die for…so very soft, I used it as an example of what GOOD cashmere is. And when I say GOOD I mean the only kind you buy. If it isn’t super soft, like roll your eyes in the back of your head soft, then it’s not worth the price they are asking (even if it’s cheap).

So I will write more later. I’ve got other work to do. And it looks like sometime today I will have to go get a new mouse AND key board so I can edit the photos I took (I’m using the laptop right now and it doesn’t have that software in it) and load all the pretties for you to see…but here’s the fun part…

From Left to Right: Vashti Braha, Laurie Wheeler (me), Doris Chan

It was Saturday Night, everyone tired, post dinner/fashion show, and I am wearing a concept piece I did to show what you can do with a little bit of decorative yarn, and my Loopy Lou Funky Fashion Scarf (made out of 80/20 hand dyed Alpaca/Wool)