Thursday, March 17, 2011

Meeting Highlights: Crochet Favorites

We met 3/12/11 at Borealis Yarns for an afternoon of sharing tips, books, and other favorite things.  Mostly, we just talked.

Here's some of what we shared:
  • Maxine has a 20+ year old book that was the precursor to the Harmony Guides.  Hopefully she'll post the actual title in the comments to this post.  If you ever see this book on eBay, grab it.
  • Carol swears by her plastic hook size gauge, purchased from the Gourmet Crochet website (now out of stock).  Not only does it correctly size your hooks, but it's a four-inch square, perfect for measuring those gague swatches.
  • Cebelia is the thread to use when you want a good, stiff doily (Gail says it will stand up by itself).  Gail will try a ball of Aunt Lydia's bamboo crochet thread to see what she can make of it (it's really, really limp).
  • Put something white under your work when crocheting with very dark colored yarns, and something dark under your light colors when you need some contrast to help you see better.
  • Ott lights are a big favorite of everyone.

Jodi shared a doily in progress that uses four different colors of thread in the motifs.  Hilary brought in a completed sweater and a completed skirt, both of which had not yet been blocked but drew a lot of oohs and ahs anyway.
 Next month's meeting hopefully will feature Julie sharing crochet hooks and patterns that she's picked up on a recent visit to Portugal.  Those with cutting mats and rotary cutters should bring them, and everyone should bring sharp scissors as we do another T-shirt blitz for our charity project. 

Also, bring along a hideous crochet pattern of the "what were they thinking" sort.  One that springs to my mind is the Cutaway Jacket (you can find this on Ravelry or in the January 2009 issue of Crochet!)--probably the only ugly thing  ever to this designer ever created.

April is a 5th Saturday month.  We will firm up our plans at the April meeting.

Our next regular meeting is April 9th at Borealis.  See you there!