Category Archives: Encouragement

Worth a Routine Change

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Settling back into a routine can be a bit of a challenge, but teaching at the Crochet Guild of America annual Chainlink conference is really worth the change of schedule.

This is my second year teaching at CGOA, and this year went by faster than I thought possible. I blinked and it was over.

I spent the last week of July just outside of Chicago sharing my love of crochet with other like-minded individuals. I taught 4 classes, and as there are so many great crochet instructors I vary my topics to help set me apart. This event I taught Needle Felting Applique, Converting Knitting to Crochet, Variations of Broomstick Lace and Things that the Pattern Assumes you Know. I feel like every class I teach is a test; Can I share everything in a manner that everyone will understand? Am I giving the students what they need/want/deserve/expect?

In a respect I think I gain just as much as my students from a good class, which I think each of these were. I get inspired by the work they do and the questions they ask. It helps me explore things in a different way, and I hope that helps me grow as a teacher.

This was the first conference since 2004 that the CGOA did a conference alone. In the recent past CGOA partnered with The Knitting Guild Association for the Knit & Crochet Show, this year the knitting association decided to try something different and CGOA decided to proceed on its own. As a result the show was a bit smaller but this allowed it to have everything much more inclusive, with all the class rooms in the hotel. So no trekking to a large convention center. I could leave my class room and join groups of crocheters working on their latest projects in the lobby. It was really nice.

I also had the opportunity to catch up with old friends and make a couple of new ones. It is like a battery being recharged, but recharged while it is being completely run to empty. I enjoy this show and look forward to next year in Portland, OR.

 

Memory Magic In A Hook

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I have used the same hooks for years. Since working in crochet professionally I have learned that there are many different hooks with different subtleties and that there are many people that love them for various reasons.  However I still believe the most powerful hooks are the ones that share memories.

I am hard pressed to find a crocheter that doesn’t have a hook that shares memories, some remind me of particular projects, some remind me of people, and some remind me of times. I even have some that simply share a memory as an idea or inspiration.

I have a hook that reminds me of the time I began crocheting with wire and all the craft fairs I worked selling necklaces. I have a set of hooks that were gifted me upon a friend’s death, so obviously these hooks remind me of her. I have a hook that reminds me of my grandmother. I have a little glass jar of hooks that reminds me of my aunt while stirring my imagination about my great-grandmother. A hook that reminds me of appreciation, a hook that reminds me of a friend.

I have a hook that reminds me of an incredible trip I took, a hook that reminds me of the lunch with a friend. I have a hook that reminds me of a design that an editor of a magazine really loved. I have a hook that reminds me of student’s questions. I have a set of hooks that reminds me to be humble, a set that reminds me to be kind, a set that reminds me of friendship, and a set that reminds me of generosity; all because of the stories behind them.

These memories might be more powerful in my designing as the yarn itself. These memories somehow have become embedded in the handles and find themselves helping to create new magic. Memories can be magic, and I am in awe of how much magic sits in my jar.

Crochet Attachment, or Attached to Me

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When I was younger crochet was an emotional outlet, I do not know if I could say the same thing today. Maybe crochet has grown up with me, or maybe it has just become ingrained to my every day.

I remember when I was in high school that my brother use to joke that is anyone was cold and needed a blanket, then find a guy for me to date then break up with me. Not that I dated much at all, but break-ups did through me into an afghan making frenzy. Everyone in my family has at least one, friends from the time can probably say the same.

It was not necessarily that I was filling my stitches with tears, as much as it kept my hands busy and helped to let my mind focus. I guess in a sense it was my meditation. I am not sure if it applies the same today.

I crochet daily, but now it has a different focus, it is part of my work. I keep more notes about the stitches I am working, I am deciding the best way to highlight a yarn, I am thinking of things for blog posts, I am exploring different ways to explain techniques in teaching, basically I have lost my mind wandering. I am not completely sure that this has come from the position of it being my work, or the many years that I have been doing it, over ¾ of my life.

I also am not working nearly as many afghans. I made many blankets over the years, I really only started making garments about a decade ago. In all things relative that is very short amount of time. So maybe that has taken to my change of my crochet experience, that I have expanded the scope of my outlet.

I may not recognize it as my emotional outlet, but nearly twenty years of marriage could have curbed that need. I still am not sure what I would do with my hands while seated just about anywhere, so maybe crochet has grown into something more primal, maybe it is just a part of me that I cannot see as separate.

Summer Crochet My Salvation

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Often people think that the most productive time of year for crocheting is during the cool months of autumn and winter, however I have always found that I create more crochet in summer than any other season.

I thought that in my youth this was due to school being out and my having the extra hours of boredom that what seemed like then, a long summer break. However it continued through high school when I had a summer job and still found time to hang out with friends, so boredom did not seem the likely cause of the warm weather crochet.

Summer Crochet www.lindadeancrochet.comLooking back over project I have created, the majority have been completed when the sun created temperatures that did not require being bundled up. Granted living in California means that I have more days of shine then rain, but still November through February tend to be fairly quiet on my hook. Maybe it is the holidays and being busy with other commitments, or the fact that hearty foods are needing cooking, and those are always my favorite to make.

One of the more practical explanation actually comes from the weather itself. Maybe I crochet more in summer to actually keep cool. I have only lived in a home with air conditioning for a few years of my life, mostly apartments in my early twenties, other than that I have used the old fashion method of cooling your home, windows. Windows are opened every night, and closed every morning, I still do this today, so during the day I do not really want to run around in the hot sun I prefer to stay seated by the fan. So maybe it is my lack of activity that lends to the movement of the hook.

Or maybe it is simply that the new life of the season stirs a creative spark in me. Maybe I need more daylight to get my ideas flowing and my craft progressing. Whatever the reason, it helps me to remember that I get this bit of crochet flurry especially around January when I feel like I have no energy and ideas. Maybe the warmth stirs me, and that is odd since summer really is not my favorite season, I could do with less heat.

 

Small Town, Small World, Big Punch in Fiber Arts

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The world has ways of reminding me that it is much smaller then I think, and I have had friends recently make me think of my home town a bit differently. I grew up, currently live, and have long roots in the California gold country; a friend made a comment about living in such a historic place, and I admit I think I probably have taken that for granted. However the craziest thing isn’t how much my area has history, it is how often I learn about companies in the fiber industry that have roots here too.

 

As I was getting into the profession of crochet I began to pay a bit more attention to my surrounding in regards to other professionals. My local Fibers Guild (a groups of members that love all things yarn) I learned that there was a yarn company just a short distance from my kids school, Lisa Souza Knitwear and Dyeworks. I have worked with Lisa over the years to help create crochet designs in her beautiful yarns, as well as help work her show booth and visit various cities throughout the United States.

 

If only having a well-established yarn company in my town was enough, I also learned that a nationally recognized fiber spinning instructor and author, Lexi Boeger of Pluckyfluff, grew up in my community as well. Heck she was only a year ahead of me in high school, but my high school was large enough that I can honestly say that we did not run in the same circles. Her family owns a well-known local winery, and she has a studio just near the tasting room, that I have had the pleasure of teaching workshops at.

 

Those two connections should be more than enough, then I got into a conversation with a long time member of my Fiber Guild and when she learned where I lived she immediately assumed that I must know Lorna Miser, the creator and founder of Lorna’s Laces yarn. I did not know her, but the connection was made that as I was growing up she was starting the yarn company literally about 2 miles from my childhood home. There is even a colorway within the yarn company that features my street name, Bucks Bar. I did meet Lorna a few years later, and long after she had sold the business that is now housed in the Chicago, Illinois area, I was when working on some designs for a book that she was working on, and learned that she knew several members of my extended family. Even though up until very recently she and I only lived about thirty minutes apart, while she was starting up her latest yarn adventure, Zombie Yarns,  we would only cross paths at trade shows thousands of miles from home; but that is how it works out at times isn’t it? Never have lunch with a friend when you are in the everyday routine of home, but definitely make time when out of the ordinary grind.

 

So looking back over the connections above to my community, I thought that maybe there was something in the water or maybe every community as secret fiber artists dwelling in plain sight. Then I was at a trade show earlier this month in Columbus, Ohio when a friend and colleague escorted me over to check out a hook supplier. Honestly, I was tagging along a bit, my mind was already taking in the days discussions with various yarn companies when the gentleman, Chris Barnes, mentioned something about California. I mentioned I was from Placerville, that got him to look up, as he started he grew up there. Now I should mention that when traveling it is exciting to find someone that can pronounce the name of the town correctly (it is a short a sound), let alone know where it is without me drawing a map. We began chatting back and forth to find that we knew several of the same people and he was only two years ahead of me in high school and hung out with my cousin during his high school years. Apparently he had just taken over the business his father had started in my hometown, Brittany Needles. The company moved several years back to a little down on the northern coast that I enjoy vacationing at, Mendocino, but it started right here in my little gold rush town.

 

I know I have taken the local gold rush history for granted, but I did not realize that there was such a rich fiber arts history in the professional sense surrounding me. Honestly, since this last connection I am beginning to think I need to question the ladies at the Hangtown Fibers Guild more, as when I excitedly mention these new to me connections, they have already know everyone involved.  I wonder if there are any other industry connections hidden away in my back yard.